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<text id=89TT0101>
<title>
Jan. 09, 1989: Taps For Old Bases
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
Jan. 09, 1989 Mississippi Burning
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
NATION, Page 28
Taps for Old Bases
</hdr><body>
<p>Despite protests, the Pentagon plan may not cost many jobs
</p>
<p> At the first early warnings last October that the Pentagon
might shut down a number of obsolete military bases,
communities across the U.S. launched pre-emptive strikes against
the plan. The issue had less to do with military utility than
with economic survival. In areas where the local economy depends
on the payrolls of soldiers and civilian employees, citizens
and public officials pleaded with Washington to spare their
installations from extinction.
</p>
<p> Despite the anticipatory howls, the Defense Secretary's
Commission on Base Realignment and Closure last week
recommended 86 military bases for termination within the next
six years. The Pentagon figures that shutting them down, while
partially closing five more and realigning 54 others, will save
$693.6 million a year. In the short run, the closings will
result in the elimination of 24,000 civilian jobs. But Les
Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, estimates
there ultimately will be a net loss of only 8,000 nonmilitary
positions.
</p>
<p> Though they included such historic military sites as New
Jersey's Fort Dix, there is no question that the bases on the
commission's roll call had outlived their strategic purposes.
San Francisco's Presidio army base, for example, was once a
crucial Pacific outpost where officers were trained during World
War I. Today the Presidio, with its tree-shaded trails and
historic architecture, is a popular tourist destination.
Illinois' Fort Sheridan processed 500,000 soldiers during World
War II. These days, the base is most famous for a lush golf
course.
</p>
<p> While Congress recognized the need for the closings,
lawmakers were gun-shy about the protests they were certain to
provoke. So the legislators found a way to face the issue
without having to make the painful choices themselves: they
passed a bill endorsing the creation of a twelve-man bipartisan
commission that would decide on the sites for closure. The
commission submitted its recommendations to Defense Secretary
Frank Carlucci last week; both he and the Joint Chiefs of Staff
were reportedly prepared to approve them. The list will next go
to Congress where it must be considered on a take-it-or-leave-it
basis. Hence, lawmakers from affected communities can blame the
closures on the commission.
</p>
<p> Despite all the hand wringing, base closings often do less
harm than good to a community. A Pentagon study found that among
100 base closings between 1961 and 1986, civilians lost 93,424
jobs but gained 138,138 new ones when the installations were
turned to other uses. Communities across the country have found
imaginative ways to transform the old bases. Forty-two former
Pentagon airfields have become local airports. When the
government closed Kincheloe Air Force Base near Sault Ste.
Marie, Mich., eleven years ago, 700 civilian jobs vanished and
the surrounding community in the Upper Peninsula lost 33% of its
population. Today an industrial park at the old base site
provides work to four times as many civilians as Kincheloe
employed. Success stories like these give credence to the view
of Republican Congressman Dick Armey who authored the
legislation on installation shutdowns: "There is indeed life
after base closings."
</p>
</body></article>
</text>