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FORT DRUM, N.Y. - Good news, Fort Drum: you are safe.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced his list of recommendations Friday to close and realign more than 100 U.S. military bases.
“Fort Drum is not on that list,” said Congressman John M. McHugh (R, NY) at a news conference near post 45 minutes before the Pentagon released the list at 10:30 a.m.
“Rumsfeld has said before that the Army needs (Fort Drum),” McHugh said. Fort Drum Soldiers fighting in the global war on terrorism “are as good as they are in part because of the place that they call home.”
McHugh applauded the work of Rumsfeld and the service branches.
“It shows that they were not just in it for budget reasons, but for military value,” McHugh said.
According to a Department of Defense news release, the Pentagon’s recommendations would save the U.S. $50 billion over the next 20 years.
Fort Drum’s garrison commander said he never doubted the installation would be left off the list.
“I was confident that we were going to be here, and I’ve said as much publicly many times,” said Col. Ray Helton.
While the initial recommendation lifted the spirits of many North Country leaders and residents, work to stay off the BRAC list continues, McHugh said.
“Now the true work begins,” he said. “The BRAC Commission has been known to do some stupid things.”
Still, McHugh said Fort Drum supporters should remain optimistic. No other installations in Fort Drum’s peer group were included on the list. That means there should be little base-to-base mudslinging that has accompanied previous BRAC rounds, he said.
“That’s when you get this base-to-base, hand-to-hand combat,” where installations compete against each other to get off the list, McHugh said.
In all, the Pentagon’s BRAC recommendation would close 33 major installations and realign 29 others. Fifteen major Army installations are listed to be closed. The plan also would consolidate nearly 400 Army Reserve and Army National Guard facilities into 125 Armed Forces Reserve Centers.
In New York, the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Amityville, the Army National Guard Reserve Center in Niagara Falls, the Carpenter U.S. Army Reserve Center in Poughkeepsie, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Rome, the Navy District Recruiting Headquarters in Buffalo, Navy Reserve Centers in Glens Falls, Horseheads and Watertown (located on Fort Drum), Niagara Falls International Airport Air Guard Station, Fort Totten / Pyle, Rome Laboratory and Schenectady County Air Guard Station all were recommended for realignment or closure.
President George W. Bush is scheduled to receive the BRAC Commission’s recommendation by Sept. 8. He must either accept or reject the recommendation in its entirety by Sept. 23. If accepted, the recommendations go before Congress for similar deliberation. If Congress does not reject it, the list becomes binding after 45 days.
Those whose efforts have so far kept Fort Drum off the list – McHugh and other New York legislators, the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization, the Northern New York Chapter of the Association of the United States Army and others – will continue to count down the days before the list becomes final. They were no doubt back to work Monday, making sure Fort Drum’s name never comes up.
| Date Taken: | 05.19.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 01.08.2016 13:48 |
| Story ID: | 185902 |
| Location: | FORT DRUM, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 164 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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