Commission: Close Walter Reed

Panel Targets Historic Army Hospital; Votes Next On Air Force Bases

(CBS/AP)  Siding with the Pentagon, the base-closing commission voted Thursday to shut down the Army's historic Walter Reed hospital and move about 20,000 defense workers miles away from their offices just outside the nation's capital.

The nine-member panel also started deciding which Air Force facilities should be closed or consolidated as part of the Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's nationwide restructuring of military bases.

Overall, the commission endorsed much of Rumsfeld's broader plan to streamline support services across the Army, Navy and Air Force. In many cases, it voted to merge programs scattered around military facilities across the country to centralized locations.

Just before adjourning for the day, the commissioners decided to shutter Air Force facilities in Alaska and California. But they postponed until Friday votes on the service branch's most contentious recommendations.

The Air Force wants to vastly reconfigure the Air National Guard, a move that states fiercely oppose. It also wants to close Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico and Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

CBS News Correspondent Barry Bagnato reports that up to the last minute, South Dakotans are telling anyone who'll listen why Ellsworth Air Force Base – the state's second largest employer – should be spared.

"All the facilities are new. The infrastructure's been upgraded," said Jim McKeon, head of the Rapid City Chamber of Commerce, who adds that the base generates $287 million in local spending every year.

"That comes out to be nine percent of our economy," he said.

Anticipating the high-stakes votes, the entire South Dakota congressional delegation — Sens. John Thune, a Republican, and Tim Johnson, a Democrat, and Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth — attended the hearing, as did Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

Late Thursday, the commission decided to approve its own proposal to close the Galena Airport Forward Operation Location in Alaska, which the Air Force uses to land jets when necessary. The Air Force had wanted to keep it open. The commercial airport there would continue operating.

The panel also chose to keep Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska fully operational, rejecting a Pentagon plan to sharply scale back personnel and aircraft there.

But commissioners did side with military planners in approving the closure of two other major bases — Onizuka Air Force Station in California and Brooks City-Base in Texas.

As the commission tackled proposals that affected all the service branches, members focused on recommendations that sometimes were complex and interconnected.

"In this case, I'm pretty confident we got it right," commissioner Harold Gehman said, while considering a plan to consolidate some research and development activities. "But I'm telling you we're going to be faced with a bunch of these ... where I honestly do not know if we got it right or not."

Commissioner James Hill called the day's deliberations on the joint-services section agony and said the lengthy debate "highlights the complexity of these issues."