Originally published September 14 2005
Commission reviews plans to close military bases
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Over the next few years, the U.S. government will be consolidating bases around the world to save $48 billion dollars.
Siding with the Pentagon, the base-closing commission voted Thursday to shut down the Army's historic Walter Reed hospital and move about 20,000 defense workers miles away from their offices just outside the nation's capital.
Overall, the commission endorsed much of Rumsfeld's broader plan to streamline support services across the Army, Navy and Air Force.
In many cases, it voted to merge programs scattered around military facilities across the country to centralized locations.
The Air Force wants to vastly reconfigure the Air National Guard, a move that states fiercely oppose.
It also wants to close Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico.
Late Thursday, the commission decided to approve its own proposal to close the Galena Airport Forward Operation Location in Alaska, which the Air Force uses for training and to land fighter jets when necessary.
The commercial airport there would continue operating.
The panel also chose to keep Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska operational, rejecting a Pentagon plan to sharply scale back personnel and aircraft there.
As the commission tackled proposals that affected all the service branches, members focused on recommendations that sometimes were complex and interconnected.
The politicians milled around the Arlington, Va., hotel ballroom where the hearings were held near the Pentagon, serving as constant reminders of their efforts to spare the bases that provide thousands of jobs in each state.
In May, the Pentagon proposed closing or consolidating a record 62 major military bases and 775 smaller installations to save $48.8 billion over 20 years, streamline the services and reposition the armed forces.
The Air National Guard plan would shift people, equipment and aircraft around at 54 or more sites where Guard units are stationed.
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