State Would Lose One Major Base Under Proposal

Of the 30 major military bases in California, only one is on the list of bases that the Pentagon wants to close, the little-known Naval Surface Warfare Center in Corona, where civilians analyze modern weapons systems and other technology for all military branches.

Even though the center’s closure has been proposed, its 892 engineers, scientists and other technical employees would be offered transfers to the Ventura County Naval Base.

The list unveiled Friday is a turnaround from four previous cutbacks, when California suffered more base closures and job losses than any other state, punching the state’s economy in the gut.

“Looking back at prior base closure rounds, California dodged a bullet,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

High-profile California bases that local officials feared were vulnerable -- the Los Angeles Air Force Base, the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and major Marine Corps and Navy bases in San Diego -- were spared. But closure of 10 smaller facilities was proposed.

Under the proposal, the Naval Base Ventura County would lose hundreds of jobs to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, about 180 miles away, but gain hundreds from the transfer of workers from the Corona facility.

In San Diego, a school at the Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park that trains enlisted sailors to become corpsmen -- the medics who follow Marines and sailors into battle -- would be transferred to Ft. Sam Houston, an Army base in Texas.

Once all the transfers and closures were accomplished, California, which has nearly 200,000 military and civilian defense jobs, would lose 2,018 of them under the plan unveiled by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld amid angst in military communities throughout the nation. In cuts from 1988 to 1995, California had 29 bases closed and lost 93,000 jobs.

On the list this time are the armed service reserve center in Bell; finance and accounting offices in Oakland, San Bernardino, San Diego and Seaside; Navy-Marine reserve centers in Encino and L.A.; the Onizuka Air Force Station in Santa Clara County; and the Riverbank Army ammunition plant in Modesto.

Military facilities in Concord, Modesto and Santa Clara County are included on the government’s list of 33 so-called major bases slated for closure. However, the California Council on Base Support and Retention considers only the Corona base a major facility -- thus the announcement that the state faces only one major closure.

Concord, east of San Francisco, was the only California community that had asked the Pentagon to close its base -- the Concord Naval Weapons Station on Suisun Bay -- so that the property could be used for residential and commercial development and a greenbelt. Officials got half their wish when the inland portion of the station was put on the closure list.

Jobs will be lost at March Air Base in Riverside, the Marine maintenance facility in Barstow, a weapons station in Fallbrook and Beale Air Force Base in Yuba City, all of which are being downsized.

The Los Angeles Air Force Base, the Monterey facility and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego had been considered candidates for closure as Rumsfeld seeks to transform the military.

“None of the big axes we’ve discussed have fallen,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said she would fight in Congress to keep as many of the 2,018 jobs as possible. “Every job loss represents a family’s income,” she said.

Boosters of the Los Angeles Air Force Base were exultant that the campaign to save the base appeared to be successful.

“This is a significant development for national security and great news for California’s economic health and well-being,” said Redondo Beach Councilman John Parsons.

“Nobody got much sleep last night,” said Mayor Kelly McDowell of El Segundo, where the base is located.

The base, employing engineers and specialists involved in the design and purchase of satellites, launch vehicles and ground stations, has about 4,500 civilian and military workers and pumps $8 billion a year into the regional economy.

The biggest job gains among California bases will be at the 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego, with 1,170 new jobs, and the Naval Air Weapons China Lake, with 2,469 jobs.

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara), who represents the Ventura County Naval Base, called for the Base Realignment and Closure Commission to reject the Pentagon’s proposal as it prepares its own list for President Bush. Once the Corona employees are added and Ventura County employees are sent to China Lake, the base is expected to lose 1,534 positions.

The shifting of jobs away from Port Hueneme and Point Mugu, Capps said, will mean “serious disruptions to the lives of the military and civilian personnel on the base and their families.”

March Air Base in Riverside will lose about 70 military personnel and 40 civilian workers as five refueling planes are redeployed out of state. But officials had feared an even greater setback for the base, which employs more than 9,000 people.

“This is like hitting a home run, a hole-in-one, winning the Super Bowl,” said retired Air Force Col. Phil Rizzo, the base commander until 1992.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November formed the California Council on Base Support and Retention, whose co-chairman was longtime Washington insider Leon Panetta, a former member of Congress and former White House chief of staff.

Schwarzenegger, at a news conference Friday, praised the council for educating the Pentagon about the California bases. But Feinstein suggested that lobbying by the state and various military communities probably had little effect on the list.

“I think the weighing in of people on Los Angeles Air Force Base might have helped, but my sense is that [the Department of] Defense is going to do what Defense is going to do,” she said.

California has 30 major bases and dozens of smaller installations, more than any other state in the nation, spread from the Sierra Army Depot in Lassen County to the massive Navy and Marine Corps installations in San Diego.

For months, civic officials, politicians and lobbyists have prowled the corridors of Washington to plead the case for California’s bases. Although the Pentagon’s list is meant to be only the beginning of the process, history has shown that 85% of bases targeted by the Pentagon will end up closed.

Concord officials were delighted that the 5,170-acre inland portion of the base there, unused since 1999, is on the closure list. The 7,630-acre tidal area, where ships are loaded with ammunition, is to remain open.

“Everybody is just joyful and ecstatic,” said James Forsberg, the city’s director of planning and economic development.

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Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Catherine Saillant, Veronica Torrejon, John Hendren and Susannah Rosenblatt.