"The spot with the brightest light on it is Shaw in Sumter," Sanford said.

Sanford received a briefing on recruit training and toured the Marine Corps Recruit Depot before eating lunch with 11 recruits. Nearly 17,000 recruits are trained here each year.

Inevitably, though, questions turned to how South Carolina's major bases would fare next year when the Pentagon again swings the closures ax. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will submit the list of recommended closures and realignments by May 16, 2005. The Base Closure and Realignment Commission will review the list and make recommendations to Congress.

"We need to shield Shaw," Sanford said, because of its military capability and its economic impact. "Shaw is the economic engine of the Sumter area." Unlike Charleston, Columbia or Beaufort, he said, Sumter has relatively few economic pillars to rely on.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. James Gardner of Hanahan, a member of Sanford's military advisory panel, said Shaw might be vulnerable because it doesn't have more than one branch of the military using the base.

"'Jointness' is one thing Shaw doesn't have," Gardner said. "If they had a joint mission, it would help them a lot."

Shaw is home to the 20th Fighter Wing, an F-16 fighter unit, and the 9th Air Force, a headquarters outfit. It has no major reserve units or any combat units from other branches of the Armed Forces -- qualities that would give the base a claim to jointness.

Gardner said Shaw's jointness could be improved if the Pentagon moved the F-16 wing from McEntire Air National Guard Station near Columbia to Shaw, but that would leave McEntire vulnerable to closure.

The Defense Department has been busy since early this year collecting data on all of the nation's military bases. Cuts running as deep as 25 percent of the nation's military infrastructure are possible in the round of base closures slated to emerge next year.

Sanford was more upbeat about the future of the recruit depot.

"I think you'd have to believe the base is irreplaceable," he said. "Beaufort (also) has an immeasurable amount of local support. The Marines are welcome here."

The depot's mission of turning civilians into Marines also is irreplaceable. Two bases -- Parris Island and the depot in San Diego -- share that training. Retired Army Brig. Gen. Jim Shufelt of Beaufort said both bases are too small to allow one to close and merge with the other.

"Parris Island is 6,000 acres, but it's largely marsh land," Shufelt said, while the San Diego depot has no room for expansion.

"Of course, the Secretary of Defense could offer the Marine Corps a closed Army base, but you have Army divisions in Europe that are either moving east (into Eastern Europe) or back to the states," he said.

Sanford, as part of the state's preparation for base closings, has visited all of South Carolina's major bases, including McEntire, Shaw, Fort Jackson, the Charleston Naval Weapons Station and the Marine Corps Air Station at Beaufort.

Sanford said he didn't need to make an official trip to Charleston Air Force Base. He already is familiar with the base's mission because he does reserve duty there as a member of the Air Force Reserve's 315th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron.

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