JACKSON - Shutting down pilot training facilities in the next round of base closures would present a challenge for host communities and hamper the military's ability to produce the aviators it needs, Mississippi officials say.
U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he is cautiously optimistic that all Mississippi's military bases will survive the 2005 round of base realignment and closures - known as BRAC - but he said there is no way of knowing for sure what will happen.
Mississippi's nine military communities and 12 bases employ more than 40,000 civilian and military workers with an annual payroll of nearly $1.5 billion. The bases have survived past BRAC rounds.
But some of the state's bases - Naval Air Station Meridian, Naval Station Pascagoula and Columbus Air Force Base - have been considered in the past, leading to speculation they will eventually be closed.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will decide by May 16 which bases should be restructured or closed. The BRAC Commission will consider Rumsfeld's recommendations and send its recommendation to President Bush, who must send it to Congress by Nov. 7.
Lott, an outspoken critic of the BRAC process, has said he will use any tactic necessary to protect the bases in Mississippi.
Congressional aides and lobbyists told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity that Lott placed a "hold" on President Bush's choice to lead the BRAC Commission - Anthony J. Principi.
The president, however, sidestepped the move and appointed the nine-member committee, with Principi as chairman, in a recess appointment. These appointments are only valid until the end of the Senate's current session in 2006, but the commission is expected to have concluded its work by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Mississippi's military communities have been pumping money into infrastructure and other improvements near bases in hopes the upgrades would appear favorable to the commission.
The communities have also hired consultants to keep them abreast of how the process is going. However, with military communities throughout the country taking similar action, the base improvements and hired guns do not ensure the bases will survive.
U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran has said Meridian's biggest obstacle could be influential figures like U.S. Sen. John McCain, a fellow Republican who wants to see the base in east Mississippi closed.
Cochran, R-Miss., has said McCain has raised concerns over the amount of time Meridian's weather allows for flight hours. The outspoken senator from Arizona was a flight instructor at the base. Meridian has been named, but survived, in the last three rounds of BRAC.
Lamar McDonald, appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour to head the Mississippi Military Community Council, tries to shoot down the suggestion that Meridian's pilots don't get enough time in the air.
"We take the position that Meridian does not have a weather problem," McDonald said. "NAS Meridian has never failed to graduate a class of students on time. That ought to tell you something."
Lott and McDonald say that closing Meridian could undermine the Navy's ability to train pilots. Meridian and a base in Kingsville, Texas, are the only two strike training facilities in the country.
Reducing that number to one "would be very dangerous," Lott said. "We are just barely meeting our training requirements at the two bases we have. How could we have the basic training we need for our Naval pilots if … we go to one?"
McDonald agreed.
"What happens if there's only one and it gets damaged by a natural disaster like a hurricane?" he asked.
The competition for pilot training programs in the Air Force centers on Columbus AFB, Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Okla., and Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. Each trains about a third of the Air Force's pilots.
Lott said multi-mission bases like Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi have less chance of feeling a negative impact from BRAC, and could even benefit from the process. If bases in other states are closed, Mississippi bases could pick up more missions.
Officials had estimated the Pentagon would suggest reducing the military's capacity by as much as a quarter this year. There are 425 domestic military bases.
Even though Rumsfeld has recently said the restructuring might not be as extensive as previously anticipated, that doesn't mean Mississippi is in the clear.
Lott said the limited number of missions performed at Naval Station Pascagoula could be a problem.
Two of the base's largest ships are no longer there. The USS Yorktown was decommissioned this past December. The USS Ticonderoga was retired about a month earlier.
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