State winner in base closings

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005 | 10:49 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada scored big victories in a final round of the federal government's high-stakes -- and high-anxiety -- effort to streamline the U.S. military by closing and shrinking bases.

In the end, the only two Nevada bases at serious risk -- the Hawthorne Army Depot and the Air National Guard unit in Reno -- were spared. The Pentagon had recommended Hawthorne be shuttered and that the air guard's eight C-130 airtankers be moved to Arkansas from their base at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

But the federal commission charged with reviewing the Pentagon proposals had only good news for Nevada. It decided that the Army needed the 2,400 ammunition storage bunkers at Hawthorne and that Nevada needed the giant C-130 planes to transport people and supplies in case of natural disasters or other emergencies.

And as expected, Nellis Air Force Base will add planes and personnel from other bases -- although it has not been determined how much the base would expand.

Nevada fared better than many states, said former Nevada congressman James Bilbray, one of nine Base Realignment and Base Closure, or BRAC, commissioners.

"We scored an A," said Bilbray, who was in Washington last week as the commission finalized its report for President Bush.

"I felt bad for some of these states. The state of Washington lost its Air Guard planes. In Tennessee they have a new $45 million hangar and they lost all the planes they were going to put into it. We came out very well."

The Defense Department had slated Nellis for a net gain of 54 planes and nearly 1,400 military and civilian workers.

But the commission revised and reversed some Defense Department proposals. For instance, the department had proposed closing Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska and sending 18 of the base's F-16 fighter jets to Nellis. But the panel voted to keep that base open.

Under the Pentagon recommendations, Nellis also was to receive:

Nellis was also slated to retire 15 F-16s, send three F-16s to a base in Tulsa, Okla., and to give another six F-16s to a base in Fresno, Calif.

But the commission in its final report did not make specific recommendations for all those planes. It's up to the Air Force to decide exactly which planes will be shifted to and from Nellis, BRAC spokeswoman Audrey Jones said.

Those decisions will be made when the BRAC process is finalized, Pentagon-based Air Force spokesman Doug Karas said.

"It's just too early to know how many aircraft are going (to Nellis) and where they are coming from," Karas said.

Nellis is considered a top-tier base for its military value in large part due to its plane testing and air combat training missions. The base, established in 1941, includes the Nellis Range Complex, which provide 3.1 million acres of airspace with good year-round flying conditions.

The base, roughly eight miles northeast of downtown Las Vegas, is already home to roughly 10,000 military and civilian personnel -- the region's seventh largest employer. Its planes include A-10s, F-15 and F-16 fighters, the RQ-1A Predator unmanned aerial vehicles and HH-60 helicopters.

Among the base's missions are final testing phases of the next-generation fighter F/A-22 Raptor. Nellis operates the Air Warfare Center which offers graduate-level air combat training, and conducts regular Red Flag combat training exercises. Nellis is also home to the Thunderbirds air demonstration squadron.

Nellis will have no problem absorbing more planes and personnel, a spokesman said.

"We're ready for whatever decision comes down," base spokesman Capt. Dan DuBois said. "We'll shift and do whatever it takes to adjust to the mission."

The commission will submit its final report to President Bush by Sept. 8. Bush can reject it and send it back to the commission for revision or accept it and forward it to Congress.