Re: Base Closure

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

WHEN CLOSURE IS NOT CLOSURE

 On October 9, Sixty Minutes aired a segment, based upon a report
by Business Executives for National Security, documenting sham closures
that have occurred as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Process.
(Does anyone have a tape of the show that we can view?)

 The report focused on the Carswell Air Force Base (Fort Wroth,
Texas), which now has more Navy planes than it had Air Force aircraft
before closure; the Presidio of San Francisco, where the Army retains the
Sixth Army Headquarters and a classy golf course after "transfer" to the
National Park Service; Moffett Field (Mountain View, California), where
NASA took over a Naval Air Station and now leases portions of the airfield
to Navy units; and 13 of 25 new Defense Finance and Accounting Centers
being built at "closing" bases.

 Of 67 major bases closed or being closed, 26 "had either never
been closed and were never going to be closed, or, even worse, had been
closed and reopened."