BRAC = Base Realignment And Closing program initiated by the favorite of "red states", Donald Rumsfeld. As it happens, much of the same states that benefited from military base expansion while other bases closed are pretty much the same states that are now refusing to issue I.D.s to same-sex couples involved in the National Guard as spouses while Chuck Hagel demands that these same states issue these I.D.s, insofar as the National Guard is ultimately under the demands of the Defense Department. What part of NATIONAL do you people not understand? There's never a Second Amendment nut around when ya need one, especially when it comes to the part about "well regulated militias". The National Guard weekend warriors might be part of state ops but they're still under the command of the Pentagon all the same.
When Donald Rumsfeld was executing BRAC, all states (including Oklahoma) with bases were afraid that the next base to be cut would be theirs, and so they spent big bucks sending state lobbyists to Washington to plead their cases to keep them, while in addition to that, every city that was near a base would also spend big bucks to do that too. Enid was one of them, lobbying for Vance AFB, while OKC would lobby for Tinker AFB, as well as Army bases. In Enid's case, Washington demanded that Enid upgrade its roads and schools or risk losing Vance, and Enid spent big bucks on that too, on top of what it spent on lobbying.
(See also Mike Cooper, chairman of Vance Development Authority and Oklahoma Strategic Military Planning Commission and VDA consultants J.B. Davis and Stephen Moffitt)
And now Oklahoma is one of the states refusing orders? Well, then, Oklahoma should be one of the states whose previously spent fortunes should be at risk as being a total loss under a BRAC order, too. Bases in states that refuse orders from the Department of Defense should now lose those bases they spent piles of ransom money to retain.
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