Closing military bases: Common ground on the wrong front

[BMT (RIP)]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...c=nl_headlines

There is bipartisanship in Congress!



BMT

[Pete]

It's a double edged sword.

Costs lots of money to run lots of little bases all over the country - but land volume here in the states is fixed, once it's all developed it's hard to turn it back to military use.

The sensible thing to do would be to consolidate all the smaller bases into the larger regional ones. But keep small ground tending crews of grass mowers, painters, etc at the closed bases keeping them in a standby status, mothballed so to say.

Never happen because of the politicians. The last BRAC moved a bunch of units around but closed very little.

BRAC hit Fayetteville and nobody noticed.

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by Pete

Never happen because of the politicians. The last BRAC moved a bunch of units around but closed very little.

Bingo. In fact, at the so-called "Joint Bases" what really gets consolidated are the intermediate OPORD-regurgitation machines, who still don't produce anything. Most of the smaller places still around that don't have a Baker's Dozen worth of stars on the ground have already been through multiple BRAC rounds, survived, as well as having been winnowed by multiple A76 studies at the organizational level.

Area weather, training objectives & availability of a given resource should dictate that some dispersion & variety around CONUS can be a good thing. We get AC units coming up here now to fire their systems because they can't get on their home range.

I remember driving around Devens for the first time right after 10th Gp moved, looking at overall support infrastructure & wondering why toss that away & move all these families. Not like selling a Chicago North Shore golf course back to the town outside the gate at Sheridan.

The very presence of a BRAC round on the table is a huge distractor from more important stuff at all levels.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Pete

It's a double edged sword.

Costs lots of money to run lots of little bases all over the country - but land volume here in the states is fixed, once it's all developed it's hard to turn it back to military use.

The sensible thing to do would be to consolidate all the smaller bases into the larger regional ones. But keep small ground tending crews of grass mowers, painters, etc at the closed bases keeping them in a standby status, mothballed so to say.

Never happen because of the politicians. The last BRAC moved a bunch of units around but closed very little.

BRAC hit Fayetteville and nobody noticed.

7th Group noticed.

Of course, I am not sure how long it will take to recoup the $500,000,000 it cost to move them, but I am sure it will be any day now.

Probably the same with the AF leaving Pope while other adjacent bases were merged in the interest of jointness.

I am sure someone made money on it.

One thing they should understand.

You will never gain property back to replace that which you have lost. The EPA and treehuggers will see to that, and national defense be damned.

TR

[MtnGoat]

Originally Posted by Pete

It's a double edged sword.

Costs lots of money to run lots of little bases all over the country - but land volume here in the states is fixed, once it's all developed it's hard to turn it back to military use.

The sensible thing to do would be to consolidate all the smaller bases into the larger regional ones. But keep small ground tending crews of grass mowers, painters, etc at the closed bases keeping them in a standby status, mothballed so to say.

Never happen because of the politicians. The last BRACOne moved a bunch of units around but closed very little.

BRAC hit Fayetteville and nobody noticed.

I'm sorry but a lot of people noticed around Fayetteville and the local area. Not one local news will say anything, but you talk to police officers, school officials, teachers and business; there was impact.

IMO I've always felt that BRAC is for political gain and in their constituents. yes in the long run it is a double edged sword, but when is something political not a double edged sword.

BRAC is big pocket money for political gaIns. Most of the new construction was outsourced to out of state construction companies to come in and build the new office buildings or houses. Yes I understand that the small sub contractors we're all local. For me it's all games, games at the cost of the military units and service members and their family members.

[Bracholi]

Africa, what a wonderful land! Abundance of acreage and none of the locals wince when a stray burns a village...

[Pete]

Originally Posted by MtnGoat

I'm sorry but a lot of people noticed around Fayetteville and the local area. Not one local news will say anything, but you talk to police officers, school officials, teachers and business; there was impact..........................

Are they basing their observations on facts or projecting what they see around them to the nearest scapegoat BRAC?

Overcrowded schools? The overall school population for Cumberland County has remained pretty much stable over the last 17 or so years - 53,000 give or take a couple of thousand each year.

So how are schools overcrowded? Has to do with folks moving around in the County. The older subdivisions that were "middle class" in the 1960s, 70s and 80s (Lagrane, Devonwood, Loch Lomond, Waters Edge, Ponderosa, Foxfire, College Lakes, College Downs, Tiffany Pines and a host of others) have slowly transformed into rental/income subdivisions. The renters have come from the more central older neighborhoods closer to downtown - and bringing crime and drugs with them.

The hot spots have become the Jack Britt, Southview and Pine Forest HS areas. New construction has flooded the areas and the new subdivisions have flooded the schools. So not more students overall - just more students in a given area. Watch the fist fights between parents start when they build a new HS somewhere around Jack Britt and have to split it's school population.

Business? BRAC was occuring around the same time the OP TEMPO began to slow for major units on Ft Bragg. Business was pretty hit or miss from around 2004 to 2011 as a number of Brigades could be deployed. You might say we are returning to normal - not getting a kick from BRAC.

Just my observations.