Base Closing Not an Open-and-Shut Case : El Toro Story May Serve as Cautionary Tale in Future Consolidation Deliberations

The planning for the future of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is early enough in the process that it can’t hurt, and might help, to have the Navy study the possibility of actually keeping the base open after all. But we shouldn’t hold our collective breaths, either, that there will be some dramatic reversal of fortune. Orange County should carry on with the preparations that have begun in earnest.

Perhaps more than raising fresh hopes of keeping the base for military purposes, the Navy Department’s memo of last month confirmed an earlier rush to judgment about the savings that closing the facility might produce. In its June 1 memo, the Navy invited base commanders to reopen the issue if bases scheduled for closure could be deemed necessary either as vital to national defense or as too expensive to close.

When El Toro was being designated for closure, Marine Maj. Gen. P. Drax Williams, commander of the station, and others argued that closing the base and moving the Marines to Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego did not pencil out.

Williams questioned whether it was wise “to dump 4,600 Marine families on the economy in San Diego.” Moreover, speaking from a distance and with a bit more room for candor, Art Bloomer, a former commanding general at El Toro and a former Irvine city councilman, openly declared the decision to close El Toro as “a dumb move.”

Recently it has become apparent that it will cost about $1.6 billion to close the station. For the record, the Pentagon says keeping El Toro would mean “a tough selling job.” It would require the Marines to convince both the Defense Department and Defense Secretary William Perry, and to ask a 1995 base-closing commission to reconsider the matter. Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), whose district includes the base, says he thinks the closing will stick.

And yet, the Navy can’t find the money to close the base. And the memo seemed to suggest that there was some problem not only with El Toro but also with other base closing decisions that may have been made hastily. These bases are valuable resources for the nation’s defense infrastructure, and they are difficult, perhaps impossible, to replace once gone from the landscape.

If nothing else, perhaps the El Toro story may serve as a cautionary tale in future base closing deliberations. The rush to consolidate as part of a worthwhile cost-saving effort can raise other fiscal questions that may not be anticipated at first.