Brac votes not to close Ellsworth AFB

This bit of news is about 24 hours old but I just want to say I agree with the comission's decision. I don't think it is wise to have all our B-1 bombers at one base. That would have left them vulnerable to attack. Saving tax dollars is important, but our national security takes precedence. Congratulations to South Dakota residents, you get to keep your base and the jobs that come with it.

BRAC votes to remove base from closure list
By Celeste Calvitto, Journal Staff Writer

Like the phoenix from the ashes, the status of Ellsworth Air Force Base rose from expendable to essential in a matter of seconds when the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, or BRAC, voted Friday to save the base.

South Dakota's top lawmakers and the head of the Ellsworth Task Force were on the edge of their seats at the suburban Washington, D.C., hearing when BRAC Commissioner Samuel Skinner made the motion to reject the Pentagon's recommendation to close Ellsworth and move its 29 B-1B Lancer bombers to Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.

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.

"It would have been nice to have nine (votes)," Pat McElgunn, Ellsworth Task Force director, joked by telephone only minutes after the vote. Later, he said, "I started counting, and when it got to five, I knew we were there."

The decision came at 7:18 a.m. MDT after less than an hour of discussion among BRAC commissioners.

"This is certainly one of the most significant recommendations to come before the commission," BRAC chairman Anthony Principi, a former U.S. secretary of veterans affairs, said in opening the deliberations.

Almost from the start, it appeared as if the vote would go Ellsworth's way as the primary arguments advanced by Ellsworth advocates over the past three months were mirrored in the presentations by BRAC staff members.