Base Cutting Plan's Long Shadow

Snapshots From 9 Communities Affected By Plans To Cut Bases

(CBS/AP) 
DeLay said he will push to keep the 147th at Ellington Field with new airplanes. He has touted Ellington Field as critical to homeland security because of its proximity to the Houston Ship Channel and NASA's Johnson Space Center.

In Albuquerque, N.M., the mayor celebrated with a hearty breakfast of spicy posole, cookies and coffee — happy that Kirtland Air Force Base, and his city's economy, were spared the Pentagon's budget ax.

A couple of hundred miles east in Clovis, Mayor David Lansford skipped breakfast, his appetite dimmed and heart weighed down by word that nearby Cannon Air Force Base, and its nearly 3,000 jobs, were on the chopping block.

"We're talking about our friends and family being taken away from us. That information just sits heavy on the heart. I don't think we can accept it," Lansford said.

Cannon and Ellsworth in South Dakota were the only two Air Force bases nationwide slated to close.

Hanson Scott, a retired Air Force general who is New Mexico's one-man Office of Military Base Planning and Support, said the state and congressional delegation will do everything possible to save Cannon.

But, he warned, "I think any fight is going to be a tough fight."

Cannon's closure would cost 2,385 military jobs and 384 civilian jobs, according to the Pentagon.

But the Pentagon didn't count the job loss from surrounding communities.

"It'll kill Clovis," said Linda Hanks, manager of Dairy Queen in Clovis. "We don't have any industry here. We rely on the base. Probably 75 percent of our business comes from the base. That's not only us — it's every business in town."

In New Orleans, the century-old Navy base serves as an anchor for Algiers, a neighborhood that surrounds it.

Many of the homes around the base were built to serve military personnel. Main thoroughfares are named after generals. The base's marching band is a yearly feature of the Carnival parade.

"It's sad to see it go," said Victoria Davis, the shop manager of the Akeem Food Store in Algiers, a neighborhood that surrounds the Naval Support Activity center, among the bases slated for closure by the Pentagon.

In the mornings, Davis likes to hear the base's loudspeakers blare bugles and play the national anthem to get the day going.

"When I walk to work, I look over at the base and I feel safe and proud," Davis said.

The Pentagon's realignment plan could cost Louisiana more than 1,200 jobs and millions of dollars in payroll. The prospect of losing the hustle and bustle of the base did not sit well with many business owners and residents.

"It's not much over here and this serves as one of the big things we have," said Shareefah Mason, the director of the Clear Head Learning Center, a daycare center near the base.