Military base fate secret out this week

Arizona Daily Star ^ | May 9, 2005 | Carol Ann Alaimo

[AZHua87]

One of the Pentagon's best-kept secrets will be let out of the bag this week, and thousands of Southern Arizonans are holding their breath to see what happens.

The Defense Department is expected to announce by Friday which military bases it plans to shut down in a major round of base closings that could eliminate dozens of the country's 425 defense installations.

Arizona's major installations, including Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Sierra Vista's Fort Huachuca, are expected to dodge the base-closing bullet. They could even grow, absorbing troops and missions from facilities that close in the Base Realignment and Closure process, according to defense analysts.

[AZHua87]

BRAC ping

[TSgt]

Fort Huachuca is a beautiful place even for an Army base. I spent some time there in the spring of 2000 for some training. The Army guys didn't hold it against me that I was in the Air Force and staying in a hotel across from the base ;)

[AZHua87]

That's ok when I used to get sent TDY I made sure that AF Billeting knew I was on Army orders and fund cite; always got non-availability to save AF funds resulting in my have a motel room off base.

[TSgt]

LOL! You got to love those non-availability letters!

While I was there I had a 2000 Chevy Blazer as a rental. It was a sweet TDY after spending December through April in Kuwait. I flew my wife out and we enjoyed AZ. It is a beautiful place with the exception of the illegals!

[AZHua87]

Still the best place I've found.

[Dreagon]

I hope they used those bases to twist the hell out of McCains arm before letting them stay open.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Roger that. The price for keeping those bases open should be for him to shut his f*ing pie hole for the remainder of his senate career.

[marmar]

Luke is my base........what is the status on that one?

[AZHua87]

Haven't seen anything in writing. Have heard rumors that run from it being shifted to Nellis, consolidated at D-M, to no change. Again that's just water cooler stuff nothing that I've seen in the local papers here. I'm surprised that there hasn't been something in the Arizona Repugnant.

[Radix]

I cannot believe that they are not going to close at least one military facility in Massachusetts.

Two AF Bases and the Natick Laboratories have been considered to be in jeopardy. I'll bet on the Natick facility being closed which will be a slap at Kerry and Teddy as they publicly campaigned against the closing in recent months....

[AZHua87]

Who really knows until the list is officially released.

[marmar]

There are about 200 F16s out there, it would be hard to find a place to bed them all down. I hope it stays open, my reserve unit is there. I was raised in Elfrida, about 60 miles NE of We Gotcha...and Sorry Vista... It is pretty down there I just didn't realize it, until they sent me to KS.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

I would be unbelievably shocked if any of the air stations closed in Southern Arizona. Besides the first three reasons to keep them open 1) Great flying weather 2) Great flying weather 3) Great flying weather there are so many other benefits to keeping them operational. AZ is prime real estate for the gov't to use for bombing ranges. It's a pretty decent replica of the theater in which our armed forces are operating overseas...sandy desert. No way...they won't close.

[HiJinx]

Kansas? Great music, flat as a pancake, and Ft. Riley - 10,000 years of buffalo scat.

C'mon back to We-Gotchya, we got room!

[AZHua87]

The illegals are beginning to use the Goldwater Range as a crossing path and ops has had to be shut down quite regularly because of it. Tucson is crying about flight path worries and noise despite the fact the D-M was there first and Tucson built around to crowd D-M.

[A CA Guy]

Convert a few to oil refineries.

[AZHua87]

Ok, we'll begin with March AFB

[A CA Guy]

They need one out there to, I agree.

Edwards should have become a commercial airport as well IMO.

[rogator]

" Elfrida, about 60 miles NE of We Gotcha...and Sorry Vista."

Back when I was a kid in Tombstone, we used to go to Elfrida to shoot dove.
Is the dove shooting still outstanding?

We didn't have illegals to worry about then. Our local Tombstone Hispanics had been there 10 or 12 generations, much longer than any of us.