Panel Overrules Feds on New England Bases (BRAC panel votes)

AP via Excite ^ | 8/24/05 | LIZ SIDOTI

[PAR35]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Overruling the Pentagon on two of its biggest requests, a commission reviewing base closings voted to keep open a shipyard and a submarine base in New England that military planners wanted to shut down.

The panel also spared the Red River Army Depot in Texas against Pentagon wishes.

The commission voted to save the Portsmouth shipyard at Kittery, Maine, and Submarine Base New London in Connecticut, two economic engines of their region and the subjects of intense lobbying to save them.

In another reversal, the commission decided to close Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine, rather than drastically reduce forces there, arguing that savings could be realized more quickly if it was shut down altogether.

< snip >

But lobbying efforts to save other major bases failed, as the panel sided with the Pentagon in shutting down Fort Gillem and Fort McPherson in Georgia, Fort Monroe in Virginia, Army Garrison Selfridge in Michigan and Fort Monmouth in New Jersey.

The panel also signed off on closing nearly 400 Army Reserve and National Guard facilities in dozens of states, creating instead new joint centers.

< snip >

[PAR35]

I didn't see a running thread on the BRAC Committee votes today.

Full details of the voting available via CSPAN here:

http://www.brac.gov/Motions.aspx?Group_st=All%20Groups

[PAR35]

Let me try again to make the CSPAN link clickable:

http://www.brac.gov/Motions.aspx?Group_st=All%20Groups

[linear]

When are we going to do something similar with the whole US budget? That would allow a lot of pork to be stripped out, while giving the sponors political cover.

[Skooz]

I say just let the military shut down whatever bases they see fit. They are running a national defense, not a welfare-by-military-base policy.

[Roccus]

If an AF National Guard wing is consolidated with a base in another state, what happens to the personel of that wing? Are they forced to move to that other state, or do they just sit around for the remainder of their enlistment since they no longer have aircraft?

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

I'd assume they would have the option of remaining with the wing, so long as they're willing to drive to the new airfield. My old NG unit had personnel who had to drive cross state for drills because of school or work, and the unit always paid for a hotel room for the weekend, and we had one guy who lived in the town, but his original unit was based in Mississippi. He finally transferred when he got tired of the drive.

[Roccus]

Thanks for the info.

[Ole Okie]

(ahem) el Presidente James Earl Carter wrote to the Commission last week advocating the sparing of the sub base. He cited economic hardships to the surrounding citizens.

Since Georgia lost several bases, there are quite a few Georgians asking what nationality or stateity el Presidente James Earl Carter actually may be.

I listened to some of the radio talk shows around Atlanta this morning. "Socialist" is probably the kindest thing the Nobel Peace Laureate and Peanut Farmer Carter has been called today.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The personnel are moved elsewhere to other units in the same state. ANG units aren't moved between other states.

Reserve units can be moved anywhere, then the reservists have other options, but moving is most likely.

[jjmcgo]

My son's buddy is getting out of a six-year hitch in less than two years because his unit is on the hit list. It's too far for him to travel to the replacement unit.

[Roccus]

I could be wong but I believe the 130 Airlift wing is the only ANG unit in West Virginia. The topography is not conducive to large airports.

[Roccus]

Seems like a waste of trained personel.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

However, they can move the planes to another state. Usually if a unit is deactivated, the planes are dispersed between units short of aircraft and to replace planes going to the boneyard.

If a whole unit was deactivated and moved en mass to a new base it then becomes a new squadron ( or wing ) under another designation.

I don't think an entire guard unit can permanently operate out of another state.

[foreverfree]

bump

[jjmcgo]

Wasting trained personnel is one of the things the military does best. They sent my brother-in-law from Germany to El Paso for 15 months training in the highest enlisted-man rank, then returned him to Germany for less than a year, retired him and shipped him home, then hired him as a civilian to do much the same thing he was doing, but at a nearby stateside base.

[foreverfree]

bump

[Gideon7]

Presidente James Earl Carter wrote to the Commission last week advocating the sparing of the sub base.

Based on Jimmy Carter's track record, anything he wants is automatically suspicious.

[newzjunkey]

CBS radio news is pushing Thune's problem. He evidently ran saying he had a better chance of saving a base (having W's ear) in SD and BRAC has voted to close it and move the assets to Texas.

[PAR35]

and BRAC has voted to close it and move the assets to Texas.

I don't think BRAC has gotten to that yet. The Air Force is supposed to start later this morning. They have gotten hung up on the Walter Reed closing this morning.