Opinion: BRAC bad for CAFB?

The biggest expenses in the Defense Department’s budget are personnel and weapons systems. The challenges of cutting military spending isn’t new. Early headaches from 1990s budget-cutting created the “independent” Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) to make the hard decisions. Congress is expected to resort back to BRAC within two years. An Air Force Times article from nearly a year ago, brought about some public comments last week from Columbus Air Force Base’s commander. The article rated CAFB tied for No. 67 out of 68 bases rated on quality of life. Col. John Nichols, commander of the 14th Flying Training Wing, told the Columbus Exchange Club that nine of the 12 criteria were unrelated to CAFB; and that the other three (commissary size, base exchange size, size of on-base health care facilities) were on target for size and capacity. However, articles like that tend to show up in BRAC presentations. (Columbus Dispatch opinion 06/06/15) Central Mississippi Note: The opinion author, Bill Crawford, is a syndicated columnist for the Columbus Dispatch.