Will a bipartisan blue-ribbon commission be able to accomplish something that no one else has been able to do in over a decade? That is, will it make it possible to close obsolete, redundant, or otherwise unless U.S. domestic military bases? Apparently, someone believes so.
On May 3, 1988, Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci established the nonpartisan Commission on Base Realignment and Closure. The goal of the Commission is to develop the criteria for identifying bases for realignment or closure, to review the military base structure, and to recommend which bases to close. The commission was established after extensive talks with congressional leaders. It is charged to report is findings by December 31 of this year.
The team that Carlucci hopes will resolve the battle between the Pentagon and Congress consists of members of both parties who have considerable experience in government and national defense. It is co-chaired by former Alabama Congressman Jack Edwards, who was the ranking Republican on the defense appropriations subcommittee for years and former senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-Connecticut). Other commission members include Russell E. Train, former chairman of the Council on Environmental quality; industrialist Louis Cabot and Donald Craib, Jr.; Martin Hoffman, former Secretary of the Army; W. Graham Claytor, former Secretary of the Navy; and two retired generals, Don Starry of the Army and Bryce Poe II of the Air Force.
Some Bases are Obsolete
So, with such a team, what is the problem? Base closings will inevitably affect some congressman's territory. In the United States there are over 5,000 military bases, forts, shipyards, fields, posts, hospitals, depots, radar sites, and office complexes. Some 300 of these installations are major bases. The Grace Commission on Government Waste, the Government Accounting Office, and the Pentagon have suggested recently that savings of two billion dollars to five billion dollars a year could be achieved by closing or realigning 20 to 30 major bases--without harm to national security. More savings could be realized from closing perhaps hundreds of smaller installations.
Hundreds of bases and other military installations have been closed since the end of World War II, when the United States had a peak of 12 million men and women on active duty. However, there have been no closures since 1977--in fact, 13 have been opened.
Some bases contribute little or nothing to national security. Many obsolete or redundant bases are kept open by members of Congress from the districts where the bases are located. This is the case even though the nature and scope of the Defense Department's mission has changed significantly. For one thing, the number of persons on active duty has decreased to about 2.1 million.
It is common knowledge that national supermarket or department store chains, or large manufacturing firms with facilities around the nation, sometimes find it desirable to close or downgrade facilities and to move functions and personnel--in short, to do what is perceived necessary to best further long-term business interests.
Therefore, it should be no surprise that the Pentagon has a
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