THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502260081
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Fort Eustis in Newport News is the only Virginia installation that appears on a preliminary list of recommendations for base closure or realignment, according to news reports Saturday.
Fort Eustis is recommended for consolidation or shrinking in the list to be released Tuesday, according to the reports. More than 15,000 people work at the base on the James River, home of Army troops who move cargo and set up ports during missions overseas.
Pentagon officials said Saturday that Defense Secretary William J. Perry had not yet signed off on a list and that work still was being done on it. Perry has the final say on Pentagon recommendations to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, a civilian panel charged with reducing the military's infrastructure to match shrinking forces.
``We don't know much'' about what the recommendation means, said Dan Scandling, a spokesman for Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, whose district includes Fort Eustis. ``And nobody in the Army is going to be high enough up in the chain of command to give us that answer this weekend.''
The fate of Fort Story in Virginia Beach is closely tied to that of Fort Eustis, its parent command. Fort Story, home of the Army's over-the-shore transportation teams, employs more than 2,200 people.
If the reports prove true, they will bear out projections in recent weeks that Hampton Roads would be spared any major base closings. Earlier, local base defenders had feared that Oceana Naval Air Station and Norfolk Naval Shipyard might appear on the list.
Congressional and defense sources said last week that Oceana may gain ground in this year's review, doubling its inventory by picking up more than 200 planes from closings and realignments elsewhere.
The eight-member commission can add to the Pentagon's recommendations during this year's fourth and final round of base closings. But in the past, more than 80 percent of the bases on the Pentagon's list were ordered closed by the commission.
Overall, political pressures and the up-front costs of closing military bases kept this year's list shorter than many expected. It spares facilities in politically important states while recommending far more ``realignments'' than outright closures.
The proposed shutdowns awaiting approval by Perry include none of the huge bases that formed the bulk of earlier cuts.
This year's draft list spares Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's home-state Army post, Fort Riley, Kan., and protects facilities in the all-important presidential election states of New Hampshire and California.
Missing from the list is the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, just across the harbor from New Hampshire - scene of the first presidential primary a year from now. And California, a state vital to President Clinton's re-election chances, would suffer only two outright closures - the Oakland Army Base and the Navy's shipyard at Long Beach.
Texas appears to be one of the hardest-hit states in this round.
On the closure list are the Red River Army Depot at Texarkana, with about 3,500 jobs; Reese Air Force Base near Lubbock, with 1,700 jobs; and Brooks Air Force Base, in San Antonio, with more than 4,500 jobs. The Pentagon also is proposing to relocate the Navy's air station at Corpus Christi to Pensacola, Fla. MEMO: The New York Times and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSINGS MILITARY BASES by CNB