Carlucci Supports Military Base Closings, Officials Say

Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci has endorsed the shutdown of 86 military bases and the partial closure of five others, Pentagon officials said Wednesday as they praised their record of helping hard-hit workers and communities recover from such action.

Carlucci’s approval of a special commission’s recommendation Dec. 29 is to be announced at a news conference today. Congress is expected to ratify the decision, which includes the closure of six military installations in California--among them the Army’s historic Presidio in San Francisco and three major Air Force bases.

Meanwhile, at a briefing on Capitol Hill, Pentagon officials said that 25,000 jobs are “potentially affected” by the plan. However, 16,000 workers will be reassigned near their present posts, leaving a net loss of 9,000 jobs.

‘Willingness to Relocate’

Officials said that the 9,000 workers will have first shot at more than 80,000 Defense Department vacancies. All they need are the right skills and “a willingness to relocate throughout the country,” according to personnel official Frank P. Cipolla.

Based on past experience, Cipolla forecast that distant defense slots will be found for 60% of the 9,000 workers who face job elimination. An additional 20% will retire and 20% will find other government jobs or look for private employment, he estimated.

Cipolla said that more than 90,000 defense employees hit by reduction programs had been placed since 1965 in what he called the most effective such program in the government.

At the briefing for congressional staff members, officials passed out materials on everything from severance pay to subsidies for relocating workers who fail to sell their homes for at least 95% of market value.

Net Job Gains

Defense official John E. Lynch said that government assistance programs, which involve mostly planning and guidance, had helped 95 out of 100 communities make net job gains following base closings over a 25-year period.

“They have replaced 94,000 jobs with 138,000 jobs on former bases,” he noted.

Lynch urged local officials to organize efforts to turn targeted bases into schools, industrial parks, airports and other “reuses.”

“Historically, communities have taken on the responsibility of reusing a military base,” he said.

A bipartisan commission said that the base closures would save $700 million a year.

Along with the Presidio, Norton Air Force Base near San Bernardino, George Air Force Base near Victorville and Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento were included in the proposed shutdowns in California.

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 proposal would affect 6,653 military and civilian workers at Norton and 5,358 at George. But March Air Force Base, 9 miles southeast of Riverside, would pick up an additional 3,420 military and civilian employees from proposed consolidations, many of them from Norton.

The San Diego Naval Base also would pick up jobs under the plan--about 1,500.