Hit List of Bases Sparks Fear, Outrage

If the Defense Department shuts down the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, the closure would not only eliminate the city’s second-largest employer but also would tarnish the image of one of the nation’s premier Navy towns, officials and workers said Friday.

The Defense Department has targeted more than 100 military installations for possible closure or consolidation. Included are the 47-year-old Long Beach shipyard, the Army’s Ft. Ord on the Monterey Peninsula and at least four other Northern California facilities.

San Diego County apparently will not only avoid any cutbacks but actually could benefit from some of the potential closures or reductions throughout California, members of the local congressional delegation said Friday. If some of the recommended reductions on the list, scheduled to be released Monday by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, are approved, military installations in San Diego could pick up manpower and services, the local congressmen said.

However, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado), whose sprawling district includes one targeted base in Imperial County, said Friday that he is more concerned over the “big-picture national security implications” posed by the possible cutbacks than enthused over any potential local dividends.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for us in San Diego to gleefully rub our hands together and try to figure out how somebody else’s misfortune might accrue to our benefit,” Hunter said. “It’s more important to look to the national interest.”

Elsewhere in California, word of the possible closures rattled nerves from Long Beach to San Francisco, where an estimated 38,000 workers face possible furlough, with dimmer prospects for new jobs as the defense budget shrinks.

Some workers at the Long Beach shipyard, where rumors of reductions have been swirling for days, were near tears Friday.

“Some guys are really choked up,” said Frank Griffin Sr., a sheet metal mechanic at the yard for 25 years. “They are proud to work for their country, and they expect a little loyalty from the government in return. For a 45- or 50-year-old guy to find out his job might be annihilated . . . it’s a frightening thing.”

The three Northern California installations on the list for possible closure or realignment are the Alameda Naval Depot and Oakland Naval Supply Center in Alameda County and Moffett Naval Air Station in Santa Clara County.

Also on the list is El Centro’s Naval Air Facility in Imperial County, which has about 450 military and civilian personnel, according to Hunter. The winter home of the Navy’s precision Blue Angels flying team, the facility also serves as a year-round staging base for desert gunnery ranges.

The Navy warned that it also would consider closing or realigning Treasure Island Naval Station, Oak Knoll Naval Hospital and the Naval Air Station at Alameda if Congress’s budget authorizations are less than what has been requested.

“If the base closed down, the only thing I could do is pack up the truck and go home to Alabama--and there’s not much there,” said Ronnie Phillips, 25, a forklift operator at the Naval Supply Center in economically depressed West Oakland.

Some elected officials expressed outrage over the threatened closure of the Long Beach shipyard.

“If the Administration thinks they can do this without any impunity, they are sadly mistaken,” said Long Beach City Councilman Evan Anderson Braude. “The popularity of this Administration is going to sink very quickly if they indiscriminately close or try to relocate these facilities.”

“I have said that I do not know why the Navy would even contemplate such a misguided action against the most loyal Navy town in America,” Rep. Anderson said. “I simply do not understand the logic behind trying to close down the most productive and efficient yard while keeping those yards losing money open.

The shipyard employs 4,100 workers who overhaul and maintain Navy surface ships. It is the only West Coast base that is not licensed to perform nuclear work, a factor that some officials believe helps explain it being targeting for closure.

Closure of the shipyard would cost the community about $100 million a year and an estimated $250 million in the Southern California region from spin-off jobs and subcontracts that the Navy work generates, according to Laurie Hunter, vice president of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

In sheer numbers, the closures would be felt most in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Navy employs 56,000 civilians and military personnel. If all the military bases named Friday were to be shut or realigned, 34,113 jobs would be lost in the Bay Area. But economists said the impact would be worst on the Monterey Peninsula, where Ft. Ord accounts for 15,129 military jobs, 3,000 civilian workers and an annual payroll of $317 million.

But, not everyone was upset by the possible closures in California.

Noting that “peace and prosperity can go hand in hand,” Louise McNeilly, coordinator of the Center for Economic Conversion in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, said that closing the Moffett Naval Air Station there could free up land to ease the area’s housing shortage, or become the site of a space museum or a garbage dump.

And the lucrative Port of Long Beach, bursting at the seams and hunting for room to grow, could convert the precious shipyard land for container storage space. The port is now looking at landfills to expand, at a cost of about half a million dollars an acre. The shipyard space would represent more than $1-billion worth of property, by some estimates.

