The Associated Press August 27, 2005
North Carolina sails through base closings mostly unscathed
By Natalie Gott
RALEIGH - As others painfully watched a federal commission close military facilities in their states, costing some thousands of jobs, North Carolina's military community found itself relieved.
The wins were huge - gaining the Army's Forces and Reserve commands for Fort Bragg, as well as a new brigade for the base's 82nd Airborne Division.
And the losses weren't all that bad - the expected departure of some planes and airmen from Pope Air Force Base was tempered by the unexpected addition of a command unit.
While one defense analyst called the success fate and circumstance, others attributed it to the size of Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, the two largest military installations in the state, and the forces that are based there.
"I would say the highly mobile light force sort of stuff, forcible entry sort of stuff, that Fort Bragg specializes in, has been very much in call since the end of the Cold War. Every time you turn around, they are blowing stuff up," said defense analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. "The notion that the mission or the units are going to be less relevant, it's not going to happen."
This past week's votes of a nine-member base closing panel charged with reviewing a Pentagon plan to close and consolidate hundreds of domestic military bases came after months of lobbying by state and local officials, public hearings and intensive study.
President Bush can accept or reject the recommendations. Congress also can veto the commission's plans. If approved, they'll take effect over the next six years.
For many states, North Carolina included, the issue that drove the intense effort to lobby the base closing panel was jobs. In that context, the effect of the commission's recommendations on the state will be minimal.
The military employs more than 135,000 people in North Carolina, which has the fourth-largest military presence in the nation. The commission's final recommendations will probably end cost the state fewer than the 420 jobs expected to depart under the Pentagon's original proposal, officials said.
"When this is finalized, I think you are going to see over the next few years some real meaningful growth at these bases in North Carolina," said Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C.
Though exact figures weren't available, a state-by-state comparison likely will show North Carolina fared as well or better than any other state, said Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, who has headed up the state's efforts to protect its military facilities.
Those efforts were helped by what North Carolina can offer military planners. The cost of living and doing business is low, there is a skilled and educated work force and as a coastal state, North Carolina is in a favorable location, said defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank.
"Nobody is going to put a major deployment unit in Kansas these days because it's too hard to get to overseas," Thompson said. "Whereas in North Carolina, the bases are much more favorably located for airlift and sea lift to foreign locations."
Likewise, putting bases in Massachusetts, California or Florida raises problems, Thompson said. The congressional delegations are not as helpful, land and the price of doing business is higher and local regulations make it harder, he said. Plus, residential encroachment can be an issue, he said. The bases here, unlike those in some states, diligently maintain buffers around their borders.
Encroachment along the edges of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va., led the commission to take a hard look at shuttering the base. The commission kept the jet base open with the requirement that officials in Virginia take steps to stem the development near the base. If they fail, Oceana should lose its jets to Cecil Field in Florida, the panel recommended.
That decision could have a long-term impact on North Carolina. Without the jets, there won't be a need for a proposed landing field in the eastern part of the state for pilots from Oceana to practice aircraft carrier landings. And some of the jets at Oceana that might end up in Florida are slated right now to move to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock.
A decision about Oceana is months away.
For now, state leaders are content that the only major hit to North Carolina's bases - a decision to ship Pope Air Force Base's C-130E airplanes and A-10 attack jets to Arkansas and Georgia - was mitigated by the commission's decision to add an Air Force command unit to the base.
Pope will still become part of Fort Bragg, as recommended by the Pentagon, and the Air Force command unit will oversee the Army's airlift needs of paratroopers and equipment.
While some in Spring Lake, the small community of 8,500 just outside of Pope, lamented the loss, the town's volunteer historian, Howard Pate, took it in stride.
"There still will be planes and people over there," Pate said.
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Associated Press Writer Estes Thompson contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2005, The Associated Press
