Texas, Connecticut Spared Base Closings

Yahoo (AP) ^ | 8/24/05 | Liz Sidoti

[Snickersnee]

OK, I admit it -- I DON'T like the prospect of driving an extra hundred miles to use the PX at West Point, so hooray for SuBase NLon. On the other hand, 12 years ago when closing it was first proposed, we had a hundred attack boats in the fleet and six bases for them. Now we have _forty_ boats in the fleet and we're still going to have six bases. Something's wrong with this picture. The squids are going to have to sacrifice something -- perhaps something valuable that we'll wish we had some day -- in order to keep lipstick on this pig. And God help us all when EPA begins to snoop around.

[rahbert]

The purpose of bases is ultimately the defense of the country, not the creation or preservation of jobs.

[enviros_kill]

So a BLUER than BLUE state (Connecticut) wants to keep a MILITARY installation that produces NUCLEAR weapons?? What hypocrites!!

[enviros_kill]

Excellent analysis from one of the many experts on FR. I love this board!

[camle]

Connecticut - biting the hand that feeds it since the 60's.;-)

btw, they don't produce the weapons, just the boats.

[The_Victor]

I DON'T like the prospect of driving an extra hundred miles to use the PX at West Point,...

The military should probably close all the Post Exchanges and other base stores. Instead they could provide military personnel with a tax exempt number and let you guys shop at WalMart tax free. Save both you and the government some money.

[enviros_kill]

Agree - but the anti-nukes consider nuclear power and nuclear weapons to be the same thing. Just think-if the first use of electricity had been to electrocute somebody they might be still fighting to ban electrons. Their tiny brains function in that manner-one thought deep all the time.

[Fierce Allegiance]

NSS

[rabidralph]

Nobody is shrinking the military, they are closing unnecessary and consolidating some bases. Where's that whiny chick from Texarkana? What does she think of this outcome?

[Snickersnee]

"The military should probably close all the Post Exchanges and other base stores. Instead they could provide military personnel with a tax exempt number and let you guys shop at WalMart tax free."

WalMart has no ambience compared to AAFES/NES. And by "ambience" I mean that sign in the parking lot right outside the door that says "CSM/SGM PARKING ONLY"

[Chode]

don't forget working on the water in the lovely new england winters too... 8^)

[piperpilot]

Anybody know whether BRAC saved or scuttled the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard?

[George from New England]

With the horrible eminent domain decision and the arrogant New London city attitude I was actually hoping for a base closure. That would have taken the private need for the property seizures away.

[Alas Babylon!]

Yes they did.

Go to the Yahoo link on the initial posting. Portsmouth stays open.

[Chode]

And God help us all when EPA begins to snoop around.

what you said... i'll bet that played MORE than a little bit into the decission.

[muir_redwoods]

"btw, they don't produce the weapons, just the boats."

It's true we don't produce the nuclear weapons here but we do produce a great deal of war materiel, from the subs themselves, as mentioned, at General Dynamics, Electric Boat division to P&W Engines, to Sikorsky and Kaman Helicopters to the M-16 at Colt etc. CT has been a big part of the nations armory for a lot of years and was an A target all through the cold war.

All that said, it is still a stupid idea to keep the sub base open, tactically and strategically.

[mac_truck]

All an enemy would have to do to bottle up a large portion of our east coast submarine force for the duration of a war would be to drop one or both of the large bridge spans into the river.

Worth repeating.

[SwinneySwitch]

BRAC votes to close Naval Station Ingleside, transfer jobs from NAS Corpus Christi(TEXAS)

http://www.caller.com/ccct/local_news/article/0,1641,CCCT_811_4026447,00.html

[HiTech RedNeck]

Because of the way the bottom of the ocean slopes gradually up, we were required to do a 13 hour surface transit to reach the “Dive Point”. This same transit in San Diego would take about 1 hour. This is an awful long time to be a target.

Geopolitically, too, isn't it more likely a sub out of the West Coast would be closer to a probable trouble spot than a sub out of the East Coast? If I want to go to Taiwan on the double I don't set sail from New England.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Groton escaping from the Pentagon's axe saved many jobs in Connecticut, including perhaps that of Republican Congressman Rob Simmons. Along with Jim Leach's CD in Iowa, Simmons's district gave Bush his lowest 2004 percentage of any House district currently held by a Republican (44%), so Simmons doesn't have much of a margin of error in the district. But Simmons is liberal on social issues and more conservative on economic issues and foreign affairs, and works his district well, so I think he will survive once again.