Goodfellow Survives BRAC 2005!
Looks like Goodfellow avoided being named on the BRAC list altogether with this round of base closing proposals hitting the streets today. A collective sigh of relief was heard around our town and base. Our congressman called back to San Angelo the minute he found out, and it was only minutes later that the radio stations and other media ran with the story. San Angeloans are very pleased, to say the least.
This dosen't mean the base is out of the woods yet, because what has been forwarded to congress and the BRAC commission were simply the proposals of the Pentagon. I'm certain some others may point at Goodfellow in defense of their bases, but honestly, it is a lot tougher to get a new base on the list at this point than it is to get a listed base off the list. Getting a listed base off the list is not impossible, Goodfellow has been there twice before.
After I figured out the status of our base, I was immediately interested in what happened with the others. Most bases or activities on the list are small in scope, even smaller than Goodfellow, most were offices or associated with the reserves or guard. Still, there were a couple of standouts. A base similar in size and scope to ours, Cannon AFB in Clovis, NM (approx 32,000 residents) was listed. That was a bit of a shocker considering it is home to a fighter wing and tons of unrestricted airspace. I know this one is being taken hard by Clovis, a city similar to ours, and I hope the come out of this OK.
Ellsworth was another on the list, and that can't be good news for Rapid City (approx 60,000 residents). I don't know where they will move the B-1s, but it certainly is bad news for Rapid.
My heart goes out to both of these communities and I pray they can find some lemonade with the obviously bitter news about their airbases.
See the entire BRAC 2005 Pentagon recommendations on this DoD site.
This dosen't mean the base is out of the woods yet, because what has been forwarded to congress and the BRAC commission were simply the proposals of the Pentagon. I'm certain some others may point at Goodfellow in defense of their bases, but honestly, it is a lot tougher to get a new base on the list at this point than it is to get a listed base off the list. Getting a listed base off the list is not impossible, Goodfellow has been there twice before.
After I figured out the status of our base, I was immediately interested in what happened with the others. Most bases or activities on the list are small in scope, even smaller than Goodfellow, most were offices or associated with the reserves or guard. Still, there were a couple of standouts. A base similar in size and scope to ours, Cannon AFB in Clovis, NM (approx 32,000 residents) was listed. That was a bit of a shocker considering it is home to a fighter wing and tons of unrestricted airspace. I know this one is being taken hard by Clovis, a city similar to ours, and I hope the come out of this OK.
Ellsworth was another on the list, and that can't be good news for Rapid City (approx 60,000 residents). I don't know where they will move the B-1s, but it certainly is bad news for Rapid.
My heart goes out to both of these communities and I pray they can find some lemonade with the obviously bitter news about their airbases.
See the entire BRAC 2005 Pentagon recommendations on this DoD site.
posted by Mark A. at 3:27 PM
1 Comments:
Glad to hear about Goodfellow. I was trained there (for intel) in 2000-01, and it wouldn't have made any sense to close it (especially after closing Lowry AFB, which used to do intel training).
Post a Comment
<< Home