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"Not everyone is going to be able to do what Charleston has done."
Thune And Fellow Lawmakers Try To Slow, Terminate Brac Round
Inside the Air Force
June 3, 2005
In an effort to save South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base from closure, the state's freshman
Republican senator, John Thune, is pushing several pieces of legislation that would delay the
Defense Department's entire 2005 base realignment and closure round. One of the bills cancels
the process entirely if the Pentagon does not submit to Congress all documentation related to its
BRAC recommendations.
Thune is one of several lawmakers with a major base closure proposed for their state focusing
attacks on the entire base-closure process.
However, the pressure is even more acute for Thune, who told voters throughout his 2004
campaign that his ties to President Bush would help save Ellsworth from closure. The base is
South Dakota's second largest employer with 3,797 military and civilian jobs.
Established in 1942, the base has served as home to the 28th Bomb Wing since 1947. If
eventually closed, the base's 24 B-1 Bomber aircraft would be sent to Dyess AFB, TX, home to
the 7th Bomb Wing. The move is intended to consolidate the service's entire B-1 fleet at one
installation in order to be more efficient.
BRAC commissioners are set to visit Ellsworth on June 21 but Thune is not sitting idle until
then.
He made his first move May 18 when, with bipartisan support, he offered a bill that would delay
the BRAC process until Congress considers various reviews, including the work of the
Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure of the United States-- a separate
study that reviews U.S. facilities-- and the ongoing 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review.
Thune also recently introduced legislation that would permit any member of the armed services to
testify before the BRAC Commission about the value of a military installation with an added
clause that any member who does testify has protection from retaliation including demotion or
harassment.
"The men and women who work and live at Ellsworth want to save their base and they want to
be allowed to talk to the BRAC commissioners about the value of their base and why they think
the Pentagon is wrong to close it," Alex Conant, Thune's press secretary, told Inside the Air Force
May 31.
DOD spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin told ITAF in a June 2 e-mail it is up to the BRAC Commission
as to who they call to tesitfy. Robert McCreary, deputy director of communications for the BRAC
Commission, said in a June 2 interview that the commissioners have had no trouble speaking to
whomever they want.
In addition, Thune also is co-sponsoring legislation introduced by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
that would require the defense secretary to submit all documentation related to the Pentagon's
BRAC recommendations to Congress no later than seven days after the bill's passage. If those
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United States. Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. AF31 Base Visit Book Ellsworth AFB, book, October 24, 2005; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc24130/m1/30/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.