BRAC '05 choices embody lingering terrorism fears.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: DEFENSE WATCH - Base Realignment and Closure

One of the professed advantages of living in the "information age" is the ability of organizations to decentralize their operations and run their businesses from anywhere in the world.

That trend, fueled by advances in communications technology, has shaped the globalization of many industries. It also has enabled the Defense Department to deploy military forces in "distributed operations," which allow commanders to scatter small units over large areas, and avoid the massing of troops that would turn them into obvious targets.

Against this backdrop, it would seem counterintuitive that the Pentagon's proposed base-closure and realignment plan reverts in many ways to the bunker mentality that prevailed during the Cold War.

One of the dominant themes in the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure plan, which the Pentagon unveiled May 13, is the intent to move thousands of military personnel and Defense Department civilians into more secure facilities. Inadequate security at many military bases and commercial office buildings is the rationale offered for these decisions.

In the Washington, D.C., area alone, the Pentagon will shift tens of thousands of people from urban locations and concentrate them in fortified installations. A single Army base, Fort Belvoir, Va., for example, could gain nearly 20,000 employees, almost double its current work force. Similarly, the Quantico Marine Base, also in Virginia, and Fort Meade, in Maryland, would see their populations of employees rise by several thousand.

Comparable reallocation of workers into mega bases would take place elsewhere around the United States. In Georgia, Fort Benning would grow by nearly 10,000 soldiers, and the Kings Bay submarine base would receive more than 3,000 new workers. In Texas, 11,500 troops would flow into Fort Bliss, and Fort Hood would get an influx of nearly 10,000. The Army Human Resources Command will move its more than 2,000 employees from a commercial building in a St. Louis suburb to Fort Knox, Ky.

Shifting Defense Department workers from smaller installations and commercial buildings into large, sheltered bases makes sense for security reasons, officials insist.

"One of the new factors in this base closing and realignment ... is the subject of force protection," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the BRAC commission, an independent panel that is evaluating the Pentagon's projected closures.

"It's a different world today than it was previously, and there are very few...