[CPEO-IRF] BRAC Commission results

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

A federal district judge in Connecticut has issued a temporary
restraining order enjoining the BRAC Commission from issuing its final
recommendations, so it appears that the Commission web site won't
publish an official "scorecard" until after September 7, the date of the
court hearing.

Meanwhile, transcripts of the Commission's decision-making sessions are
gradually being posted on the Commission's web site at 
http://www.brac.gov/Deliberations.aspx.

The following summary of Commission actions comes from an official
Defense Department web site at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2005/20050829_2563.html


Commission Wraps Up BRAC Decisions

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
August 29, 2005

WASHINGTON  ? The Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission
wrapped up four days of deliberations in final actions Aug. 26 and 27 by
voting to turn Pope Air Force Base, N.C., into an Army airfield and
recommending sweeping recommendations to revamp the Air National Guard
and consolidate its operations. 

The nine-member commission deviated significantly from the Pentagon's
proposed plan to realign the Air Guard, passing a recommendation that
would ensure every state with an existing Air Guard unit would retain at
least some Guard aircraft. 

Specific details of the plan, including charts used in the deliberation,
are expected to be released today, and DoD officials were reviewing the
votes earlier today to assess their full impact, if implemented. 

The panel also approved moving almost 15,000 U.S. troops from Germany to
four stateside bases as part of the Army's modernization initiative.
Gaining posts under the plan will be Fort Knox, Ky.; Fort Bliss, Texas;
Fort Bragg, N.C.; and Fort Riley, Kan. 

The decisions, made over the course of four days in Arlington, Va., will
be reflected in a final report to be sent to President Bush by Sept. 8.
If he concurs, the president will send the final list to Congress, which
can accept or reject it in its entirety, but not change it. 

The votes follow months of hearings around the country regarding DoD's
proposal to reshape the military infrastructure and eliminate excess
capacity by closing 33 major bases and realigning 29 others. 

Defense officials had estimated the plan would save some $49 billion
over the next 20 years, although that figure is expected to alter
dramatically based on the BRAC decisions. 

In major actions since Aug. 24, the BRAC commission voted to close: 
*	Walter Reed Army Medical Center here and moving most of its mission to
the new Walter Reed National Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Md.,
current site of the National Naval Medical Center; 
*	Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas,
consolidating medical operations for the region at a new San Antonio
Regional Medical Center at nearby Fort Sam Houston; 
*	Fort Monmouth, N.J.; 
*	Fort Gillem, Ga.; 
*	Fort McPherson, Ga.; 
*	Fort Monroe, Va.; 
*	U.S. Army Garrison, Selfridge, Mich.; 
*	Naval Station Pascagoula, Miss.; 
*	Naval Air Station Atlanta, Ga.; 
*	Naval Station Ingleside, Texas; 
*	Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas; and 
*	Brooks City-Base, Texas. 
*	Onizuka Air Force Station, Calif.; 
*	Galena Airport Forward Operation Location, Alaska; and 
*	Almost 400 Army Reserve and Army National Guard facilities, creating
joint centers. 

The panel voted to keep open: 
*	Submarine Base, New London, Conn.; 
*	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Maine; 
*	Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.; 
*	Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., until at least 2009, and urged DoD to
find a new mission for the base, if possible; 
*	Hawthorne Army Depot, Nev.; 
*	Defense Language Institute, Monterey, Calif.; and 
*	Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, establishing a governing board
to coordinate education programs between the school and the Air Force
Institute of Technology at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. 


The panel also voted to: 
*	Wait until March 31, 2006, to decide whether to close Naval Air
Station Oceana, Va., giving local and state authorities time to make
proposed changes to limit residential encroachment on the base; 
*	Consolidate operations at Fort Dix, McGuire Air Force Base and Naval
Air Engineering Station Lakehurst in New Jersey, creating a single joint
base under a central commander at McGuire; 
*	Consolidate 26 Defense Finance and Accounting Service offices into
five: in Cleveland, Ohio; Limestone, Maine, at the former Loring Air
Force Base; Rome, N.Y., at the former Griffiss Air Force Base; at the
Defense Supply Center-Columbus, Ohio; the Bean Federal Center in
Indianapolis, Ind., at the former Fort Benjamin Harrison; and in
Alexandria, Va.; 
*	Move the dental training school at Sheppard Air Force Base, Kansas, to
Fort Sam Houston as part of a new consolidated medical center; 
*	Realign rather than close Red River Army Depot, Texas; 
*	Keep the Night Vision Lab at Fort Belvoir, Va., instead of moving it
to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.; Order a study of the practicality of
converting a chemical weapons incinerator to incinerate conventional
munitions before deciding whether to close Deseret Chemical Depot, Utah. 
*	Realign Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, by moving its undergraduate
navigator training to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla.; 
*	Transfer the Army's 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, to
Fort Carson, Colo.; 
*	Keep the Army Logistics School at Fort Eustis, Va., rather than moving
it to Fort Rucker, Ala.; 
*	Block the move of active-component combat aircraft from Eielson Air
Force Base, Alaska; 
*	Move thousands of defense jobs from leased space in Northern Virginia
to Fort Belvoir, Va., Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., and Fort Meade,
Md.; and 
*	Stop the move of about 1,000 jobs to Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. 


-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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