The Battle to Save El Toro : Attention, base commission: May be cheaper to keep it open

The battle is far from over, but at least it has been joined on a level air field--so to speak. It is now clear to all that the Pentagon vastly low-balled its original estimate of the cost of closing El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

And there now can be no disputing the fact, therefore, that the decision very much needs to be reconsidered by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. If there is no sound military or economic justification for closing the base after all, it should remain open.

It has taken a while to count from $340 million, the original Navy estimate of the cost of closing the base, to $1.268 billion, the figure now used by local Marine commanders as the true cost of moving El Toro and Tustin Marine Corps Air Station to Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. It has taken weeks to get from the virtual certainty that the base would close to a memorandum prepared recently by the Navy for the commission that could lead to a confirmation of what Marine brass have been saying.

There is, of course, still no certainty the base will remain open; however, there is now the possibility that its mission will expand considerably. According to Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), any number of things can happen, including only the relocation of Tustin’s helicopters. But at least everybody--military people, Congress members, advocates for the local economy, proponents of a civilian air base and those residents opposed to it--now all are focusing on the true figures.

By the way, Cox and Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) both pressed diligently for facts and correct figures, while others were more vocal in acting as advocates for El Toro. In the end, it was Cox and Dornan who revealed Thursday that the Navy is taking a new look at the numbers, at the request of the commission.

So the chips will fall where they may. Everybody at least now knows that the Pentagon shot from the hip when it included El Toro in its latest round of base closings. A base that has served the country so well, and that has been a good neighbor in Orange County, may have a future after all.