Military Budget Includes Pools and Hobby Shops, Group Says

The Pentagon’s proposed fiscal 1986 construction budget is filled with plans for “gold-plating” military bases with auto hobby shops, swimming pools and religious education facilities, a private research group says.

“The military construction budget, at $6.6 billion, seldom receives the sort of public scrutiny that the much larger (weapons) procurement budget gets,” said retired Rear Adm. Eugene J. Carroll Jr., deputy director of the Center for Defense Information.

“But careful analysis of the construction budget reveals the same ‘gold-plating’ of military bases that drives the costs for new weapons to record amounts.

“Almost 6%, or $392.8 million, of the 1986 military construction budget will go for such non-essential facilities as auto hobby shops, band rooms and libraries.”

The Center for Defense Information is a nonprofit research institute based in Washington that specializes in the study of defense issues. Several retired military officers are on its board of directors.

The center’s latest study focuses primarily on construction proposals overseas. For U.S. bases in Europe, the group says it found plans for a $340,000 auto hobby shop, a $1.2-million religious education facility, $300,000 for an arts-and-crafts shop and $14.3 million for new recreation centers and gymnasiums. The report did not identify the bases.

The budget also includes requests to spend $226.6 million at 12 military bases recently included on a list of possible candidates for closure released by Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.).

The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment on the center’s study.