Sun archive: Base realignment announced

Military Base Closings

Md. stands to gain 6,600 jobs

Maryland would gain more than 6,600 jobs - more than all but one other state - as jobs throughout the country are sent here under a vast restructuring of the nation's military bases proposed yesterday by the Pentagon.

Some call for about-face of military shuffle plan

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon unveiled a sweeping plan to reorganize America's armed forces yesterday, a proposal that would close 33 major defense installations, shuffle more than 218,000 military and civilian jobs around the country and reach deep into the economies of nearly every state in the nation.

Hospital gets marching orders

WASHINGTON - For nearly a century, Walter Reed Army hospital has been a sanctuary for soldiers returning from battle, but yesterday the nation's flagship military hospital was itself the target as the Pentagon proposed closing its doors.

Proposed changes affecting Aberdeen Proving Ground

Losses:

County braces for growth amid military change

Anne Arundel County officials said the announcement of 5,300 jobs at Fort Meade fits their belief that the western portion of the county will be a center for population and business growth over the next 20 years.

Harford expects good things of base decisions

Aberdeen Proving Ground, the sprawling military base known as the engine that pulls Harford County's economy, is expected to have an even greater impact as it stands to gain new jobs and continue the transformation into the Army's prime technology center.

'For-sale sign' makes event at air base bittersweet

A formal homecoming celebration for members of the Maryland Air National Guard who served in Iraq was bittersweet yesterday at the Warfield Air National Guard Base in Middle River, where civilian jobs and military positions could be eliminated in a Defense Department restructuring.

Few changes expected in Pentagon's base-closing proposals

WASHINGTON - To thousands of communities, the battle to rescue military bases is a matter of economic life and death.

Commute could realign with base closings

Like many federal workers driving from the Baltimore suburbs into Washington every day, Marshall Hudson picks his poison - the Beltway, New York Avenue or Massachusetts Avenue - based on the 7:15 a.m. radio traffic report.

Base realignment threatens to worsen ills linked to sprawl

While officials in Maryland have publicly welcomed the prospect of gaining 6,600 federal jobs through the military base realignment proposed by the Pentagon, independent planners and activists say the move threatens to worsen the ills of suburban sprawl in the Greater Washington area, which includes Baltimore.

Lawmakers encourage support for base plan

Maryland business and government leaders need to be vocal in support of Pentagon plans to realign the nation's military bases to help counter political opposition that will not end until the fall, two area congressmen told a gathering of business owners yesterday.

N.J. town rallies against closing

EATONTOWN, N.J. - On the more-than-1,000-acre Fort Monmouth military base, Michael Brunskill and thousands of other civilian engineers develop the latest in electronic warfare, including computers that jam detonators on car bombs and flares that veer shoulder-fired missiles off course.

Too many bases, Bush tells Mids

Annapolis - Closing excess military bases is a difficult but necessary step toward modernizing the military, President Bush told graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, as he urged them to be "champions of change" in a rapidly transforming fighting force.

As One Loses, Another Gains

Harford strategy focuses on APG

For Harford County Executive James M. Harkins, the Pentagon's plans to increase civilian and military employment at Aberdeen Proving Ground come as a relief, but no great surprise.

Fort Meade may gain up to 10,000 new jobs

Maryland officials are advising local governments to expect as many as 10,000 new jobs at Fort Meade within seven years as the military consolidates bases and the ranks of the super-secret National Security Agency are boosted.

Md. works to retain secretive U.S. agency

State leaders are working behind the scenes to halt the proposed shift of the secretive National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency from Bethesda to Virginia, arguing that if it must move, the operation should go to Fort Meade, which is set to undergo a major expansion over the next seven years.

Federal panel members hear pleas not to close N.J. Army base

EATONTOWN, N.J. -- Two members of a federal commission recommending that Fort Monmouth be closed and much of its work shifted to Aberdeen toured the Army base yesterday but would not say whether the visit would help save the installation.

Tom Horton: Military bringing 'boon' and bust to Md.

ON JUNE 3, on its front page, this paper - along with most others in the region - carried news that went to the heart of why we're not making good environmental progress.

List of proposed base closings

A list obtained by The Associated Press of military facilities the Defense Department recommended for closure in May 2005: