The Defense Secretary's Commission on Base Realignment and Closure was chartered on May 3, 1988 to recommend military installations within the United States, its commonwealths, territories, and possessions for realignment and closure. The Congress and the President subsequently endorsed this approach through legislation that removed some of the previous impediments to successful base-closure actions. This Commission's recommendations for closure and...

By September 1998, the Defense Department (DOD) had completed actions on about 85 percent of the 451 recommendations made by the four base realignment and closure commissions. DOD declared about 464,000 acres of base property as excess. Forty-six percent of the unneeded property was to be kept by the federal government; 33 percent was slated for nonfederal users, such as state and local authorities or private parties; and the disposition of the rest...