Archived material Access restricted Article
Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Sun 02/20/2005 View Sat 02/19/2005 View Fri 02/18/2005 View Thu 02/17/2005 View Wed 02/16/2005 View Tue 02/15/2005 View Mon 02/14/2005
1
2005-02-20 Home Front: WoT
More Military Bases in the U.S. to Be Closed
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
Posted by Andrea Biology Jackson 2005-02-20 2:00:20 PM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 I have to disagree strongly to that sentiment. A good number of the existing bases are simply placeholders in congresscritters' districts : make-work pseudo-welfare establishments with skeleton maintenance staffs and infrastructure worthy only of bulldozing. The larger bases in this country can handle the training of the needed troops for the WOT, the placeholder bases need to be shutdown - since a number of them are now in suburban zones and cannot be used for livefire training due to political/legal constraints.
Posted by Shieldwolf 2005-02-20 3:54:35 PM||   2005-02-20 3:54:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 What Shieldwolf said.
Posted by Barbara Skolaut  2005-02-20 4:12:08 PM||   2005-02-20 4:12:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Agree. BRAC is painful but necessary to control wasteful spending. It is also a good way for the Generals and Admirals to even things up with congresscritters who have screwed them in the past. That's why Pelosi, Lee, Woolsey et al no longer have any military bases in the SF Bay Area, except Onizuka AFB and the two ships left in reserve at Mare Island. All that should be moved too. Tell Lockheed to move it all out and put the offices on the market. Sobrato and Ariellaga can afford it.
Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-02-20 4:24:19 PM||   2005-02-20 4:24:19 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Provided they continue to roll out aircrat carriers, the "static" bases become obsolete anyway. I say go for it and sell off alot of the land, plus there's immense savings vs. having to man all those bases.

This is not, by the way, the same thing as Clinton and his wholesale dismantling of the military budgets and base closures. The Pentagon is finding more efficent ways to spend the existing funds, NOT cutting down our military strength.
Posted by Chris W.  2005-02-20 4:52:28 PM||   2005-02-20 4:52:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Live from my news desk in Vermont # 2 Barbara Skolaut and et al you are correct about "static"
bases, putting the tax doller to bettter usage.
However, Do they ever "weed" out position's in Congress and the other offices where these decision's are made?? I can see a Pearl Harbor situation happening. And YES, we will get hit again by terrorist- and I HOPE THE U.S. is fully
prepared with ample military.

Andrea Jackson
Posted by Andrea Jackson  2005-02-20 5:41:16 PM||   2005-02-20 5:41:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 The assumption is we know what we will need. BRAC is all good and fine till you discover the assumptions they base their actions upon don't hold up over time for all the grounds they close. Its easier to keep some installations open for future expansion than it is to fill all the &&^^^%*&## forms and reports and surveys to open a new facility later on. If you need to park materials enroute to a deployment site, either air or sea, a military compound near the deployment site may not be huge, but it'll get around all the local, state, and federal BS when it comes time to store stuff, the type the government neither confirms or denies, a night or two.
Posted by Grort Shotle5111 2005-02-20 7:31:19 PM||   2005-02-20 7:31:19 PM|| Front Page Top

00:05 Jame Retief
23:57 BigEd
23:55 BigEd
23:54 .com
23:52 Phil Fraering
23:48 BigEd
23:46 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)
23:46 Jame Retief
23:44 gromky
23:17 gromky
23:07 John in Tokyo
23:06 .com
23:05 BigEd
23:03 Mrs. Davis
23:03 .com
22:56 BH
22:53 Anonymoose
22:38 Fred
22:38 Chase Unineger3873 aka Jarhead
22:36 Chase Unineger3873 aka Jarhead
22:33 Chase Unineger3873 aka Jarhead
22:32 Zhang Fei
22:29 Zhang Fei
22:26 JP









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com