BASE CLOSURES AND REALIGNMENT Analysts: Extra capacity will help Ohio gain jobs

Wright-Patterson should get medical and research positions from two other states.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Extra capacity at its two largest military installations helped Ohio win the Pentagon's recommendation for a net gain of jobs when many other states face the loss of thousands of jobs, defense analysts say.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's proposals for the first round of base closures in a decade would give Ohio about 241 additional full-time jobs overall.
That would include an extra 1,758 jobs at the Defense Supply Center in Columbus and suburban Whitehall, and an additional 494 jobs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton.
"Wright-Patterson was poised to be a receiver site," said Michael Gessel of the Dayton Development Coalition. "It has excess capacity. It does good quality work."
With 22,460 workers, Wright-Patterson is the largest single-site employer in Ohio. Under the Pentagon's proposal, it will pick up aerospace medical jobs and aero-medical research jobs from bases in Texas and Florida.
The 550-acre Defense Supply Center is home to 23 Defense Department agencies and employs 6,160 workers. It supplies the military with spare parts for such things as submarines and destroyers and processes payments to defense contractors.
Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Columbus, said the installation is a modern compound with room to grow.
"I have said for years that the Defense Department has underutilized the facility," Tiberi said.
Joe Renaud, the state's aerospace and defense adviser, said Ohio also benefited from having units that perform well and are housed in modern facilities. And many bases served as homes to joint branches of the military, something the Pentagon wants to move toward, he said.
Heritage helped
Ohio's aerospace heritage didn't hurt, either, said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who cited the Wright brothers and John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.
"There is a culture of flight that is deeply rooted in this state," said Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat.
The Pentagon's recommended overall job gains for Ohio were tempered by individual losses. An Air National Guard base in Mansfield would close, and a military finance center in Cleveland would lose 1,028 jobs in a realignment.
Analysts said the changes would slightly alter Ohio's military landscape, with the new jobs at Wright-Patterson helping put additional focus on military research.
"It emphasizes that Wright-Patterson will continue to be a research center, and the Pentagon recognizes that," said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio.