Knoxville News Sentinel August 15, 2005
Guard may see sweeping changes
Plan would realign, expand or close military facilities in Tennessee
By Bryan Mitchell
OAK RIDGE - The United States military is changing. And the Tennessee National Guard is changing with it.
News of the Pentagon's base realignment and closure plan, known as BRAC, has garnered national headlines for months. It's now capturing people's attention in Tennessee, with both armory closures and base expansions.
In an effort to tighten its fiscal belt and reorganize the military for intrabranch collaboration, the Pentagon has released a plan for base closures and realignments from New England to California.
If enacted, the BRAC proposals would dramatically transform the face of the military.
For instance, the closing of the Naval Submarine Base in New London, Conn., would mean the United States would have no significant military presence in New England for the first time in the nation's history.
Across the Volunteer State, the BRAC proposals translate into a series of proposed realignments, closures and expansions. The changes are considered to be the most sweeping for the Tennessee National Guard since World War II.
The McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base is getting ready to grow.
Five Army National Guard armories, however, will close, including the 278th Regimental Combat Team Chemical Company facility in Oak Ridge. The 73 soldiers who train out of the Oak Ridge Turnpike armory will be consolidated into the Clinton Armory of the 278th.
Wally Pressley, a former member of the Oak Ridge unit who served for more than 20 years in the Army and Tennessee National Guard, is tending to the facility while the soldiers serve in Iraq.
Pressley said the five-building, 8.5-acre facility will be turned over to a local municipality, either Oak Ridge or Anderson County. The building is still in decent shape, but it requires $300,000 in renovations to bring it up to military specifications, Pressley said.
"The Clinton facility is just much more modern," he said.
Closing 'community centers' Military expert John Pike, who runs the Virginia-based military research Web site globalsecurity.org, said the armory closures have not received as much attention as have the larger base closures.
"Most news organizations don't understand the role these armories play in smaller communities," Pike said. "They are community centers."
Pressley said several Anderson County groups use the armory monthly for meetings. Statewide, Tennessee National Guard armories have hosted everything from rock concerts to kennel club meetings.
Armories in Harriman, Newbern, South Pittsburg and Martin also will be closed and their soldiers transferred to nearby armories.
Other changes include the Chattanooga-based 196th Field Artillery Brigade transforming into a support unit, while the 30th Troop Command will be moved from Smyrna to Tullahoma.
Nationwide, there are 211 National Guard armories slated for closure, according to the National Guard Bureau.
Reactions are mixed among those affected.
Military leaders adding positions see opportunity.
Those in the path of the ax fear the worst.
Base advocates ranging from National Guard generals to Chamber of Commerce presidents from across the country have lobbied Congress against base closures in their states.
Tennessee's top Guard officer, Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett, has pressed hard for the BRAC commission to rethink its decision to downsize the Nashville-based Tennessee Air National Guard 118th Airlift Wing, which is slated to lose its aircraft and two-thirds of its personnel.
"We realize it's an uphill battle," said Tennessee National Guard spokesman Randy Harris.
Changes coming at McGhee Tyson base
While Hargett struggles to keep the Nashville Airlift Wing funded, Col. Tim Dearing is drawing up plans to expand East Tennessee's largest military installation, the McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base.
The BRAC proposal calls for the home to the 134th Air Refueling Wing to add 248 positions.
That translates into upping the number of KC-135 Air Refueling jets from the current nine to 12 and adding a commensurate number of air crew personnel, firefighters and maintenance crews.
Dearing also is working on plans to reshape the configuration of the base to include the adjacent 1/230th Air Cavalry Squadron, an Army National Guard helicopter squadron stationed out of a readiness center between the airbase and the air cargo facility of McGhee Tyson Airport.
The colonel said expanding the fenced perimeter around the helicopter squadron would enhance security and make the base a more desirable location for future additions.
"The Army Guard is looking to add more military police units, so I said that I would be happy to house them," Dearing said Thursday from his office.
Dearing said the base now contributes roughly $1.5 million per week to the local economy and that future expansions can only mean a greater impact.
"I am really excited because we have a lot of great expansion plans," Dearing said as he looked over an aerial view map of the base.
Adding more MP and other critical support units is part of a larger process of rethinking, and also reshaping, how the National Guard will contribute to the larger global struggle the military is engaged in.
"Given the Iraq experience, they are going to fundamentally rethink the Guard," Pike said. "And they have used the BRAC process in unexpected ways to reshape the force."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2005, Knoxville News Sentinel
