reserve officers say demographics ignored in nominations to close naval marine reserve centers here is a press release from the reserve officers association reserve officers say demographics ignored in nominations to close naval marine reserve centers to national desk defense writer contact herbert m hart of the reserve officers association of the united states washington april u s newswire the reserve officers association of the united states has alerted the defense base realignment and closure commission that the services failed to give sufficient weight to demographics in recommendations made to close naval and marine corps reserve centers in letters to the closure commission and to all members of congress with affected locations in their constituencies including sen sam nunn d ga chairman of the senate armed services committee roa charged that the developers of the navy marine list ignored demographics of the civilian population particularly prior service personnel roa s executive director maj gen evan l hultman aus ret suggested concern that the only plausible alternative is that they are intentionally attempting to foreclose the naval reserve components from maintaining even today s relatively low level of participation in their parent service s total force of the future he asked the commission to remove from consideration all locations without sufficient and convincing demographic data to warrant approval of the requested action only a few of the naval and marine corps reserve installations on this list are large enough to have a significant impact on the community if closed wrote hultman the major issue is the cumulative impact of moving or closing such a large percentage of the existing locations hultman reminded the commission the fact that the vast majority of the reserve installations on this list do not come close to meeting the minimal requirements for consideration in this process certainly supports the thesis that these actions are simply an attempt to foreclose a substantial role for the navy and marine corps reserve roa also noted that at the end of the s when the number of naval reservists was approximately the same as today there were naval reserve facilities if the navy recommendations are approved there will be less than naval reserve facilities facilities on the list include seven naval air stations ranging from south weymouth mass to alameda calif naval reserve centers in macon ga and parkersburg w va to missoula and great falls mont naval marine corps reserve centers include four in san francisco fort wayne ind billings mont and abilene texas a major marine reserve center on the list is that at el toro calif plus six others nigel allen toronto ontario canada ndallen r node hub org
