THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9406180211
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940618 LENGTH: NORFOLK
``Today, we are here to make certain we are prepared for the future,'' Allen said at a downtown Norfolk news conference as he created the Commission on Base Retention and Defense Adjustment.
{REST} Allen said that as the 1995 round of base closings approaches, Virginia will be thinking of South Carolina, where Charleston took perhaps the biggest hit from the 1993 round of base closings.
``That is a prime example,'' Allen said. ``We don't want to be caught flat-footed.''
Allen wants his new commission to study base-closing issues closely and protect what it can, but be prepared to ``retool and readjust'' communities, businesses and individuals when closings do come. The commission also will help Virginia move ``to an economy that is less dependent on federal defense expenditures.''
The state is second in the nation in federal defense spending per capita and second in total U.S. defense expenditures.
Allen named to the commission about 30 men and women from business, the military, politics and academia. They include Senate Majority Leader Hunter B. Andrews of Hampton, retired Rear Adm. Fred J. Metz of Virginia Beach and retired Maj. Gen. William K. Hunzeker of Colonial Heights.
The commission will work with existing community groups, Allen said. They include two in Hampton Roads that are mustering support for installations that escaped the axe in 1993 - Oceana Naval Air Station, Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Fort Monroe, for example - and for potential new candidates for closing, like Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
Communities have had little success influencing base-closing decisions in the past. Congress sought to insulate the process from political pressure when it set up the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Committee.
Charleston found that out when it formed a regional committee in 1993, hiring consulting firms and lobbying in the nation's capital. Despite the yearlong effort, the base-closing commission took away the city's shipyard, its ships, submarines and naval base.
Virginia lost more than it expected, too, in 1993, Allen said, and stands to lose even more if projections come true that one of every two military installations in the country eventually will close.
``During the Reagan military buildup in the 1980s, Virginia benefited greatly and considerably, especially in the area of naval shipbuilding.
``But now is the post-Cold War era of the 1990s. The U.S. defense budget . . . is shrinking and forcing the downsizing of the military. The effect obviously is reverberating all across the commonwealth . . . causing apprehension and anxiety for many Virginians.''
President Clinton will appoint members of the 1995 base-closing commission in January. Public hearings begin in March and the commission makes its recommendations to President Clinton by June 1.
{KEYWORDS} BASE CLOSINGS
by CNB