Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 20, 1995                   TAG: 9503200053
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BLACKSTONE                                 LENGTH: Medium

COMMISSION MEMBER TO TOUR BASE

The newspaper quoted congressional sources as saying Rebecca Cox, a member of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, plans to visit the base March 28 and meet with community groups.

Cox, a vice president of Continental Airlines, also served on the base closing commission in 1993. She lives in Newport Beach, Calif., and is married to Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif.

Meanwhile, members of the Fort Pickett Support Group met Friday in Blackstone with community leaders and fort employees.

Barry Steinberg, the principal coordinator of efforts to save the base, said the meeting was intended to assure employees there is a good chance the base can be saved.

The support group says the Army undervalued the base by not recognizing the training done by other military branches and disregarding the base's largely isolated and restriction-free 45,000 acres.

Sen. John Warner of Virginia agreed with the support group's assessment in a written statement Friday.

Warner, a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Fort Pickett is used extensively by active troops from all services and isn't merely a reserve training post.

``I don't believe that this point was adequately presented in the Army's analysis,'' Warner said.

Warner questioned whether the Army used accurate data in assessing Fort Pickett's nearness to airfields, railroads and highways.

``It makes no sense, fiscally or operationally, to close a facility which provides excellent, low-cost training to active-duty and reserve personnel in all the services,'' he said.

Warner noted that several active Army units from ``environmentally constrained'' Fort Bragg, N.C., continue to use Fort Pickett.

Fort Bragg is home for one of the largest concentrations of the rare red-cockaded woodpecker, which is on the endangered species list. The Army has restricted its training to steer tank brigades clear of 430 woodpecker sites across the 150,000-acre fort.