BATTLE CREEK (WKZO-AM) — It’s a high stakes game of political will and determination with billions of dollars and thousands of jobs at stake, and Michigan’s congressional delegation is uniting across party lines and parochial interests to fight for Michigan’s military bases.
With most branches of the service facing double-digit cuts in their Pentagon budgets, Brigadier General Mike Stone said bases are already competing with each other to see which will survive. He said Michigan lost a lot of its clout when Carl Levin retired as chair of the armed services committee.
“Nobody can remember a time when the entire Michigan delegation came together in a bi-partisan fashion and came together on this,” Stone said. “So, they want to show this unity.
Stone said he doesn’t know when the massive cuts are coming, but they are inevitable.
“We know there’s going to be a food-fight over losing bases, and the consolidation of things called army depots.”
At Fort Custer, they have tried to attract missions that make the base as relevant as possible, with a cyber-security center, a command and control facility and a drone-piloting mission.
Rep. Fred Upton says scoring a new ballistic missile base would secure their future. That’s why most of Michigan’s congressional delegation has spent the last two days touring all of the state’s military installations, so they can work as a unit when the budget-cutters come to call.
– John McNeill
