Coalition Aims to Save Pair of S.D. Bases : Military: Group of businessmen and politicians will present the city’s case when commission members visit next week to study training center and recruit depot.

San Diego business and political leaders are rallying in an 11th-hour attempt to rescue two local bases--the Naval Training Center and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot--and to shield the local economy from a possible $400-million loss.

“We’d been on alert, and we’ve gone to battle stations now,” Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) said at a hastily called news conference Monday.

Heeding the call to arms, about two dozen businessmen and politicians met Monday to form a coalition that will prepare the city’s presentation next Monday to two visiting members of the Washington-based Defense Base Closures and Realignment Commission.

This bipartisan commission already delivered a major blow to San Diego when it announced Friday that it considers San Diego’s NTC a candidate for closure and the MCRD one for realignment, meaning reduction in size and mission.

For San Diego, the worst news Friday came with the commission’s announcement that it would spare the NTC in Great Lakes, Ill.--a move that pits officials here against those in Florida as both states attempt to save their own NTC.

The Navy has traditionally maintained three training centers in San Diego, Great Lakes and Orlando. But, as the Pentagon trims the armed forces, analysts have concluded that only two training facilities will be needed in the years ahead.

For San Diego, closing or realigning the bases would mean a loss of $302 million annually to the local economy from payroll and services, and a loss of another $100 million from tourists who combine sightseeing with visits to see graduating relatives, according to Lee Grissom, president of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce.

“This is a very serious situation for San Diego--we could take a real economic hit,” Lowery said. “We are truly on the short end of the stick.”

In April, the Pentagon drew up a list of 31 major and 12 minor bases for closure, and another 28 for realignment. Neither San Diego’s NTC or MCRD was on that list. But Orlando’s training facility was slated for closure. In the weeks since that announcement, Florida politicians and business leaders have mustered their resources--including a consultant hired for $75,000--and touted the assets of their facility.

San Diego, however, was caught off-guard, Lowery and others said. Now the city is regrouping in order to prepare a strong argument for keeping San Diego open and closing the Orlando facility. Saying the city has no money in its war chest to wage the campaign, Lowery acknowledged: “We’re going to be relying on the facts, and there’s not going to be a lot of pizazz and razzle-dazzle.”

But members of the newly formed coalition may be prepared to toss some mud. At the news conference held at the Chamber of Commerce, officials distributed accounts from Florida newspapers, describing how their local politicians view the battle. They also distributed to the media the resumes of the two commission members, Howard B. Callaway and Robert Stuart Jr., who are expected to tour the NTC and MCRD on Monday.

Eyeing the reporters at the news conference, Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham said, “We are expecting you, members of the press, to help us out.”

The seven-member commission will present its final hit list to Congress on July 1. Congress will have 45 days to approve or reject the list in its entirety.

Any base scheduled for closure will be shut within the next 10 years. In the case of the two San Diego facilities, the land would be returned to the federal government rather than the local community, Grissom said.

The local coalition argues that San Diego is better suited than Orlando for boot camp because it is more cost-efficient and because it is handy to the Pacific Fleet.

According to a fact sheet distributed by the Chamber of Commerce, it would be cheaper to relocate the Orlando facility than the other two NTCs. To close Orlando and move equipment to other commands would cost $397 million. At the Great Lakes facility, it would cost $723 million; in San Diego, it would be $549 million, according to the chamber.

For many coalition members, word that the fate of two San Diego bases hung in a precarious balance came as a surprise. To most, the identity of the city seemed interwoven with the two bases.

“It’s inconceivable to me that they would close down San Diego, which can take a sailor from the cradle to the grave,” said retired Adm. Lee Baggett, a former commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Forces and supreme allied commander of the Atlantic Fleet. “I can’t believe logic will not prevail.”

Commissioned on June 1, 1923, San Diego’s NTC includes 283 buildings on 546 acres. The land, west of Lindbergh Field, was purchased in 1919 by the Chamber of Commerce for $278,000 and later turned over to the Navy. It is now worth about $335 million, Navy officials said. The command trains about 20,000 recruits annually and offers schooling for another 22,000.

While San Diego officials geared up for their presentation, officials in Long Beach were visited Monday by retired Air Force Gen. Duane Cassidy, one of seven members of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.

Meeting behind closed doors, a team of congressmen, city leaders, union officials, military officers and a U.S. senator argued that closing the Long Beach naval station and Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin would be an unwise financial move and leave the West Coast strategically “naked.”

The Long Beach naval station, shipyard and hospital are among 79 military facilities marked for closure nationwide.

“I am very much more enlightened than I was before,” Cassidy, a former Air Force pilot, said afterward. Although noting that he was “impressed” with the Long Beach facilities, the general would not say whether the meetings had changed his thinking.

Times staff writer Faye Fiore in Orange County contributed to this story.

Which One to Close?

NAVAL TRAINING CENTERS ORLANDO GREAT LAKES Cost to move $396,929,000 $722,989,000 Square footage 1,185,508 1,929,464 of buildings Complexity/Ease to move Classroom Engineer/Labs Location with fleet No No Number of schools 36 113 Annual peacetime 33,600 51,480 training capacity Annual mobilization 86,100 97,900 training cap.

NAVAL TR SAN DIEGO Cost to move $548,601,000 Square footage 1,040,456 of buildings Complexity/Ease to move Light/ Heavy Industrial Labs Location with fleet Yes Number of schools 142 Annual peacetime 30,360 training capacity Annual mobilization 81,168 training cap.

Source: San Diego Chamber of Commerce