In the 1990s, the Army closed 112 of its bases in the United States and realigned another 27, saving an estimated $3.1 billion. This year the Pentagon will begin what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield says will be its largest round of base closings, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). In the current issue of Government Executive, George Cahlink reports that the Pentagon's point man on the base-closing process, Raymond DuBois, says the upcoming base closures will be far different and more aggressive than those in the late 1980s and 1990s, which resulted in 97 bases being shuttered. In the past the BRAC process was more about saving money. The 2005 process is more about transformation and creating a more nimble and adaptable army. Military value will be the focus for the final selection criteria. That value represents the ability of the installation to contribute to Department of Defense’s future mission capabilities and operational readiness. The final selection criteria are also based on factors such as potential costs and savings, community support and environmental considerations.

Glenn Flood, a spokesman for Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld's office, said the war on terrorism makes it even clearer that "we should try to eliminate as much of our excess capacity as we can so we use our resources more wisely and stop wasting money on things we don't need." Previous base closings produced one-time savings of about $18 billion and annual savings of about $6.5billion, Flood said. Each gain or loss of 1,000 soldiers represents a gain or loss of $1million in tax revenue to the state, Shane said. In all, the military spends about $5billion a year in Kentucky, Flood said.

Which bases will close? At this time no one can know for sure. So, if you see list floating around on the Internet they are just someone’s or some group’s opinion.

On January 6, 2004, the Department of Defense announced that it had requested the commanders of United States installations, including those in U.S. territories and possessions to submit relevant data about their particular installations infrastructure and operations. All installations are required to submit the requested data. As a result every base and military installation in the United States did internal assessments of their operations, land, personnel, and facilities. This data was then given to the Pentagon. None of the data collected will be released to the public prior to the department's recommendations being forwarded to the independent BRAC Commission however, all questions and data to be publicly available once the Commission receives them.

The data collected will be evaluated by the Department of Defense and the initial base closing recommendations will come from the Pentagon. In May of 2005 the President and congressional leaders will summit for Senate confirmation a nine-member list of nominees for the 2005 BRAC Commission. The commission has been increased fro 8 to 9 members to prevent tie votes. Upon their confirmation they will evaluate the list based on the information provided to them. The BRAC Commission will then add bases to or cut bases from the list. The commission's list will then go to the President and Congress for approval. Neither the President nor the Congress can edit the list. Their only option is to accept or reject it. After the list is submitted, Congress has 30 days to reject it. If Congress does not vote against the list it will become law in 30 days.

The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process began in the 1960s. After World War II and the Korean War it was recognized that the Department of Defense (DOD) needed to restructure and reduce its base structure. The process has had a long and colorful evolution eventfully arriving at the current procedure. It remains a hot political and economic issue to this day.

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