European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 30, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Racing unto full tone Bojoh Barbour associated press in its nearly 200 years of existence tidy lil Lefor Mcnair in the District of Columbia faced the British in 1812, hanged the Lincoln conspirator Saller the civil War was Home to Walter Reed yellow Lover research and today Housos the National War College and company a of the old guard 3rd in Rogl. Co a can Holfort in double time to Capitol Hill in less than 20 it nulls should any threat to the while House of Congress arise Bui is the Lort protecting Congress or vice versa Congress for the past decade has stifled any move to shut Down military installations and has consistently shul led in drag slip in most Alle pts to Cut Back funds. Bui now facing the huge Federal deficit Congress is creeping in whore in had feared to trend having first cleared the political land mines from the terrain no longer will an individual member of Congress have to face the Wrath of his constituency Over a particular base abandonment a special bipartisan commission is a work culling through the some 3,800 military Stalions in the United slates some barely an acre and some staffed part Lime to see which can be consolidated with others and which can to shul Down altogether. Lato year the commission will Issue a list. Under a formula enacted oct. 12, Congress will face the proposed closings As a package. The president or Congress will have to kill the whole Lisl in order to save one sacred cow ii is almost a Gramm Rudman act of military bases. At looked for a Whilo that the Congress might lend off the Eliot Al the last moment even while inc commission was hard at work. Wilh Iho commission live months into ils Lask. A Senlac House conference committee almost shut the door in ils lace a last mule Compromise saved whal most agreed was a Good idea president Reagan signed a Bill ocl. 24 authorizing Iho defense department to close unneeded military bases to achieve a savings of up to $5 billion a year. Neither for i Mcnair. Nor any of the others that link arms around Iho capital Are on the endangered list. Besides the War College in also houses the inter american defense College and the Industrial College of the armed forces and in the jul Rex olders quarters where the old prison and the Gallows and the grave of Assassin John Wilkos Booth were. Hoy say that Iho ghost of Lincoln cons Piralli Mary Surratt still walks Iho grounds when night Falls Over Turkey Buzzard Point. Ii is not history that has protected obsolete or under used bases Mound the country. It is the dollars and cents spent by the military on civilian labor and in local stores. Their projected loss evokes a Crescendo of political howls. Defense Secretary Frank c. Carlucci has Estima Lod that gelling rid of unneeded bases could save As much As $5 billion in an already stressed defense budget and the Pentagon has gone logical lengths to cite previously closed Boses that have found a new Hie Alt Rich military. In act Here Are proposals to use Iho military acreage and buildings Lor everything from Pursons to Sholtis Lor the homeless. When Tho Dolensek Secretary s commission on base re alignment and Clossum finishes by the end of the year the nation Wil have embarked on the first Moss closing of major bases since 1977. In the 10 years before that the Pentagon claims in saved $5.6 billion by closing 1.800 military stations. The current Effort is less ambitious but it could yield a permanent office within Tho defense department to review the Stalus of bases around the country it is 3 complicated Job. Says Hayden g. Bryan executive director of the commission. Beyond the political touch iness of the Issue. The Dii lense department must have room to bring Home units that May eventually be recalled from overseas. Now Carlucci is reported to have worked on a list of up to 25 installations that could be parted with. On the Day Carlucci was sworn in As defense Secretary last november the Pentagon told the army Navy and air Force to trim 110 billion each from their 1989 budget requests. Base closings could be part of those cuts consider some Agures to sea How much is at slake. The armed forces pay incur civilian workers some $26.3 billion a year in the United states. They pay their uniformed people an additional $34 billion. Those funds Are cherished from the san Diego naval training station to Maine s Loring fab which the air Force proposed closing in 1975. That move was stymied by legislators who demanded Long and costly environment Impact statements on what Lile would be like without Loring. Loring May Well be on the endangered list. Ii was Buill to Cul the bomber run to Moscow and remains Long Aller missiles took Over its Mission also on the endangered list May to fort Douglas Ulah. Established to watch Over stagecoaches and mormons when the indians Rode in 1he West. Just maintaining the military infrastructure is costly. The Pentagon Bills Congress separately Lor these items. In 1988, flashed for about $9 billion in construe lion and another $5 billion or so for maintenance. That is More than 5 percent of the us. Construction Market. Wring in the Prado journal cons Roclor Pentagon analyst r. E. Milnes says that the 19b9 request contains More than 1.000 construction projects at some 600 installations ranging from Barracks and dining Halls to schools and he says the value of the physical plan of Iho defense installation is Worth some $450 billion and much of it built in response to world War ii and the korean War is decrepit. Coupled with this age problem is the Lack Hal the i in top in the District of Columbia is not on the endangered list of unset under i. San Diego woul Tettke to use More mar has runways Lor commercial aviation. Page 14 the stars and stripes sunday. Of
