Contributed by: filbert Friday, August 26 2005 @ 09:56 AM CST
The Base Realignment And Closure commission votes to keep open Ellsworth Air Force Base[*1] :
Looking for at least five commissioners to raise their hands in support of Skinner’s motion, the South Dakotans instead saw all but one of the nine-member panel vote to save Ellsworth.
Big win for Senator John Thune and the state of South Dakota.
Yesterday, the BRAC voted to close the storied Walter Reed Army Hospital[*2] .
The Pentagon had recommended closing the venerable hospital, where former President Dwight Eisenhower died in 1969 and Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur died in 1964. Heritage aside, Defense Department planners argued that the cost of needed improvements at Walter Reed was far greater than the expense of building a new center.