S.D. to Benefit From Closing of Other Bases

San Diego’s Navy and Marine Corps bases would gain ships--including two Aegis cruisers--and almost 6,000 personnel as part of Defense Secretary Dick Cheney recommendation to close 43 military bases across the nation and revamp 28 other military facilities, officials said Friday.

Although the state could lose more than 26,000 military and civilian jobs from the proposed closings, San Diego escaped relatively unscathed in Cheney’s plans to trim the military and would be likely to benefit from consolidations.

“The impact on San Diego is positive and reflects how the military values San Diego,” said Capt. Jim Mitchell, a Navy spokesman in Washington. “When you don’t have the luxury of keeping all the facilities because of budget and forces being reduced, you have to decide which ones you must keep, and the others have to go. . . . I am saying San Diego made the cut.”

Two relatively small San Diego facilities have been recommended for closing: the Naval Electronic Systems Engineering Center at Air Force Plant 19 on Pacific Highway and the Integrated Combat System Test Facility at Point Loma. About 46 jobs at the Combat Test Facility would be eliminated or transferred to Port Hueneme, Calif. At the Engineering Center, 619 jobs would be eliminated or transferred, said Wicklund.

But the loss of those 660 jobs would be offset by gains slated for San Diego area bases.

About 4,400 sailors and 115 civilian employees would be assigned to the San Diego Naval Station, according to the Pentagon. Most of these are expected to come from the closing of Long Beach Naval Station, which has 9,519 sailors and 833 civilian employees.

Long Beach serves as a home port to 38 ships. Navy officials say they expect some--though it is not known yet how many--of those vessels would be reassigned to San Diego. Two Long Beach-based Aegis guided missile cruisers, the Antietam and Princeton, would be reassigned to San Diego, a Navy official said. It is also likely that San Diego would inherit some of Long Beach’s amphibious ships, said the official, who requested anonymity.

To accommodate the new arrivals, San Diego ship piers would be upgraded, and some dredging would take place so the deep-draft vessels can safely dock, the official said, adding: “That work translates to more money for the area.”

Top Navy officials apparently were forced to choose between cutting back the number of ships at San Diego while keeping the Long Beach facility open or closing Long Beach and maintaining roughly the same number of ships at San Diego. In the end, the decision was reached to close Long Beach and send ships to San Diego, Pearl Harbor and Alameda, the Navy official said.

San Diego is home port for 67 ships, including five Aegis cruisers. It is not known how many of those vessels would be decommissioned as the Navy trims its fleet and to make way for ships from Long Beach. Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Smallwood estimated that the Naval Station at 32nd Street can probably accommodate about 70 ships.

The closing of other commands also would affect San Diego. The Navy now has three boot camps across the nation: San Diego; Great Lakes, Mich., and Orlando, Fla. The closing of the Orlando facility, which has nearly 17,000 military and civilian employees, would primarily benefit the Great Lakes command. But the San Diego facility also would probably feel the effect, Chief Petty Officer Martin Wicklund, a Navy spokesman, said.

“We have the facilities and the infrastructure to take up a lot of the slack,” Wicklund said. “Those recruits have got to be trained somewhere, and we have the facilities here. Though over the years, there are going to be fewer and fewer (recruits) because of the downsizing of the Navy.”

Other local commands expecting gains include the Naval Ocean Systems Center, which would pick up 1,140 civilian employees, and Camp Pendleton base and hospital, which would gain 274 military and 156 civilian employees, according to the Pentagon.

Smallwood and other officials caution that the blueprint for military base closures presented Friday by Cheney is tentative. The base-closing commission must forward its plan to President Bush by July 1, who has until July 15 to decide to accept or reject the list before sending it to Congress.

Legislators will have 45 days to consider the package, which will be implemented unless lawmakers pass a law rejecting the entire list.

In the last round of base closings handled in that fashion, Congress approved shutting 86 domestic installations. But legislators last year rejected Cheney’s bid, which did not go through the commission, to close more than 72 bases.