Panel Saves South Dakota Base

Commission Bucks Pentagon, Votes To Keep Ellsworth AF Base Open

(CBS/AP) 
In May, the Pentagon proposed closing or consolidating a record 62 major military bases and 775 smaller installations to save $48.8 billion over 20 years, make the services more efficient and reposition the armed forces.

While casting doubt on the estimated savings, the commission has largely endorsed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's effort to streamline support services across the Army, Navy and Air Force by merging similar programs scattered around small military facilities. However, the panel also bucked the Pentagon on a couple of large Navy base closures in New England that Rumsfeld wanted.

On Thursday, the commission plowed through dozens of Pentagon recommendations to consolidate education, medical, administrative and training programs and small facilities spread across the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Among the panel's recommendations was that the Army's historic Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C., be shut down and much of its staff and services moved to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Just before adjourning, the commissioners started in on the Air Force proposals, deciding to shutter the Onizuka Air Force Station in California and the Galena Airport Forward Operation Location in Alaska, which the Air Force uses for training and to land fighter jets when necessary.

Also in Alaska, the commission chose to keep Eielson Air Force Base operational, rejecting a Pentagon plan to sharply scale back personnel and aircraft there.

"The commission clearly saw our argument that its airspace and training facilities are too valuable and it is impractical to 'warm base' such a cold place," Gov. Frank Murkowski said.

Air Force officials say their proposal as a whole is designed to make the service more effective by consolidating both weapons systems and personnel as the force moves to a smaller but smarter aircraft fleet.

The Air National Guard plan would shift people, equipment and aircraft around at 54 or more sites where Guard units are stationed. Major Air Guard and Reserve facilities in Alaska, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would close. In some states, aircraft would be taken away from 25 Air Guard units. Those units would get other assignments such as expeditionary combat support roles. They also would retain their missions of aiding governors during statewide emergencies.

Shutting down Cannon would cost Clovis, N.M., a small town on the Texas-New Mexico line, nearly 3,000 jobs on the base and as many as 2,000 more related jobs in the community. The base that is home to four F-16 fighter squadrons represents a third of the local economy.