“That would make one very nice terminal,” said Harbor Commissioner Joel Friedland. “But that is nothing compared to what a shipyard contributes to the community.”

Cutbacks at Long Beach, meanwhile, could mean more ship-repair work for San Diego, while any reductions at Alameda’s Naval Aviation Depot could produce extra jobs at San Diego’s North Island Naval Air Station, according to Hunter aide John Palafoutas.

“I expect San Diego not only will hold its own, but come out a little ahead in the game,” said Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego).

Bates’ comments echoed the earlier prediction of Rear Adm. John W. Adams, commander of San Diego Naval Base, who said Thursday that the number of ships based in San Diego could increase under the new defense budget.

“If you close home ports, ships will have to go somewhere, and San Diego is a pretty logical place for them to come,” Adams said.

In a scene likely to be repeated by other congressmen whose districts face possible cutbacks, Hunter sent a letter to Cheney on Friday in which he began to make a case for trying to prevent the closure of the Naval Air Facility in El Centro.

Noting that the facility’s remoteness and the area’s weather--last year there were 360 “flying days” at the base--make it ideal for training, Hunter argues that closing it would be ill advised, both for economic and defense reasons. Pilots from Miramar Naval Air Station often train in El Centro when bad weather along the coast curtails flying here, he said.

“It’s not wise to cut national defense, because that ignores the history of how we got to where we are today,” said Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “This ‘peace dividend’ talk is a misnomer. The fact is, we have peace as a dividend because our national defense was strengthened during the Reagan years.”

But proponents of disarmament said that the cutbacks eventually will actually improve the quality of life.

“We are pleased because it means there are less dangers to the citizens of Long Beach and the surrounding area,” said Harold Collins, chairman of the Long Beach Area Peace Network, a coalition of 20 organizations. “We have never fought against the Navy, just ships and nuclear weapons.”

Fiore reported from Los Angeles and Morain from San Francisco. Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Barry M. Horstman in San Diego, Kevin Roderick and Roxana Kopetman in Los Angeles and Jim Herron-Zamora in San Francisco.

BASES AT A GLANCE

Facts and figures about California military bases among those that could be shut down by the Defense Department. Information from Congress and local elected officials. Alameda Naval Air Station (includes Alameda Naval Depot and 60 military facilities) * 9,276 military personnel * 10,100 civilian personnel * Payroll: $281.3 million * Opened in 1940 * Mission: Support U.S. Pacific fleet Alameda Naval Depot * 60 military personnel * 4,300 civilian personnel * Payroll: unknown * Opened in 1940 * Mission: Repair planes El Centro Naval Air Facility * 270 military personnel * 160 civilian personnel * Mission: Train Navy squadrons at desert gunnery ranges Ft. Ord * 15,129 military personnel * 3,000 civilian personnel * Payroll: $317.3 million * Opened in 1940 * Mission: Rapid deployment force Long Beach Naval Shipyard * 42 military personnel * 4,100 civilian personnel * Payroll: $220 million * Opened in 1943 * Mission: Maintain and overhaul surface ships Moffett Naval Air Station * 5,500 military personnel * 1,500 civilian personnel * Payroll: $52 million * Opened in 1933 * Mission: Support Navy’s long-range maritime mission Oak Knoll Naval Hospital (Oakland) * 1,400 military personnel * 550 civilian personnel * Payroll: $76.4 million * Opened in 1942 * Mission: Provide care for active and retired military personnel Oakland Naval Supply Center * 61 military personnel * 1,726 civilian personnel * Payroll: $41.9 million * Opened in 1941 * Mission: Supply and support U.S. fleet Treasure Island Naval Station * 3,000 military personnel * 1,000 civilian personnel * 1,011 people live in military housing on base (70% of them are attached to Treasure Island military personnel) * Payroll: $100 million * Opened in 1939 * Mission: Training school in damage and fire control

BASES FACING POSSIBLE CLOSURE

These California military installations are among those that could face closure or consolidation under a Defense Department plan.

1. Treasure Island Naval Station

2. Alameda Naval Air Station

3. Oakland Naval Supply Center

4. Oak Knoll Naval Hospital (Oakland)

5. Moffett Naval Air Station

6. Fort Ord

7. Long Beach Naval Shipyard

8. El Centro Naval Air Facility