State Wins, Loses on Base Closings : Military: Commission gives final recommendation to keep Long Beach shipyard and San Diego facilities open. Ft. Ord, Tustin Marine station are targeted for closure.

The Pentagon’s Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, making final recommendations to President Bush on the future of military bases across the country, voted Sunday to close the Long Beach Naval Station but to keep its sister naval shipyard operating.

In other key votes, the commission agreed to shut down the Army’s Ft. Ord near Monterey, the Sacramento Army Depot and the Marine Corps Air Station at Tustin, but recommended sparing the Naval Fleet Training Center and Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego.

As it wrapped up 12 hours of final deliberations, the panel voted, 5 to 2, to close Castle Air Force Base outside Merced, a move which is expected to save $52.7 million annually.

The commission’s actions Friday and Sunday led to early estimates that its recommended closures could bring almost $1.3 billion in annual savings. But realizing those savings will require initial expenditures of more than $2 billion over the next six years.

The panel’s recommendations now go to President Bush, who has until July 15 to accept or reject the list or seek modifications. If Bush approves the entire list, the proposals will take effect unless both houses of Congress vote to block the entire package within 45 days. The individual bases would be closed over a period of six years.

The final votes by the commission culminates a three-month process designed to break a political logjam blocking the Pentagon’s efforts to eliminate obsolete or overlapping facilities.

The seven-member panel, chaired by Jim Courter, a former Republican congressman from New Jersey, was created to choose which bases should be shuttered as the Pentagon shrinks U.S. armed forces in response to a reduced Soviet military threat and a restricted U.S. defense budget.

“Our job has been anything but easy,” Courter said as the panel began casting its final votes. “Some people will argue with our recommendations, but I hope everyone will agree that we’ve been open and fair.”

As they toted up billions of dollars in potential savings from bases slated for closing, the commissioners displayed concern over the loss of facilities that may prove valuable in the future. Indeed, the panel voted Sunday to preserve almost as many--a total of 12--as the 16 it voted to close.

For example, while it voted to close Ft. Ord, which employs more than 16,000 military and civilian personnel, the commission rejected the Pentagon’s proposal to shut down Ft. McClellan in Alabama. Members argued that McClellan, where the Army conducts chemical-warfare exercises using tear gas, provides a training opportunity too important to give up.

Similarly, the commission members agreed that padlocking the Navy’s new home port at Staten Island, N.Y., would rob the service of a facility it might need in the future, despite projected annual savings of $47.8 million.

While the vote in most cases was unanimous, some proposals resulted in split decisions. The panel voted 6 to 1 to keep the Long Beach shipyard operating, with dissenting commission member James C. Smith II arguing that private shipyards could fill the Navy’s needs.

Other military bases recommended for closure include the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Naval Station, Bergstrom Air Force Base in Texas, England Air Force Base in Louisiana, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base in South Carolina, Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Ft. Devens in Massachusetts, Ft. Chaffee in Arkansas and Chase Field Naval Air Station in Texas.

But the commission agreed to spare the Army’s Ft. Dix in Courter’s home state of New Jersey and naval air stations in Meridian, Miss., Kingsville, Tex., and Whidbey Island, Wash.

The commission approved a Pentagon proposal to realign MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, home of the U.S. Central Command that oversaw Operation Desert Storm. MacDill’s aircraft are to be sent to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.

Setting aside challenges to their jurisdiction, the commissioners endorsed a reorganization of the largely civilian Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps had sought a consolidation, but lawmakers have insisted that only congressional committees could exercise such oversight.

The commission also voted to consolidate and reorganize the work of Army and Navy laboratories across the country.

Among the 11 facilities the commission recommended for closure in votes on Friday were Moffett Field Naval Air Station in Sunnyvale and Hunters Point Naval Annex at San Francisco.

The commission’s recommendations represented a partial victory for Southern California community leaders, who had opposed all but the Tustin closure. San Diego and Long Beach had mounted major lobbying efforts to save their facilities. The only bitter loss was the Long Beach Naval Station.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) called the recommendation to keep the Long Beach Naval Shipyard open “really the only logical way to treat a naval base which is vital to America’s defense needs.” He hailed the preservation of the two San Diego facilities as “a triumph for the defense needs of our nation.”

Gary Curran, a senior aide for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach), called the closure of Long Beach Naval Station “a big economic hit” that would rob Long Beach residents of the substantial business revenue generated by sailors.

Workers at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard celebrated the commission’s recommendation to spare the facility.

“I’m excited. I’m shaking. I can’t believe that they’re going to keep it open,” said Joanne McCaughey, 39, a single mother who works as a sheet-metal mechanic at the shipyard.

The recommended closure of Ft. Ord is a major blow to the Monterey area, and Seymour said he would appeal the proposal to Bush. But Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey), who represents the district that encompasses the Army base, said that “the time has come now for the community to face the reality that Ft. Ord will be closed and to move on.”

In voting to close the Marine air base at Tustin, the panel ordered the defense secretary to seek an agreement from the commercial buyer of the base to build millions of dollars worth of military facilities elsewhere as a condition of the sale.

The Pentagon has proposed selling 1,200 of the base’s 1,680 acres to a private developer at an estimated price of as much as $785 million. So far, a buyer has not been identified.

Unless both chambers of Congress vote to block the final list as submitted by Bush, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney is required to act on the base closing recommendations without modifications.

The Pentagon would begin a streamlined but still-lengthy process of filing environmental and economic impact statements detailing the effects of the intended actions and the expected civilian use of the facilities.

Under the law that established the commission, the closure and realignment process must begin within two years and be completed within six years.

In the past, many opponents of base closures have thwarted the Defense Department’s plans by suing the government for allegedly failing to satisfy the legal requirements for impact statements. This time, judges will have to consider the law mandating a six-year timetable as they weigh challenges.

As a result, for many communities there will be little hope of overturning the commission’s findings once the President approves the final list.

The Pentagon’s Office of Economic Adjustment--its main link to base closure communities--is preparing for an onslaught of queries from communities whose bases have been targeted for shutdown. The Pentagon office expects to award grants to dozens of communities to assist them in hiring land-use and business development staffs to help plan the transition.

Community officials in Long Beach, however, may file court challenges to improve their chances of selling off parts of the Long Beach Naval Station, which is arranged in a checkerboard pattern around the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

The interlocking pattern of the two facilities would make it “virtually impossible” to find a parcel of land that can be sold to a commercial buyer, unless officials win additional concessions from the Navy in court, said Curran, the aide to Rep. Rohrabacher.

Times staff writers Sheryl Stolberg in Los Angeles, Kristina Lindgren in Orange County and Patrick McDonnell in San Diego contributed to this report.

Targeted for Closure in California The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission voted to recommend the closure of 11 military facilities in California. They are among dozens that will be shut down nationwide. Hunters Point Annex Area: 515 acres Function: Dry docks for ship building and repair Personnel: 6 active duty and 18 civilians Commissioned: 1941, annexed to Treasure Island in 1987 Moffett Field Naval Air Station Area: 2,000 acres Function: Headquarters of the Commander Patrol Wings Pacific Fleet Personnel: 5,500 active duty with 2,500 dependents and 1,400 civilian employees Commissioned: 1933 Ft. Ord Area: 28,057 acres Based here: 7th Light Infantry Division Personnel: 15,000 active duty and 7,000 civilian employees Commissioned: 1940 Sacramento Army Depot Area: 485 acres Function: Electronics repair facility Personnel: 500 active duty and 3,200 civilian employees Commissioned: 1946 Castle Air Force Base Area: 3,257 acres Based here: 93rd Bombardment Wing Personnel: 5,000 active duty with 13,000 dependents and 1,261 civilian employees Commissioned: 1941 Long Beach Naval Station Area: 240 acres Based here: 38 ships Personnel: 16,000 active duty and 936 civilian employees Commissioned: 1942 Tustin Marine Corps Air Station Area: 1,600 acres Based here: Marine Aircraft Group (MAG)-16 Personnel: 3,500 active duty and 150 civilian employees Commissioned: 1943

Minor Facilities Naval Space Systems Activity, Los Angeles Naval Electronic Systems Engineering Center, Vallejo Integrated Combat Systems Test Facility, San Diego Naval Electronic Systems Engineering Center, San Diego Source: Department of Defense and military installations Compiled by Times editorial researcher Michael Meyers