Proposed Base Closure 2005

2 Sept 03 | Email

[D. Brian Carter]

EVERY medic in the US Army trains there... and that's where I'll be in January. I seriously doubt they will be closing this base, as I just saw that the Army division formerly based in Puerto Rico will now call Sam Houston home, as well. Maybe that's what is meant by "realignment".

And I hope this isn't true, because Belvoir is my first choice for assignment when I finish AIT next summer.

[donozark]

I jsut read Ft. Belvorus web page. IG, management school,etc. Guess it still remains open for time being.

I caught that about the unit from PR going to Ft. Sam. Was that a Div. or Brigade?

Oh, and good luck with your plans!

[sarasota]

There have been attempt to close Rock Island every couple of years for a decade now. I hope they don't do it.

What happens to the assets on these properties when they close?

[El Gato]

Me thinks the inclusion of Ft. Sam is in error. Medics/docs/nurses train there. Sen. Kay Hutchinson just announced a multi-million dollar upgrade to hospital facilities, base,etc.

The reason for the upgrade is the acquisition of a new mission, as the HQ U.S. Army South (USARSO), which moved from Puerto Rico.

[Myrddin]

Interesting to see MCAS Miramar on the list. When I moved to Mira Mesa in 1983, the base was NAS Miramar and home to the Top Gun school. I was present on the tarmac in 1969 when the first F-14 landed with the Secretary of the Navy in the RIO seat. I was a Boy Scout assigned to pass out programs at the first Miramar Air Show that year.

The locals have been bitching about the noisy helocopters since the Marines reclaimed the base in 2000. The 12000 foot runways have been eyed by the politicians as a replacement for the crappy airport in downtown San Diego. My old house in Mira Mesa was a mile north of the runway. If it becomes the regional airport, the traffic and noise will go way beyond the current unbearable levels. My new house is 912 miles north of the runway, so I won't notice :-)

I wonder of my son's assignment to the reserve unit at the east end of the airfield will be impacted by the closing. If so, he would probably have to drive to Pendleton for his reserve weekends.

[mbynack]

I would hope that this isn't a valid list. Nellis and Kirtland both have "one of a kind" facilities and airspace that would make them EXTREMELY expensive or impossible to duplicate.

Several of the other AF bases are used for the undergraduate pilot training programs. These programs were merged during the last BRAC and it would be very difficult to combine them with another base's flying mission. There already having problems with available airspace during the daylight hours. This problem would be pretty difficult to manage.

[MineralMan]

"Goodfellow AFB"

Good riddance to it, and bad cess to the city of San Angelo, where the city hates the military folks on the base, but loves the money. Tough nuts, San Angelo.

[mbynack]

With fewer bases we'll spend less money and need fewer troops for force-protection. That will leave the military with more money and troops for actual missions overseas.

The government never realized a lot of the savings from the first round of closures. Some of the bases that they expected to become regional airports are still vacant - George AFB in California and England AFB in LA are two that I can think of.

The closures left the military with critical shortages in the medical fields.

Placing all of a single mission at one base is poor stategy. Not only do you have to worry about man-made problems like an attack, you have to consider what would happen if the only logistics facility had a tornado, flood, or hurricane that shut it down.

Now that we're shutting down a lot of our overseas bases the military needs bases in the US to put the people. Cutting troop strengths is no longer a good option because the military mission continues to grow. The cutbacks in the late 80's and early 90's have left the military with too few people. Some stateside units spend at least six months a year overseas. They rotate to Bosnia for three months and then come home just long enough to fix the broken equipment before going to Saudi to provide air cover.

[D. Brian Carter]

Actually, Sam Houston is already the home of the 5th US Army, in addition to the command and training structures of other Army areas, mostly concerning medical personnel. The move from Puerto Rico is being made by the US Army South Command, adding 500+ personnel to the 100,000+ soldiers, family members and civilians housed at the base.

[Gritty]

It seems the Defense Department is the only government agency closing things down and cutting back on people, equipment and programs. It's also one of the few that actually does anything constructive for America.

Maybe HHS, Education, State, Commerce and all the rest of the parasites ought to follow suit? Who knows, if they did, we might someday get our budget back in the black and these crushing taxes and useless programs off our necks!

[El Gato]

KC-135's are history. Too much time on their airframes.

Not hardly, the airframes are good to at least 2040. Howver the engines on the -Es are about shot. -R's F-108 engines are still plenty good to go. Some or all -Es could be converted to Rs and even with the addition of some 767 tankers, which is still being fought by the DemoRats and some RINOs, we'd still be short of tankers. Lack of tankers slows deployments, and may impact in theater operations as well, although the actual ops get priority of course, supplying those needs may really impact things elsewhere.

[El Gato]

the E-6 from the Navy and the AWACS share the same platform.

While they are the same Airframe, they have different engines. The AWACS guys *wish* they had the engines that the E-6 has. Tinker is full to the gills, both the AWACS and the E-6s are new since I was stationed there (many, many moons ago) as you point out, they are tearing down commerical buildings and houses on the other side of I-40 from the base, (have torn down would be a better way to say it) to provide expanded space for the base. Yet someone wants to move the ANG C-130s from Will Rodgers to Tinker, I wonder where he thinks they'd put them, and their required facilities? A drive around Tinker at this time last year revealed very little space, especially space with access to the airfield.

[El Gato]

Beats relying on 45-year old planes that are modified 707s.

Actually they (-135s) are not modified 707s. They derive from the same Boeing prototype as the 707, but they have smaller diameter fuselodges and many other differences. Not nearly as much commonality as you might think. Boeing model number for the -135 seres was 717.

[Proud Legions]

Possible I suppose, but not sure it would be very logical. Gillem perhaps, but too much money has recently been poured into MacPherson, including the huge new Army Reserve HQ, as well as FORSCOM HQ and ARCENT HQ. Lots of HQ for a small inexpensive post.

Not that that has necessarily stopped us from closing a base in the past, just...

And I agree, closing bases and posts is not a bad thing, as long as they close the correct ones. (I know...which are the correct ones?)

[NerdDad]

This story was poo-poo-ed on local news last night here at the home of Columbus AFB MS. DOD officials flatly denied that the list was authentic.

I've no doubt that the list is probably a starting place as Columbus has been on the first list for the last several rounds.

However, Mississippi still has two very powerful Republican senators who have staked their political careers on keeping NAS Meridian and Columbus AFB open. I don't think either is ready for retirement yet and the closure of either or both of these bases would seal their fates.

[KillTime]

I would hope that this isn't a valid list. Nellis and Kirtland both have "one of a kind" facilities...

Isn't Nellis aka Groomlake aka Area-51 fame? They are giving up that great, huge dry lake bed landing area? That does seem odd. Says "realigned" so perhaps just combining with what's ever there now.

[Not A Snowbird]

I think inclusion of Miramar on the list is a political bone thrown to the politicians in San Diego. The Marines have nowhere else to go; Pendleton is not an option. My husband had the misfortune of working at Community Plans and Liaison at Miramar before he retired and he had to deal with this very issue constantly. The locals whine about the helicopters, but have they thought about the racket a commercial airport would make?

[Poohbah]

What do you know about the KC-135?

Rode a KC-135E down to the PI once.

Engines aren't supposed to wobble on their pylons, are they? :o)

[sauropod]

Hell, why don't they go ahead and close Quantico? /eyeroll.

[sauropod]

Goes along with them closing Detroit Arsenal.

Current SECDEF's orientation should have been a warning.