Posted on 11/09/2004 7:47:47 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, aiming to defend California's 62 military bases during a new round of Pentagon base closures beginning next year, appointed an 18-member council of defense consultants, retired military chiefs and business people Tuesday to coordinate the state's base retention effort.
The governor included 11 military and retired military officials in a panel to be co-chaired by Leon Panetta, former chief of staff to President Clinton, and Donna Tuttle, a former Commerce Department official in the Reagan administration.
As the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure strategy considers closing up to 100 bases nationally, California will compete with 425 military installations across the nation and other commissions equally determined to keep their bases and the billions of dollars in economic activity they represent.
"As California confronts this new BRAC round it is critical that our local communities, state leaders and congressional delegation maintains a united, coordinated front as we work to keep our military installations intact," Schwarzenegger said in a statement announcing the panel.
Panetta said the new commission will meet late this month or in early December.
"I think our job is to really do everything possible to hopefully maintain those bases, and if in fact, they're closed, to assist these communities in making a successful transition," he said. "Hopefully, California will not take the kind of hit it took in the last BRAC round. We frankly gave more than our share of military bases to that process and it cost us a lot of jobs."
In that round of 91 base closings nationally from 1988 to 1995, California lost 29 military installations, a major factor contributing to economic downturns in several communities across the state. Those closures ranged from March Air Force Base and El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Southern California to Mather Air Force Base and Fort Ord Army Base in Northern California.
The governor said the commission will advise local, state and congressional representatives on base issues, recommend strategies and "develop tactics to strengthen California's competitiveness." Members will also look for opportunities to win new military activities and infrastructure across the next 20 years.
Several California bases are considered at risk by the state's congressional delegation, including El Segundo's Los Angeles Air Force Base, which houses a center that develops satellites, missiles and rockets, and the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Barstow, a maintenance depot. The Monterey Peninsula's Defense Language Institute is also considered a target.
Local efforts are also under way to save bases such as the Naval Air Weapons Station in China Lake, Beale Air Force Base near Marysville and several San Diego-area facilities, including the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. In Solano County, Fairfield officials estimate Travis Air Force Base represents 13,000 jobs and $1.3 billion a year to the local economy.
Schwarzenegger made the avoidance of California base closings a priority in signing several bills this year by state lawmakers. Among them, cities and counties must notify military commanders of local development plans near military bases and below low-altitude aerial training routes.
The bill, by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, nearly died earlier this year because of opposition from local governments and developers, but Schwarzenegger staffers revived it. Kuehl and Schwarzenegger said the bill represented a signal to the Pentagon that California is serious about keeping its growth and land development from interfering with the military's mission. Arizona, Washington, Texas and Florida have passed similar bills, aiming to send the same message to Washington.
Schwarzenegger also signed bills to add $300,000 to the state's Office of Military and Aerospace Support, which coordinates the state's base retention strategy. That brings its budget to $500,000, said Schwarzenegger spokesman Vince Sollitto. The bill also allows the office to seek grants and private funding. More signed legislation aims to reduce construction costs for base housing.
Commissioners will receive no compensation for their work on the panel.
It was originally built as a secure base for scientists and their families working on part of the Manhatten Project; they made it as comfortable as possible for them. An artificial lake, waterfall, riding stables, deer wondering the grounds, etc.
It's been a major Coast Guard training center for many years now, EVEN THOUGH, the majority of students come from the east coast and there is room to consolidate it's functions at the training center in Yorktown, VA (you drive through the battlefield to get to it) and the Coast Guard Academy.
It was almost moved during the Clinton years, but the administration ordered the Coast Guard to keep it open.
Why?
McClellan was one of 5, shoot I can't remember the exact name they used, anyway it was one of 5 repair bases. It's where they worked on aircraft and shelters etc. They have a huge x-ray machine that can x-ray an entire plane at once. They used it to x-ray the Folsom dam gate that failed. Rep. Fazio (D) tried hard to save it but to no avail.
"McClellan AFB officially closes on Friday, July 13, 2001, but a key DOD tenant, DMEA, will remain "in place" to continue performing its vital mission. DMEA is charged with keeping the microelectronics components of key weapons systems in the DOD inventory operational and technologically current. In fact, DMEA's mission was deemed so vital to our national defense that in 1995, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) was convinced to leave DMEA open at its present location while at the same time closing the rest of the base."
