THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010670
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
The defense downsizing that is devastating communities and uprooting thousands of military families may be about to generate an economic boom for Hampton Roads.
Defense Secretary William J. Perry announced recommendations Tuesday that would mean a net gain of more than 5,000 uniformed and civilian workers for the region, which already has the nation's heaviest concentration of military facilities.
``No bases were closed, and that was our goal,'' said Art Collins, chairman of the Hampton Roads Regional Planning District Commission, which helped spearhead the local base-saving drive. ``All branches of the military recognized . . . that Hampton Roads offers a world-class military environment - that is a resource that could not reasonably be diminished.''
Perry's proposals to the 1995 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission would close or realign 146 military installations nationwide but leave intact every major installation in Hampton Roads.
Perry's announcement pleased local government and business leaders, including those around the Army's Fort Eustis in Newport News. A New York Times report on Saturday had suggested that the Pentagon would recommend a realignment at Fort Eustis, raising fears that some workers might have to relocate.
As expected, Norfolk Naval Air Station will lose 551 military positions through the eventual move of its anti-mine helicopter squadrons to Corpus Christi, Texas. The Navy is establishing a mine countermeasures center there.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard, a candidate for closure during the 1993 base-closing round, picks up 230 civilian jobs under the recommendation. But the office of U.S. Rep. Norman Sisisky, a Democrat whose district includes yard workers, said the real gain could be almost 500 once all realignments and redirections shake out.
``All branches of the military recognized, in this era of jointness, that Hampton Roads offers a world-class military environment . . . that is a resource that could not reasonably be diminished.''
Perry announced the Pentagon recommendations at a nationally televised news conference, stressing that the proposed cuts would be ``painful . . . but necessary.''
The changes he proposed would save $4 billion over the six years needed to implement them, he said, and $18 billion over 20 years. The Pentagon wants to plow much of what is saved into the development and purchase of new weapons systems early in the 21st century.
Even with the cuts, Perry said, the military will have more facilities than it needs for the smaller force of the post-Cold War era. Within the next year or two, the military will be about one-third smaller than it was during the mid-1980s, but its base structure has been cut by only about one-fifth.
Perry said he may suggest that Congress authorize another round of closures in three or four years.
Perry said the services were restricted in recommending cuts this year in part by the up-front cost of closing bases. Though closing bases saves money in the long run, the initial expense of relocating displaced workers and readying bases to be closed would total $3.8 billion for the bases covered in Tuesday's announcement.
That's substantially less than the up-front costs of $6.9 billion needed to execute the 1993 round of closures. Perry's new proposal calls for about 25 percent fewer base changes than the Pentagon sought in 1993 but more closures than were ordered in 1991 or 1988.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, whose state would be among those hit hardest by Perry's plan, said the proposed closures don't go far enough. He and other critics suggested the Clinton administration doesn't want to bear the political pain associated with shutting military facilities.
And in some of the recommendations were signs of political calculations. For example, the naval shipyard in Portsmouth, N.H. - the nation's first presidential primary state - survived, despite indications that its work could be absorbed by the larger Norfolk Naval Shipyard. During a visit to New Hampshire in January, President Clinton predicted that the yard would survive.
But Perry and John M. Deutch, his deputy, insisted that their recommendations were based solely on each base's military value, and not on politics or community lobbying.
At Portsmouth specifically, ``All of our actions were by the numbers,'' Navy Secretary John H. Dalton asserted in an interview.
A check of 1992 election returns seemed to bolster that claim. Perry proposed cutting 20,470 jobs from states carried by President Clinton in that election and only 9,785 from states carried by former President George Bush.
And looking ahead to 1996, the Pentagon's new list would trim the defense workforce in six of the nation's 10 most populous state by a total of 10,850. Those losses would account for about one-third of all the workers cut in the '95 round.
Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, a Newport News Republican who heads the House subcommittee overseeing military readiness, said he's hopeful that the changes Perry recommended will allow the Pentagon to devote more of its resources to keeping forces prepared.
While giving Hampton Roads a boost, Perry's recommendations would cut some other Virginia bases. The Army's Fort Pickett, a sprawling training base in Southside, would be closed; Kenner Army Hospital at Fort Lee, near Petersburg, would be converted to an outpatient clinic.
``I'm going to fight that,'' promised Rep. Sisisky, who also represents the Petersburg area. At his urging, Congress just two years ago approved a $16.8 million renovation of the hospital; construction is not yet complete. ``They say they can save $51 million'' by making the change, Sisisky said. ``They've got to prove it to me.''
Sisisky also promised to challenge the proposal to close Fort Pickett. He held out hope that the service's plan to license the National Guard to continue using at least part of the 45,000-acre base would preserve it as a training center.
Despite such setbacks, Virginia ``should be grateful given the enormous number of bases and installations we have throughout our state and the importance of the military to the total economy,'' said Sen. John W. Warner, the state's senior representative in Washington. He praised his congressional colleagues in both parties, Gov. George F. Allen and local officials for cooperating to make a case for the state's facilities. MEMO: Staff writers Christopher Dinsmore and Jack Dorsey contributed to this
report.
KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSINGS MILITARY BASES by CNB