AP: Air National Guard emerges as most contentious issue in base-closing p [View All]

[question everything]

Tuesday, August 2, 2005

Air National Guard emerges as most contentious issue in base-closing plan

By: LIZ SIDOTI - Associated Press

WASHINGTON ---- A shake-up of dozens of Air National Guard units has emerged as the most contentious part of the Pentagon's proposal to close or restructure hundreds of military bases across the country.

States are suing over the issue. Lawmakers in both parties are griping. And the independent commission reviewing the sweeping proposal has serious concerns about the impact of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's Air Guard plan.

A major question about that plan also remains unresolved just weeks before the commission's September deadline to send its recommendations to President Bush, himself a stateside Vietnam-era pilot in the Texas Air National Guard: Does the law even allow the Pentagon to move Air Guard units without the consent of state governors, who through their adjutants general share authority over the units with the president?

More..
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/08/02/military/brac/8105204238.txt