Panel Proposes Closing 86 Bases : Presidio Among 6 in California on Target List

Closure of six military installations in California--among them the Army’s historic Presidio in San Francisco and three major Air Force bases--would cost the state more than 17,000 military and civilian jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in wages, Department of Defense figures show.

Just what would be done with most of the thousands of acres of property vacated by the military has not been worked out, but, in the case of the Presidio, all but 36.5 acres of its highly marketable 1,268 acres overlooking the Golden Gate would be turned over to the National Park Service.

Expect Ripple Effect

Officials said that the overall economic impact of the closures would reach well beyond the figures for lost wages to include a ripple effect on retailers, contractors and other private businesses that rely heavily on the bases and their personnel. The state Department of Finance said that it is still too early to estimate such losses.

Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton) said Thursday that he is mobilizing the California congressional delegation to oppose what he called “a rather heavy hit” by the President’s Commission on Base Realignment and Closure.

Along with the Presidio, Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, George Air Force Base near Victorville and Norton Air Force Base near San Bernardino were included in the commission’s proposals Thursday to shut down 86 military installations across the nation.

The much smaller Hamilton Army Airfield in Marin County and the Navy’s inactive Salton Sea Test Base also would be closed, and plans to construct a naval station at Hunters Point in San Francisco would be scrapped.

The Defense Department estimated that 24,555 military and civilian jobs would be lost at the bases to be closed in California, with 7,102 jobs, most of them from the shuttered California installations, transferred to other bases in the state. The big gainers would be March Air Force Base near Riverside, which stands to pick up about 3,400 jobs, and the San Diego Naval Base, which would add about 1,500 jobs.

In recommendations that go beyond the narrow issues of base closure and realignment, the commission cited the need to make better use of military training grounds by expanding existing training areas.

The panel suggested linking several of Southern California’s training bases in the desert east of Los Angeles--among them the Army’s Ft. Irwin and the Marine Corps’ base at Twentynine Palms--with Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The commission said that “several hundred thousand acres of leased land in Death Valley” could be added to effect the link.

The secretary of defense should consider using any leftover funds in the base-closure account “to lease or acquire land to facilitate the creation of an expanded range complex,” the commission said.

Despite the prospect of gaining a park that would be larger in size than the existing Golden Gate Park, San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos denounced the proposal to shutter the 212-year-old Presidio, the oldest continuously active military post in the United States.

Eileen Maloney, a spokeswoman for Agnos, said that the inclusion of the Presidio among the military installations proposed for closure came as a surprise.

“This decision,” Agnos declared, “has grave consequences for the city of San Francisco that we have to sort out very quickly to resist the closing of the Presidio.”

The Presidio is the third largest employer in San Francisco, with about 6,000 employees, including 3,700 civilians who work in facilities like the Army’s Letterman Medical Center. The annual payroll there is estimated at $150 million.

In all, the Presidio includes 1,400 acres at the main base, plus another 546 acres at Fts. Cronkite and Baker, which sit at the entrance to San Francisco Bay.

The base is used primarily as headquarters for the 6th Army. Said to be among the cushiest and most prestigious duty posts offered by the Army, it is listed on the national register of historic places and has 400 structures that are listed on the registry of historic buildings.

An agreement hammered out with local officials stipulates that, if the Army ever abandons the base, all but 36.5 acres is to be transferred to the Interior Department for use as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The 36.5-acre parcel--once used by the Public Health Service--can be leased to the city or sold.

Officials said that if the Presidio is closed, command of the 6th Army probably would shift to Ft. Carson, Colo.

Thursday’s commission report suggests that the battleship Missouri be based in Long Beach or Pearl Harbor, and not at San Francisco’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, as the Navy had hoped. The Navy had planned to build a station at Hunters Point for the Missouri and other ships. Among the jobs counted as lost in California, the Defense Department listed 4,200 planned for the station.

Several officials, including Agnos, opposed the Navy’s plan to base the Missouri at Hunters Point, although San Franciscans voted last month to base the ship there, at what was the world’s largest shipyard during World War II.

In San Bernardino, Mayor Evlyn Wilcox said that the proposed closure of two bases in San Bernardino County--George, near Victorville, and Norton near the city of San Bernardino--made it seem that the county was being “picked on.”

Also Training Center

George, which employs about 5,500 military personnel and 516 civilians, with an annual payroll of about $197 million, is home to the 831st Tactical Air Division, which includes two wings of F-4 jet fighters. The 5,300-acre base also serves as a training center for West German Air Force crews.

The base is the largest employer in the Victor Valley, and its closure would have a major economic impact on the area.

Rick Ornelas, 44, an aircraft mechanic at George Air Force Base for 10 years, is one of the 516 civilians in the high desert who may be out of a job if the base closes.

“I talked to my wife about this last night, and she’s a little scared--we’ve got to eat,” said Ornelas, who supports a family of four.

