Navy Base Supporters Plot Strategy for Battle : Point Mugu: BRAC ’95 Task Force begins organizing to raise funds and mount rally to greet commissioners when they arrive.

Plotting a strategy to save the Point Mugu Navy base from closure, a local task force Thursday appealed for donations, scheduled a fund-raising event for next week and began organizing a rally for supporters to greet base-closing commissioners when they tour Point Mugu.

The BRAC ’95 Task Force is also considering ferrying Point Mugu backers by the busload to a regional hearing in Sacramento in late May or early June when all eight commissioners visit the state to hear from communities affected by the proposed base closures.

“We want to make sure the commissioners see a unified community,” said Bill Simmons, executive director of the task force.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Ventura County’s congressional representatives began to coordinate their efforts to rescue Point Mugu and seven other California bases that the independent base-closing commission added to the Pentagon’s hit list of military installations Wednesday .

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said congressional officials will meet with Navy officials next week to pore over a much-disputed Defense Department audit that advocated moving most of Point Mugu’s functions to its sister base at China Lake.

Gallegly said the report, which contends that the Navy could save $1.7 billion over the next 20 years by combining overlapping programs at the two bases, is being used by commission staff as the blueprint for closing Point Mugu.

“We will be developing a strategy to counter that report,” Gallegly said. “We are working very closely with Sen. Feinstein, and she is giving us a lot of help.”

Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from San Francisco, vowed to fight for Point Mugu and other threatened California bases “every step of the way.” She strongly condemned the audit conducted by the Defense Department’s inspector general last year.

“I urge the commission in the strongest terms to reconsider the use of this flawed Pentagon report as a basis for considering the future of Point Mugu,” she said in a statement.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) also vowed to help. Carolyn Leavens, co-chairwoman of the local task force, said she has been impressed by the teamwork in Washington.

“I don’t think there is any district in the United States that has had a team that has worked in such a concerted fashion, Republicans and Democrats alike,” she said.

In Sacramento, Gov. Pete Wilson said he will push the commission to spare California from further military cutbacks.

The governor pointed out that California has about 15% of the nation’s military personnel, yet has absorbed nearly 70% of the job losses in the first three rounds of base closures.

“The new closure list threatens the state with a loss of 55,000 jobs,” the governor said in a statement.

When the base-closing commissioners hold the regional hearing in Sacramento, Wilson said, “they (will) understand that is simply unacceptable to tens of millions of U.S. taxpayers who live in California who have already taken their fair share of closures.”

Congress set up the independent Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission to remove parochial politics from the process of targeting bases that the nation can no longer afford in the post-Cold War era.

The commission must complete its work and deliver its list of recommended closures to President Clinton by July 1. In addition to holding regional hearings, the panel will send staff and at least one commissioner to visit Point Mugu on a fact-finding mission.

The date of that trip has not been set, but officials said it would be some time in the next few weeks.

“We want to have a major rally when the commissioner gets here,” said Bob Conroy, a defense industry executive and strategist for the local task force. “We have to have 10,000 or 20,000 people gathered outside the gates and show support for retention of the base.”

Conroy said the task force also plans to hold a May 18 fund-raiser at the Radisson Hotel in Oxnard. “We are in a position of needing some serious money right away,” Conroy said.

The task force already has raised more than $200,000, but needs to bring in additional funds to increase its Washington lobbying effort and travel budget.

Meanwhile, on the base today, Adm. Dana B. McKinney, commanding officer of Point Mugu and China Lake, will hold two meetings with interested Point Mugu workers in a 500-seat auditorium, said Point Mugu spokesman Alan Alpers.

“He wants to calm the employees down and give them the straight information rather than letting the rumor mill take over,” Alpers said. “He wants to be available to answer questions.”

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Endangered Military Posts

Military installations added to the Pentagon’s closure and realignment list by the nation’s base-closure commission:

Air Force

O’Hare Air Reserve Station, Chicago Minneapolis-St. Paul Air Reserve Station, Minneapolis Columbus Air Force Base, Columbus, Miss. Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, Niagara Falls, N.Y. Youngstown-Warren Air Reserve Station, Youngstown, Ohio Vance Air Force Base, Enid, Okla. Carswell Air Reserve Station, Forth Worth Laughlin Air Force Base, Del Rio, Tex. General Mitchell Air Reserve Station, Milwaukee McClellan Air Force Base, Sacramento Robins Air Force Base, Warner-Robins, Ga. Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio

Army

Space and Strategic Defense Command, Huntsville, Ala. Oakland Army Base, Oakland Ft. Holabird, Baltimore Tobyhanna Army Depot, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Navy

Engineering Field Activity, West, San Bruno Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Oakland Naval Air Station Point Mugu, Oxnard Naval Warfare Assessment Division, Corona Supervisor of Shipbuilding, San Francisco Naval Air Station, Atlanta Public Works Center, Guam Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard, Kittery, Me.

Defense Logistics Agency

Defense Distribution Depot McClellan, Sacramento Defense Distribution Depot Warner-Robins, Warner-Robins, Ga. Defense Distribution Depot Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City Defense Distribution Depot Tobyhanna, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Defense Distribution Depot San Antonio, San Antonio Defense Distribution Depot Hill, Ogden, Utah Bases on the Pentagon realignment list that the commission added for additional realignment or closure:

Air Force

Homestead Air Reserve Station, Florida City, Fla. Grand Forks Air Force Base, Grand Forks, N.D. Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah

Army

Letterkenney Army Depot, Letterkenney, Pa. Source: The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission

Endangered Military Posts