THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503120276
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSTONE LENGTH: Long : 167 lines
The air was wet, gray and windy, and that was bad enough.
But word about the Army's plan to close Fort Pickett had long made its way up and down Main Street, and the whole place seemed soaked in a Southern, small-town funk.
Town leaders huddled in a storefront office - the local paper called it ``the war room'' - trying to set strategy.
Soggy American flags, hung in support of the town's military, swished in the wind.
A man outside Mitchell's Restaurant, clenching a yellow Dr. Grabow pipe in his teeth, cursed the rain as he pinned a red, white and blue Fort Pickett Support Group ribbon to his chest.
And down at Rick and Melva Whitmore's general store, every car that splashed in - the station wagons, the pickups, the Humvees - carried folks eager to gossip, and with the same thing on their minds: that craziness at the Pentagon, and how they're going to stop it.
``I can't believe they'd close Pickett and this place'd be a ghost town. There're just too many lives involved,'' Melva said.
``If they'd go around and trim the waste at all these bases, they could keep 'em open and still save a billion dollars,'' Rick said.
``Isn't it the truth,'' Melva affirmed.
``You better believe it,'' Rick said.
Welcome to Main Street, Blackstone - a small, urbanized reprieve along the relentlessly rural Southside highways. To the west is a vast expanse of timber fields and double-wides. To the east, 45,000 acres of training fields, airstrips, motor pools and tank ranges.
The sign at every outskirt says ``Welcome to Blackstone'' in smiling black script.
Another threatens, ``Artillery May Be Firing Over the Road'' just a half-mile out of town.
When the Pentagon's latest base-closings report came out Feb. 28, showing Virginia could actually gain more than 4,000 jobs from closings around the country, the state was all but euphoric. ``Gains Top Losses,'' shouted the Richmond Times-Dispatch. ``Maryland is Region's Big Loser,'' hailed the Washington Post.
But it's hard to see it that way in Blackstone.
Fort Pickett, the Pentagon report said, ``is very low in military value compared to other major training area installations.'' The recommendation: Shut it down.
The town and the fort have grown almost like Siamese twins over the last 50 years, and now one of them is dying. No one's sure what will become of the other.
The Army slapped Camp Pickett onto the town's east side just before World War II, and started shipping in almost 90,000 troops a year. They practiced firing tank guns and mortars, played paperwork war games, bought food, drank beer and otherwise made Blackstone into a giant off-base trading post.
Jean Toth swears her daddy never would have made it for 60-some years giving tattoos, if not for that gaggle of flat-topped buck privates that came to town every summer.
Nancy and Curley O'Dell had about 40 employees at three dry-cleaning plants, before the government switched to wash-and-wear.
Today, the only movie theater and bowling alley in town are on Fort Pickett. So are the pumps that run the water and sewer systems.
Some 175 town civilians - 5 percent of the population - go to work every day at the military base next door, making more than $3 million in wages. An additional 250 civilian workers live in Nottoway, Dinwiddie and Lunenburg counties and other surrounding areas. About 50 full-time soldiers work there, too.
The Pentagon report said the base has become an extravagance. The local officials, gadflies and congressman all say something must be wrong.
``The recommendation to close Pickett was made based on outdated, incomplete and incorrect information,'' said town Councilman Bill Armbruster.
``This was the wrong decision,'' said U.S. Rep. Norman Sisisky.
``I'll tell you what it is, it's just dumb,'' said Addie Bennett, who owns a customized sportswear shop and makes shirts for all the regional teams that play ball at Fort Pickett.
``I'd have to get another job if they close it down.''
Sisisky says he is trying to save the fort. Some Navy officials have expressed interest, he said. National Guard troops could train there. Many military officials have second-guessed the commission's recommendations.
But as much as he dreads the base's possible closure, Sisisky said, plans to leave behind a skeletal force could prove even more disastrous.
``If that happens, it might be better just to close it,'' he said. ``Give it to the town. Use it for some economic development project, not that.''
They've closed Pickett before - in 1946 and 1954. Both times, the Army opened it again after a few years; both times the closings hammered the economy of Blackstone.
People who were there say the streets were empty, the shops closed and the whole town seemed jolted.
But this time, the fort seems to be trickling out of town a pair of boots at a time.
The number of troops who come for training has been cut back to about 50,000. And these days, most don't venture into town.
The locals know Fort Pickett as much for its hunting and fishing as its infusions to the local economy. They'd hate to see the base leave again, but most townies don't seem worried that the Army will pack up its tanks and blow a giant hole in Blackstone on the way out of town.
``As much as Pickett means to us here, it's not the only thing in Blackstone,'' Curley O'Dell said from behind the counter of his dry-cleaning shop.
``The fly-by-night businesses aren't around any more. They couldn't survive,'' Nancy O'Dell said.
``What's here now is the town's own. That will always be here.''
The recommendations from the Defense Department's Base Realignment and Closure Commission aren't final. Representatives will tour Pickett and other affected installations before July 1, when the recommendations must be given to the president.
By then, the team of local officials in the war room hopes to have made several trips to Washington, jammed all the public hearings and sent letters from every address in the region. And to have convinced the federal government that the fort's airport, railway, artillery ranges, urban assault course and demolition zones are simply too valuable to pass up.
Back at the Whitmore's Community Convenience store, Rick and Nancy said they'll watch closely. If the base stays open, they'll think about stocking more beer in the summertime. If it closes, maybe they'll have to expand to attract more customers - and go to Petersburg to see movies.
Jean Toth, loitering about the store more for the company than the convenience, took a subtle detour during a conversation about Fort Pickett and made a business proposition. She had eggs from her chicken farm, and would sell them for 50 cents a dozen, she said.
``Fifty cents a dozen? You kidding? We'll buy them by the case for 50 cents a dozen,'' said Rick.
``You won't need a whole case if Pickett closes,'' said Melva.
``There'll always be something over there, no matter what happens,'' said Toth.
``Maybe they could put that Disney over there,'' Rick added. Northern Virginia may have chased out the Disney's America theme park, but some folks aren't so choosy.
``Yeah, that'd be all right,'' said Melva.
``Yeah, they could put that there,'' said Toth. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff
Jean Jones, who worked at Fort Pickett in the 1950s, visits
Blackstone's ``war room.'' She brought a clipping about a Texas town
that survived a base closing.
Ben Baldwin of Key Office Supply leaves after delivering a file
cabinet to the ``war room,'' where Blackstone's town leaders map
strategy to keep the base open.
Joe Levy, who owns a clothing store in Blackstone, sells boots to
the base. Levy's father was a carpenter who helped build the base in
1942 and stayed on.
Photos
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff
Nancy O'Dell sews a military uniform in her dry-cleaning shop in
Blackstone. She and her husband, Curley, have owned New Mercury
Cleaners since 1977.
Sgt. Carl Parker, 25, shops in the Dollar General Store on Main
Street in Blackstone. Parker is with the 82nd Airborne Division from
Fort Bragg and is training at Fort Pickett for three months. The
number of troops who come for training has been cut back to about
50,000. And these days, most don't venture into town.
KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSINGS MILITARY BASES by CNB