Guarding against base closure

By Staff
May 9, 2004
A congressional effort to delay the 2005 round of military base closures is interesting, but this is no time for Mississippi officials to let down their guard. The 2005 defense authorization bill, approved by a U.S. House subcommittee last week, faces full committee action this week. It contains a two-year delay in what is commonly referred to as BRAC, for base realignment and closure.
It goes without saying that while members of Mississippi's congressional delegation fight for the delay, state and local officials must not relent in preparing their best case for keeping installations such as Naval Air Station Meridian and the Air Guard's 186th Air Refueling Wing open.
We continue to hold the thought that NAS Meridian and the 186th ARW represent key components of the U.S. military and to close them would only endanger the cause of national defense. The BRAC commission, under a mandate from President Bush to close about one-quarter of U.S. bases, has some difficult choices to make even in the best of times. These are not those times, and a two-year delay makes a good deal of sense.
We agree that old strategies may be inadequate to fight the wars certain to come in the future, but pulling the plug on viable, efficient, productive military installations seems terribly destructive. Pitting American communities against each other only adds to the angst.
If the Department of Defense wants, for example, to achieve jointness in jet fighter pilot training, we can think of no better place than NAS Meridian. Presumably, NAS Pensacola is in little danger and NAS Meridian is competing with NAS Kingsville, Tex., for the right to train pilots. Most of the Navy strike pilots the ones who fly missions off aircraft carriers are already trained at NAS Meridian.
Lamar McDonald of Meridian wears hats as chairman of the Meridian Military Team and the Mississippi Military Communities Council, two of the state's organizations devoted to protecting bases in Mississippi. He got it right last week when he said:
McDonald also said the state and local team will continue to act and prepare as if the BRAC process will continue in 2005.
At this point, such preparation remains essential.