American Overseas Installations Are Targeted In Military Cutbacks Armed Services To Reveal Plans For Cuts At Home Next Week
In a reminder that military base closings and consolidations extend beyond U.S. shores, the Pentagon announced Thursday it intends to close or reduce operations at eight overseas support installations.
Among those to be abandoned is the hospital facility at Wiesbaden, Germany, where scores of U.S. hostages from the Mideast got their first taste of freedom, many after years of captivity.
The announcement was a prelude to next Tuesday’s scheduled presentation of a list of U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps bases that the Pentagon wants to close or realign to fit today’s smaller armed forces.
On Capitol Hill, a Pentagon official said that while it initially costs several billion dollars to close military bases, the government would realize a net savings of $30 billion over the coming decades if the closures and changes proposed since 1988 for U.S. facilities are carried out.
Joshua Gotbaum, assistant secretary of defense for economic security, told the House National Security subcommittee on military installations, that service chiefs have indicated in recent months they would have proposed closing even more bases in the 1995 round but for the burden of “up front” closure costs.
Gotbaum declined to discuss any specific bases that might be considered for closure. There was no indication of estimated savings from the proposed cutbacks overseas.
Thousands of jobs and even the economic futures of some communities are at stake in the coming debate over U.S. base closures. The Pentagon’s list of recommended base closures will mark the fourth and possibly final round of shutdowns since 1988.
When Defense Secretary William Perry makes the list of proposed closures public next Tuesday it will go to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. By July 1, the commission’s final list goes to President Clinton and to Congress, where it must be accepted or rejected in its entirety with no adjustments.
Perry and his staff were still reviewing the planned closings Thursday. “They have not completed this work, and therefore there is not a final list,” said Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon.
He indicated that members of Congress have done some strong lobbying with the Pentagon but said no systematic briefings have been given.
He said that although the White House has been informed of the process, “this is something that … is being worked out between the services and the secretary.”
The overseas installations targeted for closure or curtailment include six in Germany, which was the nerve center of U.S. and allied defenses during the Cold War. U.S. forces have pulled out of hundreds of sites in Germany since 1990.
The Wiesbaden hospital was reduced to a standby hospital in 1993, when the U.S. Air Force shut down nearby Lindsay Air Force Station which had been the first stop for many Americans freed from captivity in the Mideast.
The base was the scene of a series of emotional reunions, beginning when 52 Americans were freed by Iran in 1981 and ending in December 1991 with the arrival of Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson after 6 years of captivity in Lebanon. Many were given initial checkups at the Wiesbaden hospital.
The U.S. military had operated the facility since World War II, providing medical treatment for U.S. forces in Europe. Only a few dozen troops have remained in Wiesbaden since Lindsay was closed.
The United States does not own any of the land on which it operates overseas and will return facilities it has used to the host governments.
An ammunition site and housing areas elsewhere in Germany also will be closed down or curtailed.
The Pentagon said it also would curtail activities at a facility in Sigonella, Italy, that is used by the U.S. Navy, and it will abandon a naval support facility in Antigua that is used by the U.S. Atlantic Command.
Since January 1990, the Pentagon has announced closures of 866 military facilities overseas - mostly in Germany, South Korea and Britain - and said it was curtailing operations at 84 others. It also has placed three overseas facilities on standby, meaning operations are ended but the site is kept ready for possible future use.
The Pentagon did not say how many members of the U.S. military would be affected by the reductions it announced Thursday, but it said each of the eight sites has fewer than 1,000 positions.
xxxx Base cutbacks Latest proposed Pentagon cutbacks at overseas military facilities. The Pentagon did not say how many service members would be affected but said fewer than 1,000 are posted at each of the eight sites. Reduction in operations at a military facility in Sigonella, Italy. Abandonment of a naval supply facility on Antigua, Leeward Islands, used by U.S. Atlantic Command. Return to German government of Wiesbaden U.S. Military Hospital, Lindsey, Germany. Return to German government of Germersheim Ammunition Area, Karlsruhe, Germany. Return to German government of Fintherlandstr Family Housing Area, Mainz, Germany. Return to German government of Uhlerborn Housing Area, Mainz, Germany. Reduction of operations at and partial retention of Aukamm Housing Area, Wiesbaden, Germany. Reduction of operations at and partial retention of Crestview Housing Area, Wiesbaden, Germany.