San Diego’s Gain Translates Into Loss for Orange County, Bay Area

A federal commission’s decision Saturday to close the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County helps make San Diego the apparent winner--at least for now--in the high-stakes economic war over which California military bases are sacrificed to dwindling Pentagon budgets.

Although the commission also voted to close the San Diego Naval Training Station, San Diego still emerges from the base closure process with 15,000 new military jobs.

The potential loss of 5,500 jobs by closing the training center would be offset by new jobs at Miramar, North Island and Camp Pendleton--and in 10,000 new slots aboard nuclear carriers to be moved to San Diego.

But San Diego’s gain comes at a cost to Orange County and Alameda in the Bay Area.

If the commission’s decisions are upheld by President Clinton and Congress, El Toro must shift 8,350 military and civilian jobs to the Miramar Naval Air Station.

While losing El Toro is a major disappointment to many Orange County officials, the commission’s action to place the Alameda Naval Aviation Depot on the base closure list is an even harsher blow to the Bay Area.

The Alameda depot is the fourth Bay Area facility to be shut down in two days, eliminating a total of 21,600 military and civilian jobs. Other installations in the hard-hit region are expected to be ordered closed during the panel’s final hearing today.

All three facilities slated for closure appeared on the Pentagon’s original list of doomed bases issued in March. The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission’s vote came despite intense lobbying campaigns by communities and elected officials.

Those efforts have been largely unsuccessful as the commission finds its hands tied because there are too many bases and too little federal money to keep them open.

Asked about the California closures, commission Chairman James Courter called it “one of the great ironies” that “those who sacrificed so much in the Cold War are called upon to sacrifice again. What they’re doing is not essential to national security today.”

“I ask them to understand, to stand in our shoes,” Courter said. “There is life after base closure.”

The commission’s recommendations must be sent to Clinton by Thursday. If he approves the list, it will go to Congress, which must accept or reject it without any changes.

Unlike the closures in the Bay Area, which will hit the region hard with job losses, many of the El Toro Marines at least will be able to relocate in Southern California. The action sets in motion a complicated reshuffling of Marines and aircraft among several Pacific and California bases.

Under the plan, Marine jets and helicopters from Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, will relocate to Miramar, along with aircraft from El Toro. And some helicopters based in Hawaii will be sent to Camp Pendleton.

As with the El Toro decision, the commission’s vote to close the Alameda Aviation Depot, which repairs aircraft and components, came at the behest of the Pentagon. Faced with 115% more repair capacity than it needs, the Navy wanted to close three of its six depots nationwide--Alameda, Norfolk, Va., and Pensacola, Fla.

The commission voted 6-0 to close the Navy training centers at San Diego and Orlando, Fla., and retain the Great Lakes Naval Center in Illinois, all as recommended by the Pentagon.

The San Diego center, opened in 1928, was the smallest at 541 acres and had the highest percentage of buildings considered substandard.

San Diego Deputy Mayor Tom Behr said it was a tremendous disappointment that the San Diego training center, with its 5,500 employees and $79.6-million annual payroll, has been slated for closure.

Although the commission also discussed the possibility of closing the Naval Aviation Depot at Coronado’s North Island, it was spared Saturday. The North Island depot employs 3,800 workers--with an annual payroll of $178 million--performing repairs on supersonic aircraft.

Commissioner Harry McPherson Jr., a Washington lawyer and former top aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson, indicated that he might have preferred to also close North Island except for the Navy’s insistence that one depot be left on the West Coast.

“The Navy has trumped my card by saying it needs a depot on the West Coast,” McPherson said. The other depots left open by the commission are Jacksonville, Fla., and Cherry Point, N.C.

San Diego-area congressmen trumpeted the survival of the aviation depot at North Island as proof of San Diego’s status in the post-Cold War era as a “megaport.” Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R-San Diego) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) noted that the depot may gain up to 1,900 jobs because of transfers from other closed bases.

In other actions, the commission voted to close two of the Navy’s jet fighter bases, Cecil Naval Air Station near Jacksonville, and Barbers Point Naval Air Station in Hawaii.

In one of the commission’s more pointed actions, it voted to close a naval airfield on the Pacific island of Guam because residents want to develop the land. But the Navy has balked at the idea and did not offer it for closure.

On Saturday, the panel voted to force the Navy to share space at a nearby, underutilized Air Force base.

“I gives me great pleasure to vote for this motion,” Courter said.

The commission also voted to close the Glenview, Ill., Dallas and Detroit naval reserve air stations, but spared the reserve air station at South Weymouth, Mass., which the Pentagon wanted to close. It also decided to stop construction of Navy Reserve air stations at Martinsburg, W.Va., and Johnstown, Pa., with commissioners agreeing that there was no justification for the facilities when other installations were being closed and cut back. The Pentagon recommended that the facilities be built.

Times staff writers Tony Perry and Gebe Martinez also contributed to this story.