Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412120060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium
Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Charles Robb, D-Va., and congressmen from the Hampton Roads area joined Republican Gov. George Allen on visits Friday to Fort Eustis in Newport News, the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.
The federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission will launch a new round of deliberations in 1995, and several military facilities in Virginia are considered potential targets for the budget ax.
Among them, in addition to the installations visited Friday, are Fort Monroe in Hampton and the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.
But the existence of so many military bases in the region - the huge Norfolk Naval Base and Langley Air Force Base are nearby - and their ability to work cooperatively and complement each other will help all of them survive scrutiny, the state's politicians said.
``The clustering of all these military facilities with shared facilities and installations mean that the costs to taxpayers are less,'' Allen said.
Even the government-owned shipyard, despite having several private yards nearby, is helped by their presence, Warner said.
``There are instances which the private yard cannot possibly handle,'' such as emergency repairs for warships that need to deploy right away, he said.
The visitors, in addition to the elected officials, included members of Allen's base-retention panel. They met with Adm. William J. Flanagan, commander of the Navy's Atlantic Fleet, and William Cassidy, a deputy assistant secretary of the Navy based at the Pentagon.
Robb, Warner and the other elected leaders said they are prepared to argue the case for Virginia's bases on the criteria set up by the base-closing commission for saving them: military value and community support.
``We feel that the military value in all of these facilities is superior to the others they'll be competing with in the [closure] process,'' said Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-Newport News. ``Our job is to make sure that the information gets to those that are making those decisions.''
The issue isn't what's good for Virginia, but what's good for national defense and a good investment for taxpayers, Allen said.
Virginia has fared pretty well in previous decisions and even gained some Navy ships because of closings elsewhere.
by CNB