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Pentagon Proposes Shutting Walter Reed

180 Facilities, Including 33 Major Bases, Recommended for Closure Nationwide



By William Branigin and Ann Scott TysonWashington Post Staff Writers

Friday, May 13, 2005; 12:54 PM



The Pentagon today proposed eliminating about 180 military installations across the country in a new round of base closures and realignments aimed at saving nearly $49 billion over 20 years. One major proposal calls for essentially moving Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Washington, D.C., to a new state-of-the-art, jointly staffed facility in suburban Maryland. Among the installations targeted for closure are 33 major bases, including Fort Monroe in Virginia, Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, the 200-year-old Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, Fort McPherson in Georgia and Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut.



In addition, Pentagon officials announced at a news conference, 29 major installations are recommended for "realignment," meaning they would remain open but with fewer personnel. These include the Walter Reed hospital, which would be transformed into a new facility called the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on the site of what is now the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, across from the National Institutes of Health, officials said.



Housing and some research facilities at the Walter Reed site in Washington would stay open, but the facility as it exists today would practically be shut down, and it would lose 5,630 military, civilian and contractor jobs.



A total of 49 other major installations are slated for gains of more than 400 military or civilian personnel.

"Our current arrangements, designed for the Cold War, must give way to the new demands of the war against extremism and other evolving 21st century challenges," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a statement. He said that when the domestic base changes are combined with realignments overseas, the projected net savings increases to $64.2 billion.



The Pentagon's proposal would result in a net loss of more than 29,000 military and civilian jobs at 839 installations large and small that are slated for closure or realignment. Besides the major bases, 775 smaller military locations would be either closed or lose personnel in a realignment under the proposal.



In the Pentagon news conference, Michael W. Wynne, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said that communities affected by the closures and realignments would be offered support and assistance through the Pentagon's Office of Economic Adjustment.



He said the gross cost of the proposal is $24 billion and that the savings amount to about two dollars for every dollar invested, or about $48.8 billion over 20 years.



The total of 181 facilities targeted for closure does not include listed closings for leased spaces.

Among the luckiest states on the list is Maryland, which gains 9,293 jobs -- more than any other state. The District loses 6,496 jobs under the proposal -- mainly from the loss of Walter Reed -- while Virginia loses 1,574.



The hardest-hit states include Connecticut, which loses 8,586 jobs; Maine, with a loss of 6,938 jobs; and Alaska, which stands to lose 4,619. Overseas, a total of 13,503 jobs would be cut in the closure or realignment of U.S. military installations in Germany, South Korea and elsewhere. Many of those jobs would move to the United States.



The proposal now goes to the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission, which will hold public hearings, visit military sites and gather information on the listed facilities. The commission can add facilities to the list with a vote of seven of the nine members and remove bases from the list by a simple majority.



The commission is scheduled to report its recommendations to President Bush in September. Under the law, he must either accept or reject the recommendations in their entirety.



Congress then takes up the recommendations, which become final unless the lawmakers reject them in their entirety within 45 legislative days or by the end of the 2005 session.