COUNTYWIDE : VanderKolk Backs Military Base Cuts

Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk told a federal commission Wednesday that she supports a plan by Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney to close 30 major military bases and trim operations at dozens of others, including the Pacific Missile Test Center at Point Mugu.

The Point Mugu center, which is located in VanderKolk’s supervisorial district, would lose 820 jobs over the next five years under Cheney’s plan to streamline the country’s military operations.

Operations at Point Mugu would be trimmed and consolidated with those at the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake in the Mohave Desert.

Cheney submitted his recommendations last month to the independent Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, assigned to review and possibly modify the proposals before presenting them to the President and Congress for approval.

During public hearings in Los Angeles, VanderKolk told the commission that she supports “closing down non-vital, obsolete military bases and consolidating others.”

And she said she was thankful that Cheney decided not to cut more staff from the Point Mugu test center and proposed no reductions at the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Point Hueneme.

“Thousands of Seabees served in the Persian Gulf War and many of the weapons we used to defeat Saddam Hussein, including the Tomahawk, were tested at the Point Mugu facility,” she said, referring to the guided missile that was used against the armies of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

VanderKolk was invited to speak before the group by former New Jersey Congressman Jim Courter, chairman of the commission.