Mayor warns: Get ready for base closures

Members of the Chamber's Military Affairs Committee were urged last Wednesday to begin organizing for the next round of base closures, expected to begin within the next 18 months.

Mayor Dave Jett, who along with Alan Bermensolo had just returned from a trip to Air Combat Command headquarters in Langley, Va., said the next round of base closures "is going to be a different animal" than the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRACC) closures of the early 1990s. "This will be driven by DoD from the top down," he said, noting wings across the country already are starting to provide documents for the process.

He also said that the newest round of closures, expected to eliminate up to 25 percent of the base structure of the Department of Defense, has not had the criteria established yet for what would or would not put a base on the closure list, "so any rumors you're hearing now, or seeing on the internet, probably aren't true."

But, he said, in the next round it is not expected that there will be any opportunity for communities to know in advance if they were being considered and to be able to lobby to have a base removed from the list. "If you get on the list, that's it," he said, adding that all commanders involved in the process have been ordered not to comment on any findings or reveal any bases under consideration.

The process is expected to formally begin early next year with a recommendation going to the Secretary of Defense by the end of 2004 and presentation to Congress early in 2005.

"My advice to this community," Jett said, "is that we need to get going, to get organized and develop a strategy. There are some issues we need to look at, and come up with a plan. We need to deal from a position of strength because we don't have the political clout" that some states have in Congress.

"Our community relationship (with the base) is good, but so are a lot of other bases. It's not enough.

"You should walk away from this room with the feeling that there is no safety zone."

Bermensolo agreed. "If you're on that BRACC list, it's too late." And, he added, "as much as DoD says there's no politics involved, that's baloney." He said it may be necessary to again launch the kind of letter-writing campaign and rallies that marked the local community's efforts in the last two rounds of base closures.

Bermensolo also said the governor's office, the city and the Chamber's Military Affairs Committee would be organized to provide a prospectus for Congress and DoD that would show why Mountain Home AFB should be retained in the inventory, but noted that who will spearhead the group still hasn't been decided.

Jett said that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "is keeping it close to the vest. The biggest thing we need is a strategic approach to the entire process, because the perception by Rumsfeld is going to be important."