Base Closure Shuffle starts anew

Started by quiller, June 25, 2017, 07:37:16 AM

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quiller

It's been a few years since the politicians began their tribal posturing over how many excess military bases should be closed. The acronym to remember here is BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure)...and things aren't looking good for either the Army or the Air Force.

Stars & Stripes says....

QuoteThe Pentagon has been insistent that another round of BRAC is necessary, and says it will have more than 22 percent excess infrastructure by 2019. The Army carries the greatest excess overhead at 33 percent, and the Air Force has 32 percent, according to a recent Pentagon review. The Navy and Marine Corps overage is at 7 percent.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 13, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said a "properly focused base closure effort" could generate $2 billion or more annually – enough, over a five-year period, to buy 300 Apache attack helicopters, 120 F/A-18 Super Hornets or four Virginia-class submarines. 

The item also says...

Quote"It is understandable that discussions about closing military facilities can be controversial," said the letter, signed by 45 experts from think tanks including Cato Institute, Center for American Progress, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Center for a New American Security, Brookings Institution and Concerned Veterans for America.

"To be sure, the closing of a military base is disruptive to surrounding communities," it said. "Evidence shows, however, that most communities recover and some do quite rapidly."

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/policy-experts-urge-congress-to-back-new-round-of-base-realignments-and-closures-1.474376

My emphasis in red.

supsalemgr

What I find interesting about this scenario is how anti military democrats will cry like a stuck pig if a military facility is closed in their district or state. They are the same ones who hailed Obama's gutting of the military.
"If you can't run with the big dawgs, stay on the porch!"

Solar

I saw this some time ago and had to wonder, when was the last time a govt entity looked for a way to shrink its fingerprint?
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quiller

Quote from: Solar on June 25, 2017, 07:55:07 AM
I saw this some time ago and had to wonder, when was the last time a govt entity looked for a way to shrink its fingerprint?

Well, I'd have to dig up the final BRAC report for the 2005 rounds, but I'd suspect about 5% of all facilities considered excess were actually closed, thanks to the same leftist pols crying crocodile tears (as mentioned above).

One of my favorite personal anecdotes involves the base at Sanford, Florida (now the site of Sanford International, the hub for overseas flights into the Orlando area). In the late 1960s when I got there, it was a run-down World War II construction with zero modern amenities except for the runway and apron maintenance.

Then Turner Air Force Base shut down because the Chair Force decided it was substandard. The Sanford air base closed, relocating several thousand members of the air squadrons and their families. It was heaven on earth compared to what we'd had, so I for one have 100% total lack of sympathy for the Chair Force and their overage of facilities.

Solar

Quote from: quiller on June 25, 2017, 08:19:46 AM
Well, I'd have to dig up the final BRAC report for the 2005 rounds, but I'd suspect about 5% of all facilities considered excess were actually closed, thanks to the same leftist pols crying crocodile tears (as mentioned above).

One of my favorite personal anecdotes involves the base at Sanford, Florida (now the site of Sanford International, the hub for overseas flights into the Orlando area). In the late 1960s when I got there, it was a run-down World War II construction with zero modern amenities except for the runway and apron maintenance.

Then Turner Air Force Base shut down because the Chair Force decided it was substandard. The Sanford air base closed, relocating several thousand members of the air squadrons and their families. It was heaven on earth compared to what we'd had, so I for one have 100% total lack of sympathy for the Chair Force and their overage of facilities.
Same here in Ca. The left was screaming and crying about how biased the BRAC board was being to Ca, but at the same time, the Fuglosi group was setting up to make millions off Fort Ord in Monterey, McClellan, and Mather (SAC) in the Capitol.
I once read this is where Fuglosi got her first millions, then went on to destroy the sleepy community of Folsom Ca, home to the famed Folsom Prison.
Her greed never stopped and she continued to use the Speakers gavel to enrich herself as well as Harry Reid and other Commies in the Dim party.

Yes, I've been following Fuglosi since the 80s and her path of destruction. Hell, she was responsible for forcing a century old, family owned ranch I was running cattle on, to sell off pieces of the ranch, as in "Self Cannibalism" for survival.
The final piece, a 100 acre parcel which is all that was left of the ranch was finally sold off about 10 years ago, a ranch that was more than 20 times that in size just 10 years prior, with Fuglosi' prints all over it.
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