Instructions that the Pentagon has sent out to base commanders
indicate that the 2005 Defense Department base closings
exercise will be an all-players game, since all installations
have been ordered to participate in the call for information.
The all-hands approach was not a surprise, since DoD last
year resisted congressional efforts to wall off certain
installations from review in the base closing process. The
result is that even facilities that are widely considered
core elements of the DoD structure and thus indispensable
will have to comply with what in the past has proven to be
a burdensome and nerve-wracking process. DoD said it is
necessary for all facilities to participate in order to
“treat all military installations equally and to make its
closure and realignment recommendations based solely upon
certified data.”
The data call is the first of what could be many orders that
will require installations to essentially justify their
existence under pressure from top Pentagon leaders to use
the new base closing authority aggressively to cut back on
the department’s facilities. As in past base closing rounds,
much of the burden of making the case for keeping an
installation open likely will fall on senior and mid-level
management.
DoD’s proposals will be made to a special commission that
is to be named by March 2005. That commission’s
recommendations will have to be accepted or rejected in
their entirety by Congress and the White House, with the
process set up to pave the way for acceptance.