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The military base-closing process scheduled for 2005 is already starting to heat up. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that the Pentagon had plans to close more than 100 installations, including one-fourth of all Army bases and a third of Air Force facilities. The Pentagon says no decisions have been made and denied the numbers reported by the newspaper.

There's no question, however, that the Defense Department is considering closing a long list of bases in 2005. In the current issue of Government Executive, George Cahlink reports that the Pentagon's point man on the base-closing process, Raymond DuBois, says the upcoming base closures will be far different and more aggressive than those in the late 1980s and 1990s, which resulted in 97 bases being shuttered.

To read the full story on the potential winners and losers, click here.

COMMENTS

• This article only fuels the fires of those who think that a "list" already exists for the 2005 Base Closings. There is no list, and the inclusion or exclusion of construction projects on bases will not be the determining factor in selecting candidates for closure and/or realignment. Too much local emotion is generated, and too much money is wasted by those communities, in trying to influence the process when the Base Closure Commission has not even been selected yet, and the DOD position on its basing needs for the future is in such flux. At the National Infrastructure Institute we have proposed a "BRAC-like" process to look not just at DOD but at all federal facilities. This would address the SECDEF's interest in joint use, and would respond to GAO reports on the resources wasted by many agencies for keeping unwanted facilities. Until such a plan is started, the services and their local communities will continue to go through this agonizing trauma periodically. Meanwhile the best thing an individual base might do would be to better utilize its facilities, including offering to give space to other agencies so that expensive leases can be terminated. Cary Jones Posted December 18, 2003 12:09 PM