About 6,600 jobs would be lost with the closure of the main air cargo base at Norton, but another 1,300 or so would stay on at the adjacent Air Force Ballistic Missile Base, which would not be affected by the cutbacks.

Col. Brooke P. Bailey, commander of Norton’s 63rd Military Airlift Wing, said at a press conference that “the vast majority” of those losing their jobs would get new ones at other bases, in many cases at nearby March Air Force Base in Riverside.

Bailey said that there are a number of possible uses for Norton’s 2,400-acres, its airstrip and complex of buildings, but he added that “if state or other agencies have a need for this land, they will get first crack at it.”

Wilcox said that closing Norton, which has an annual payroll of $248 million, would have a major impact on her city. She said that she would seek government funding to “ease the pain.”

James Kennar, owner of an auto detailing shop about a mile from the main gate at Norton, said that he figures to lose about 30% of his business if the base closes. In addition, he said, he would lose a major share of his work force--three of his seven employees are moonlighting Air Force personnel.

Sacramento-area officials, who two years ago headed off an earlier attempt to shut down Mather Air Force Base, appeared resigned Thursday to the proposed closure and minimized its impact on the local economy.

The base, 10 miles east of the city, stands to lose about 2,000 military personnel and 1,000 civilians. The 5,845-acre installation is home to the Strategic Air Command’s 320th Bombardment Wing and the Air Force’s flight navigation training school. The base’s annual payroll is said to be about $242.3 million. “Twenty years ago the impact (of closure) would have been devastating,” said Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento). “Ten years ago it would have been very significant.”

He said that now, with the capital’s fast-growing population and diversified economy, phasing out of the base is “obviously something we can weather and handle.”

In 1987, Matsui and Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento), were able to block Mather’s closure, but winning the necessary two-thirds congressional support to do so again would be “very, very difficult,” Matsui said.

“I’m obviously not pleased,” he said. “But sometimes we have to act in the national interest rather than in the local, more parochial perspective.”

Sacramento Mayor Anne Rudin said that she is ready to begin discussions of the best use for the acreage, which lies outside the city limits. In the past, she has talked about using the land to replace Sacramento’s Executive Airport, a small facility for private planes now hemmed in by suburban development.

The proposal to close the 111-acre Hamilton Army Airfield in Marin County caused hardly a ripple; in fact, few people outside of the county had ever heard of it. Hamilton, home to a detachment of about 29 Army aviators, is used primarily for training.

The inclusion of the Navy’s Salton Sea Test Base was even less startling. Navy officials, hard pressed to come up with any hard information about the facility in Imperial County, said that it apparently was put on inactive status in 1978 and has not been used since.

No one remembered specifically what had taken place at the facility but one official had a vague recollection that the base on the shores of the Salton Sea was probably used by several branches of the armed forces as part of a parachute test facility at some time in the past.

Eric Malnic reported from Los Angeles and Amy Stevens from San Francisco. Staff writers Louis Sahagun in San Bernardino, Dan Morain in San Francisco, Carl Ingram and Paul Jacobs in Sacramento, Jane Fritsch in San Diego and researcher Tracy Thomas in Los Angeles also contributed to this story.

CALIFORNIA MILITARY BASE CLOSURES 1. George Air Force Base

5,527 military, 516 civilian personnel;

Major command: The 831st Air Division, Tactical Air Command; other major units include the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing and the 35th Tactical Training Wing. Serves as training center for West German Air Force air crews under the U.S. Security Assistance Program.

2. Mather Air Force Base

2,000 military, 1,000 civilian personnel;

Major command: The 323rd Flying Training Wing, Air Training Command; other major units include the 320th Bombardment Wing and the 940th Air Refueling Group. Trains personnel to operate navigation, bombing, missile and electronic warfare systems for the Department of Defense and 90 other countries.

3. Norton Air Force Base

4,500 military, 2,133 civilian personnel;

Major command: The 63rd Military Airlift Wing, Military Airlift Command; other units include the 445th Military Airlift Wing, the Air Force Inspection and Safety Center, the Ballistic Missile Office and the USAF Audit Agency. Maintains an immediate airlift capability to deliver air and ground forces anywhere in the world.

4. The Presidio

2,300 military, 3,700 civilian personnel;

Major command: Headquarters of the 6th Army. Manages Army reserve and National Guard training in 12 Western states. Also houses 25 other military operations including the Letterman Army Institute of Research and the Letterman Army Medical Center. Historic and scenic site on 1,400 acres has been in continuous operation as a military outpost since Spanish conquistadores established it in 1776.

5. Hamilton Army Airfield

26 military, 3 civilian personnel;

Serves as an airfield for the Presidio and a training center for reserve aviation and medical units.

6. Salton Sea Test Base

An inactive Naval facility closed since 1978.