Posted on 05/22/2002 11:18:22 AM PDT by Magnum44
Fredericksburg (VA) Free Lance-Star May 20, 2002 Pg. 1
Group To Shield Bases: Another round of closings coming
By Ruth Finch
Congress has decided more military cuts are coming in 2005.
But a task force led by 1st District Rep. Jo Anne Davis is trying to keep the knife from slicing bases in this region, includ-ing the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Quantico Marine Corps Base on the Stafford-Prince William county line and the Army's Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline County.
"We're hopeful that the national defense value of these bases is already well known and these facilities would not even really be seriously considered for closure. But you can't take anything for granted," said Del. Mark Cole, secretary of Davis' new task force on base closures and a contractor who works on the Navy's Aegis program, which is overseen by the Surface Warfare Center's Dahlgren Division.
The Department of Defense, hoping to save money for modernization, asked for a new round of base realignments and closures. Congress agreed to consider closures in 2005; the criteria for selecting bases are due out next year.
That means the new task force--charged with gathering evidence to show how local bases are critical to national security--needs to begin now, said King George County Supervisor Joe Grzeika, another defense contractor at Dahlgren and vice president of Davis' Base Realignment and Closures Task Force.
"We know this is coming," Grzeika said. "We need to get ourselves organized and prepared so as things happen we can react immediately."
The task force will work to protect all seven bases in Davis' congressional district, including those in the Fredericksburg area as well as Fort Monroe, Fort Eustis, Langley Air Force Base, Chetham Annex naval station and the Naval Weapons Station in Yorktown.
Cole and Grzeika were asked to concentrate on the three bases in the Fredericksburg area, which together pump nearly $1 billion into the regional economy.
The Naval Surface Warfare Center provides 7,719 jobs on base and through its contractors and tenant commands, and spent $556 million locally last year.
Quantico's annual budget tops $291 million. And Fort A.P. Hill officials figured in 1998 that the Army post pumps $60 million into the local economy. The amount may have grown since then, base spokesman Ken Perrotte said.
But none of that will matter to the BRAC commission, Cole said.
"Economic impact in the surrounding area is not a factor in their decision," he said. "The criteria are based on the work done at the base and its importance in national defense."
Task-force members say they don't expect to have trouble explaining the national value of local bases.
The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, is a scientific and engineering institution that boasts high-tech Navy programs such as the Aegis Training and Readiness Center, the Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile program and the Tomahawk cruise-missile program.
Fort A.P. Hill's 76,000-acre campus is tops for field training and combat readiness, Perrotte said.
"Military training lands are being jeopardized everywhere with the urban encroachment and environmental issues," he said.
"We're fortunate we don't face those issues at A.P. Hill. You can't replicate this installation anywhere else."
Quantico, a focal point of professional Marine education, is home to several schools, including the Officer Candidates School, the Marine Corps War College, the School of Advanced Warfighting and the Amphibious Warfighting School. It also is home to the FBI Academy, where FBI agents and high-ranking civilian police are trained, and the worldwide train-ing center for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Still, Grzeika said, all bases are vulnerable to BRAC closures.
In 1995, during the last BRAC round, Grzeika sat on a similar committee charged just with defending the Naval Surface Warfare Center.
Although officials ultimately decided to leave Dahlgren open in 1995, they did scrutinize it and close its sister location in White Oak, Md.
"What we learned is that nothing is untouchable," Grzeika said.
I don't think Quantico, Dahlgren or Ft AP Hill have anything to worry about...
...especially Quantico
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