Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison isn’t happy with some of the decisions the federal Base Realignment and Closure commission is making about military bases in Texas. Hutchison says the decisions will affect a lot of people.
The commission has voted to close Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, a large regional hospital noted for treating military and civilian burn victims. Wilford Hall’s work and 2400 medical personnel will move to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston. San Antonio’s Brooks City Base will also close, and its research work will move to Fort Sam Houston, Lackland and Randolph Air Force Bases. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison told reporters on C-Span that she’ll do what she can to mitigate the losses, by working to get new assignments and missions for the affected bases and communities.
Hutchison says she’ll also try to persuade the White House to reverse the commission’s decision to close the Naval Air Station Ingleside near Corpus Christi. Hutchison says it’s mindboggling for her that the Pentagon can take away the Navy’s presence and leave the Gulf Coast virtually unprotected, and she will do everything she can to get the Pentagon to reconsider it.