OLYMPIA — Gov. Gary Locke, state and federal lawmakers and a small army of civic leaders are quietly at work trying to shield the state’s military bases from the next round of closures.
The Navy, Army and Air Force installations plow an estimated $8 billion a year into the state economy, including paychecks for more than 94,000 uniformed personnel and civilian employees. Uncle Sam is the state’s largest employer.
And for the fifth time since 1988, that’s at risk.
The Department of Defense, the White House and Congress soon will kick off a new round of base closures.
"We have to be concerned," said U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the delegation’s Mr. Defense. "My advice is ‘Never take anything for granted. Be prepared. Do your homework. Keep the communities inspired.’ "
He and others say the state’s previously unthinkable loss of the Boeing headquarters and the tough fight to land the new 7E7 plane served as a warning for the state to drop its smug attitude — and get scrappy.
"We should be shocked out of our complacency and stop looking at the military as just something that’s always been there. I’m glad people are waking up," Dicks said.
Washington has a heavy concentration of military bases, and they contribute mightily to the economy. Paychecks for uniformed service members and civilian employees topped $4.4 billion in 2001.
Locke adviser Chris Rose said that in host counties, the military presence is a huge part of the local economy. In Island County, for instance, 25.4 percent of the work force draws a Navy paycheck. In Snohomish County 2.9 percent are military employees.
In Kitsap, 22.7 percent are military employees. In Pierce, it’s 8.5 percent, Spokane, 2.2 percent.
Counting dependents, Washington has 179,000 people with direct ties to the armed forces, about 3 percent of the state population. Many military retirees settle here, too.
Washington has seven major installations — Fort Lewis, one of the country’s largest and most technologically advanced Army bases, near Tacoma; Navy installations at Everett, Whidbey Island, Bangor and Bremerton; and McChord and Fairchild Air Force bases at Tacoma and Spokane, respectively.
Smaller installations, in terms of manpower, include the Yakima Army training center, Indian Island ordinance center for the Navy, and a naval undersea warfare center at Keyport, which is a torpedo and deep submarine test center.
The Everett Navy homeport and Naval Air Station Whidbey are generally seen as the most at risk, because their work could be absorbed by other facilities.
Fort Lewis, the two big air force bases, Bremerton and Bangor won’t even be considered, Dicks figures, because their work is specialized and in cases such as the fort, considered cutting edge New Military.
In the previous four rounds of base closures, 451 installations have been shuttered. In Washington, Fairchild and Whidbey Island have been on the radar screen, but avoided the final closure lists.
"The only thing we’ve lost is the Officers’ Club at Sand Point," said Dicks, who has championed the state’s case in the previous rounds. "We’ve actually gained, by picking up missions from California bases that were closed."
A new round could result in a quarter or more of the nation’s bases being closed, Dicks and others say. All the armed services concur that greater efficiency is required, and that the savings will be needed to pay for transforming themselves for the 21st century.
How the base closure process works:
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