 - Summary Box South Carolina's bases face scrutiny in 2005 closure round_files/archives_title.gif) |
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Posted on Sat, Mar. 19, 2005 | | |
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Summary Box: South Carolina's bases face scrutiny in 2005 closure round Associated Press WHAT IS HAPPENING? By May 16, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld must produce a list of military installations that he thinks should be closed or reorganized in the United States. The list must be approved by the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC). The panel will review the list and make recommendations to Congress. Congress must vote up or down on the entire list and is unable to make changes. WHY IS IT HAPPENING? The Pentagon has had four previous rounds of base closures in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995. The 2005 round, Rumsfeld argues, "at a minimum ... must eliminate excess physical capacity," and "be the means by which we reconfigure our current infrastructure into one in which operational capacity maximizes both warfighting capability and efficiency." WHAT'S AT STAKE IN S.C.? South Carolina's major military bases include the Army's Fort Jackson near Columbia; Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter; McEntire Air National Guard Station in Eastover; Charleston Air Force Base; Charleston Naval Hospital; Naval Weapons Station in Goose Creek; Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island; Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort; Beaufort Naval Hospital. | |||