It sounds as if the technological part remained.
It may have remained for a while but as far as I know there is nothing out there. The property has been sold or given to the county I can't remember which. It's called McClellan Park now if you want to search on that.
They have a website (www.dmea.osd.mil/home.html) that is fantastic. You're right, they do some impressive things there.
My only lament is that if they waited two years my husband could have retired. But hey, life moves on.
That stinks!
The presidio was closed years ago. It was handed over to either the State of CA or the City of SF.
http://www.nps.gov/prsf/
The Presidio served as a military post under the flags of Spain (1776-1822), Mexico (1822-48), and the United States (1848-1994). As a U.S. Army post, the Presidio protected commerce and trade, and played a logistical role in every major U.S. military conflict from 1848 until closure. World events and those on the home front - from military campaigns to the rise of aviation, from World Fairs to natural disasters - left their mark here.
On October 1, 1994, the Presidio became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Since 1998, the Presidio has been jointly managed by the National Park Service and the Presidio Trust. The Presidio Trust is a special public-private governmental agency tasked with managing most of the buildings of the Presidio and making the park financially self-sufficient by 2013.
Today, visitors enjoy the history and beauty of the Presidio. Within its boundaries are more than 500 historic buildings, a collection of coastal defense fortifications, a national cemetery, an historic airfield, a saltwater marsh, forests, beaches, native plant habitats, coastal bluffs, miles of hiking and biking, and some of the most spectacular vistas in the world.
I don't know what I was thinking! LOL.
I was looking for info on Panetta and Grazzo. Seems Panetta sits on the board that granted Grazzo his 240 million-dollar pay-check over the last seven years. Now Panetta heads the list of big-wigs, who want to keep bases open. When Panetta presuaded Bill Clinton to get Clinton Defense Secretary Les Aspen to slate Fort Ord for base closure, he wanted them closed.
The CSU (California State University) requested the billion-dollar parcel, without use restrictions, and of course got it from DOD for one-dollar. CSU chancellor, Barry Munoz, handed it to Panetta – for his political institute – and Vermont's Peter Plympton Smith, would become the president of the new CSU on Fort Ord. Munoz wanted to call it the University of Fort Ord or UFO.
CSU Monterey Bay was the name Panetta and Smith chose, but it was ultimately the University of Bill Clinton. CSUMB gets no press. Hillary had vowed to remake the West. After her failed health care bid, she had to salvage her political ambitions by going into education. Suddenly, Bill Clinton had to be the education president. Peter P. Smith, a failed politician but dean of the School of Education and Human Developement at George Washington University had pioneered the black project concept for higher education.
Smith's "experiment" would help Hillary, enhance his career opportunities, and make the handlers of the political "Skunk Works" fabulousy wealthy. The Clintons tapped Smith to head his own mission. Now, the base had an lead sifting operation going on, and the ground water had been contaminated by a chemical solvent used to wash mechanized vehicles. But the politicos had inherited over 1200 billets from Uncle Sam, and with an election fast approaching their motto was: students first.
Panetta beat the bushes and managed to come up with 545 souls, mostly Juniors from the area's three Junior Colleges. There's nothing greedier than a California landlord, so Panetta and Smith took on flight students from the United Arab Emirates. The flight students, all between the ages of 15 and 19, took their six-week internships at the nearby Monterey International Airport, during the summer months of 1996 and 1997 – while renting rooms on Fort Ord from Panetta.
And there is no mention of these flight students in the 9-11 Comission Report. We now know Al Qaeda can prepare for an operation, then wait four years to carry it out. The two groups of flight students numbered approximately twenty four Middle Eastern males – and not a peep out of anybody.
Not a peep about subjecting students to the nation's third largest Super Fund dump site. Hillary told Larry King, that it's not so much about 9-11, it's about the next election (it's over, GW won, thank goodness). Now she wants to Moveon.org in the worst kind of way. Hillary couldn't attend any of the funerals for the 9-11 victims, because of the political and other liabilities of being discovered. The tremendous diversion that this left wing conspiracy has been cranking out, has kept anyone from noticing so far. The war on terror began on Fort Ord. And while everyone is intent on Iraq, the fox crosses the road behind their backs. Her tracks disappear into the brush.
How many more years before we connect the dots?
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