WASHINGTON - Bucking the Pentagon, a federal commission preserved a major military presence in New England on Wednesday by keeping open two historic Navy facilities that together provide 12,000 jobs for a defense-dependent economy.
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In some of its first decisions, the commission voted to keep open several major Army and Navy bases that military planners want to shut down, including the Portsmouth shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and the New London submarine base in Groton, Conn., two of the Navy's oldest bases.
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Some analysts have said closing both the shipyard and the submarine base would devastated the economy along the coast from Maine to Rhode Island. Loss of the submarine base, which former President Carter, a dozen admirals and high-ranking Congress members opposed, would have cost about 8,000 jobs, and closing the shipyard would have cost 4,000, some estimated. Many more jobs at businesses that depend on the bases also were at risk.
The commission did, however, decide to close Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine, rather than drastically reduce forces there as the Pentagon wanted. Commissioners argued that savings could be realized more quickly if it were shut down altogether.
