Pentagon officials defend base closure recommendations

Defense Department officials defended Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's base closing decisions on the day before the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure and Commission votes on whether other bases should be added.

BRAC panelists questioned Pentagon officials during a public hearing called to examine why bases such as Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard were left off the list and why the Portsmouth Naval Yard in Maine was selected for closure and Maine's Brunswick (Maine) Naval Air Station was chosen for realignment.

The commission is looking at adding the Pearl Harbor site to the list of bases slated to close, despite the military's position that the 97-year-old base's location in the Pacific Ocean is strategically important. The Portsmouth shipyard is more efficient on the Pentagon's military value scale, critics argue, while Pearl Harbor has struggled to meet ship repair schedule and cost goals.

The decision to shut Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota so that a fleet of bombers could be consolidated at one base was questioned by a commission member who asked what would happen if a major catastrophe took out the base. The base's B-1B bombers--which make up half of the armed forces' fleet of that type of airplane--are slated to relocate to Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.

Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Michael Moseley defended North Dakota's Grand Forks Air Force Base as the best place to station unmanned aerial vehicles, and said that the military is finding an increasing need for the remote controlled aircraft.

Michael Wynne, acting Defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, told the 9-member BRAC panel that the Pentagon believes its recommendations were well thought out, but would support the commission's analysis of alternative closures and realignments.

Defense officials repeatedly expressed regret at the turmoil the BRAC process has caused communities slated for base closure or realignment, but defended the moves as necessary for a more efficient military force.

For a base to be added to the list by the BRAC commission, seven of the nine commissioners must vote for the move, followed by a site visit and a public hearing.

The commission must forward a report on the recommendations to President Bush by Sept. 8, who has until Sept. 23 to accept or reject the recommendations. Congress then has 45 legislative days to reject the recommendations, or else they become final.

Comptroller David M. Walker told lawmakers that the Pentagon must continue to reduce "excess infrastructure" to generate savings.

"DoD's infrastructure costs continue to consume a larger-than-necessary portion of the DoD budget, and as a result, DoD has not been able to devote funds to more critical needs," Walker testified.

The Pentagon's management of its infrastructure has been on the Government Accountability Office's list of programs vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse since 1997.