Defense Secretary William Cohen made a strong plea to Congress Wednesday for authority to close more military bases, but some service chiefs sent a less enthusiastic signal, the Associated Press reported.
"As the smallest service with the fewest number of bases, I know of no installation that I would recommend be closed in the Marine Corps," Gen. James Jones, the Marine Corps commandant, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Adm. Jay Johnson, the chief of naval operations, said his view was "not far" from Jones'.
Johnson said a round of base closings "probably needs to happen"-but added that he is concerned that in opening up a national debate on how and where to reduce the military's land holdings, the Navy could end up losing training ranges or access to airspace or the sea that it cannot afford to lose.
"We cannot give it away or we will never get it back," he said.
The Army chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki, told the panel he would support a new round of base closings-but as a "cautionary footnote" said the Army needs to decide whether it needs to increase or decrease its manpower before it can say with certainty what should be done about consolidating bases.
The Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Michael Ryan, was alone among the chiefs in vigorously advocating more base closings.
"We need it badly," Ryan said-not just to save money, but to correct a situation in which communities near Air Force bases are resisting the services' efforts to consolidate forces because they fear such moves are setting the stage for an eventual base closure. This has left the Air Force in "gridlock," Ryan said.
In a separate appearance before the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Cohen noted that President Clinton's defense budget for the coming fiscal year asks for authority to make base closings in 2003 and 2005.
Those two rounds of base closings would save $3 billion a year, Cohen said, from 2008 to 2015. That is the time period when huge bills will come due for some of the weapons modernization projects now under way, he added.
In each of the past three years Cohen pressed for more base closings and each time Congress said no. There is little indication that he will succeed this year, either.
The last round of base closings was approved by Clinton and Congress in 1995.
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