COLUMBIA, S.C. - The panel weighing Defense Department plans to restructure America's military bases voted Wednesday to close the Naval Facilities Engineering Field Division South in Charleston at a cost of almost 500 jobs, but approved about 2,300 new slots for the Midlands.

The panel's votes affecting the Palmetto State went along with recommendations from the Pentagon released in May.

"That's a tough one to take," said Thomas Mikolajcik, a retired Air Force brigadier general who lobbied the nine-member panel on behalf of the Charleston facility. "We'll just have to move forward and help those people and their families" affected.

Mikolajcik said almost all the facility's employees are civilians, with about two dozen workers in the military. The jobs are expected to be dispersed among federal facilities in Florida, Virginia and the Midwest and are expected to take three to four years to complete. The engineering division handles construction management for the Navy on projects in 22 states.

"I am disappointed in today's decision," said Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C. "We felt all along that there was no savings to the government in moving these 500 families across the country."

As the base closing commission began working Wednesday through an expected four to five days of votes on the future of hundreds of military facilities, it dealt primarily with Army and Navy sites.

The panel voted to close Fort McPherson in Atlanta, which will shift nearly 1,000 Army slots to Shaw Air Force Base near Sumter, said Ike McLeese, president of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

"So far, they have affirmed everything that was proposed and expected to impact the Midlands," McLeese said. The transfer puts the Army headquarters of the 3rd Army alongside the 9th Air Force headquarters. The two groups are in charge of military operations in the region known as Southwest Asia, ranging from the Persian Gulf through Afghanistan and from eastern Africa to the new republics on the edge of the former Soviet Union.

McLeese said the panel approved the consolidation of three drill sergeant schools at Columbia's Fort Jackson, the Army's largest training base. It also transferred an Army Reserve command to Columbia from Alabama.

The panel has not yet dealt with the proposal to consolidate several religious training sites for multiple service branches at Fort Jackson, he said. McLeese said it appears that the Midlands will get about 2,300 jobs out of the decisions, but he noted that nothing is certain until the panel completes several days of voting.

"We are still filling in the blanks," he said.

The total number of jobs won or loss may not be clear until the panel wraps up its complex array of votes. In the May proposals, South Carolina was expected to receive about 1,870 military and civilian jobs and they were to be offset by losses at three Charleston facilities totaling 1,161 jobs.

For example, the panel wrapped up work Wednesday without addressing the Pentagon's recommendation on closing the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and transferring 250 jobs from the Charleston Naval Weapons Station, Mikolajcik said.

Overall, the commission agreed with Pentagon proposals to close several major bases elsewhere and approved most of the recommendations made by the Army and the Navy.

The panel also signed off on closing nearly 400 Army Reserve and National Guard facilities in dozens of states, creating new joint centers.

The commission must send its final proposal to President Bush by Sept. 8. The president can accept the report or order the commission to make changes. Then, Congress can approve or reject the whole report, but cannot make changes itself.

ON THE NET

Pentagon's base closing plan: http://www.defenselink.mil/brac/

Base closing commission: http://www.brac.gov/