Treasure Island Base Spared; Long Beach Station in Jeopardy : Military: Panel members stress there is a slight excess of military ship berths on West Coast. Chances are seen greater that the Southland facility will be closed.

The federal base-closing commission, driving toward a final showdown Sunday, voted Friday to shut down 11 U.S. military installations while granting a reprieve to six that had been on its list of potential closures, including San Francisco’s Treasure Island Naval Station.

The vote to preserve the Treasure Island naval port increased the chances that the Long Beach Naval Station will not be spared.

Panel members appeared to link the fate of Treasure Island and the Long Beach station by stressing that a slight excess of ship berths exists on the West Coast. With Treasure Island now protected, the commission is more likely to trim the excess docking space by voting to close the Long Beach station, on which 29,550 military and non-military jobs depend, according to Pentagon estimates.

On Sunday, the board is expected to decide whether to close the Naval Training Center in San Diego, realign the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, as well as close the Long Beach station and the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. The federal commission in May added Treasure Island to the list of closure candidates.

Among facilities the commission voted to close Friday were Moffett Field Naval Air Station in Sunnyvale and Hunter’s Point Naval Annex at San Francisco. The moves are expected to reap annual savings of $69 million and $319,000, respectively.

Also at Friday’s meeting, some panel members expressed growing concerns about closing Ft. Ord, one of the major Army facilities that the Pentagon had targeted on the West Coast.

The Army has proposed closing the base and moving the 7th Infantry Division Light--more than 13,000 people--to Ft. Lewis in Washington.

Raising a possible last-minute snag to Ft. Ord’s closure, former Army Secretary Bo Callaway--a commission member--balked at the proposal to sell Ft. Ord’s 161,000 acres of training and maneuver space. Estimates are that sale of that land could net $400 million.

“Let’s save those crown jewels,” said Callaway, who fretted that once cast off by the Army, such training and maneuver space could never be recovered if defense needs dictated.

Commissioner James C. Smith, echoing Callaway’s concerns, said he was “really torn” on the Ord vote, which is among those expected to come Sunday.

Commissioner Duane Cassidy dismissed Callaway’s comments as “emotional.” Cassidy reminded the panel that the Army had concluded that it did not need “all those maneuvering spaces.” He added that “crown jewels are very, very difficult to maintain and keep up.”

By the end of the discussion, Ord’s fate appeared gloomy. Callaway said that if he had been faced with a vote Friday on closing Ord, he would have favored it.

Other bases the panel voted to close included Eaker Air Force Base in Arkansas, Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan, and Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado.