O.C. Officials Launch Attack to Save El Toro : Military: Politicians say they will lobby the Pentagon to keep the Marine base and its jobs in the county.

Gov. Pete Wilson, joined in outrage by Orange County officials troubled about the future of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, denounced Pentagon planners Sunday over a preliminary effort to close nine more California military installations in coming years.

“This isn’t right,” Wilson said in a statement Sunday, responding to reports of a new round of possible base closures nationwide. “It’s not right for national security reasons, and it’s not right for economic reasons. . . . These proposed cuts are too deep. They go way beyond ‘cutting the fat’ to include bone and muscle as well.”

Orange County government leaders, meanwhile, vowed to mount an aggressive campaign to save the half-century-old El Toro Marine base from possible extinction. Many officials said they are worried about what its closure would mean for both the nation’s military and the county’s economy.

“I guess I’m praying,” said Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, a retired Marine general whose district includes the El Toro base. “I have difficulty understanding what the rationale for this would be.”

The Pentagon has not publicly acknowledged that it is considering El Toro or any other specific bases for closure. But The Times reported Sunday that the El Toro base is thought to be on preliminary closure lists that Defense Secretary Les Aspin is reviewing in an attempt to slash the Pentagon budget by some $122 billion in coming years.

“This is going to be the mother of all base-closing lists,” Aspin said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with David Brinkley.”

The defense secretary must send his recommendations by March 15 to an independent federal commission on base closures, setting off a round of hearings that officials say could prove even more controversial than earlier base-closing discussions in 1988 and 1991. No final decisions are expected until the fall.

Sgt. Timothy Paullin, a spokesman for the El Toro base, said Sunday that officials there remain largely in the dark over the weekend’s developments.

“We won’t even know until (Aspin releases the list) whether we’re on it. Everybody’s just waiting,” he said. “I’m sure there’ll be concerns if (the closure) happens, but right now, everything’s the same as usual. We don’t count on anything until it happens.”

Other California installations thought to be considered for closure include March Air Force Base in Riverside County, Long Beach Naval Shipyard, Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, McClellan Air Force Base, Oakland Navy Supply Center, Treasure Island Naval Station, Alameda Naval Air Station and the Presidio in Monterey.

Wilson predicted that the closure of the nine bases could cost the state 80,000 jobs and $3 billion, while Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) maintained in an interview that California “is taking unfair hits” in the closure process. He vowed to fight the moves.

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), whose district includes the El Toro base, said Sunday that he plans to meet with local leaders as early as today to determine “an Orange County strategy” for dealing with news of the threat to El Toro. He said he is “most anxious” to find out the Pentagon’s rationale for the possible closure.

Cox cautioned, however, that he expects to see changes on the closure list before Aspin submits his recommendations. Pentagon officials “are putting out a lot of trial balloons to see what the public reaction is,” he said.

Long Beach Mayor Ernie Kell said he was “surprised and shocked” to learn that the city’s naval shipyard may be targeted for closure--especially since the Long Beach Naval Station and the Long Beach Naval Hospital are already scheduled to close in 1996.

“(President) Clinton is telling everyone he’s concerned about Southern California, but it’s tough to tell from his actions. This defies common sense,” Kell said. He added that the 4,100-person shipyard has consistently made money for the federal government.

“We’ve got a tough job, but we’re not going to give up,” he said.

Officials in Orange County adopted a similar refrain Sunday, saying they will lobby federal legislators to save the El Toro base, which employs some 15,000 military and civilian workers.

Established during World War II, the El Toro base will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year as a home for a wide array of aircraft, from jet bombers to cargo transport planes.

As headquarters for Marine air stations in Tustin, Camp Pendleton, and Yuma, Ariz., the base at El Toro serves as a training post for aviators assigned to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. In combat, units often provide aerial support for Pendleton ground troops.

The Tustin Marine Corps Air Station is already slated for closure in 1997. But its planned demise did not draw nearly the concern surrounding the proposal to close the El Toro base.

At El Toro, frictions have sometimes surfaced between the base and surrounding community members, as in a recent attempt by military officials to block the expansion of a neighboring school that sat under their flight path.

But such base attractions as the annual air show have also proven popular among the local community. Lake Forest Councilwoman Marcia Rudolph described the Marines Sunday as a “fantastic” neighbor.

“They have been a very rich and stable community component for a long time,” said Rudolph, a local elementary school teacher.

While rumors of El Toro’s closure have surfaced for years, local officials say this is the most serious threat to the base they can remember.

“It’s still a long ways off before a decision would be made to close the base, but the people around here are not going to wait and see,” said Irvine Councilman William A. (Art) Bloomer, a retired general who served as commander of the El Toro base from 1984 to 1986.

“They’re going to mount a campaign. They’re going to lobby their congressional representatives real hard,” Bloomer said. “And I’ll be among that group.”

Both Bloomer and Riley said recent deployments of U.S. troops in Somalia and the Persian Gulf demonstrated the key role played by El Toro aviators in the nation’s military efforts.

“I think we still have a dangerous world, and we need the base to support the Marine Corps mission,” Bloomer maintained.

Said Riley: “You’d be drastically reducing the readiness of the western Corps. . . . I’ve told people who have asked me before (about the possibility of the El Toro closure) that it couldn’t happen. You heard things, but I thought it was fantasy.”

Beyond the military implications, local officials fear that closing El Toro and displacing thousands of military families could cost the local economy millions.

Lake Forest Councilwoman Helen Wilson recalled that during the Persian Gulf War the deployment of several thousand local Marines left a noticeable dent in the local economy--both in lost business for merchants and in a scarcity of enlisted personnel for part-time jobs.

Said Councilwoman Rudolph: “Our retail health in Lake Forest is very strongly tied to the base and to the personnel who shop in the area. If the base were to leave, it would be extremely difficult for us to deal with. . . . It would be a major disruption for us.”

Even more threatening is the idea--often discussed in past years--of turning the base into a commercial airport. “That is definitely the nightmare scenario,” Rudolph said.

Riley, after whom the new terminal at John Wayne Airport is named, is no less adamant in his opposition to another airport at the base: “Absolutely, unequivocally, no.”

But Kenneth J. Delino, deputy city manager of Newport Beach and executive director of the Orange County Cities Airport Authority, said the prospect of closing El Toro should revive talk of using the 5,400-acre base for an airport to meet the county’s growing travel needs.

Newport Beach has battled the county for years over noise problems at John Wayne Airport.

But even as the debate over El Toro’s future intensified Sunday, some at the base itself seemed nonplussed.

“I haven’t heard that much about it,” Mike Graves, a 20-year-old lance corporal from Arkansas, said as he left El Toro on Sunday. “It really doesn’t matter. They’d just send me somewhere else.”

Times Staff Writer Lily Dizon and Times wire services contributed to this story.