mr. chairman , i thank the distinguished gentleman from colorado for the time . 
first , let me thank the brac commission head anthony principi and all of the panel members for their hard work for listening to all of us , both at the regional hearings and in person , and with the staff and the department of defense who worked with so many of us in these very difficult decisions . 
i rise in opposition to my colleague from illinois 's resolution , but i share some of his concerns . 
i would like to talk about a few of these . 
in the state of indiana , the previous round of brac , i was legislative director for the junior senator from indiana when we watched all of our active military bases get wiped out in the state of indiana , one of the number one recruiting states in the united states . 
my hometown in fort wayne , indiana , is one of the major centers of defense electronics in the united states with itt aerospace , with raytheon , defense electronics based there making many highly classified electronics , defense systems , with general dynamics with a huge facility there , with bae systems with a huge facility there , with ussi with a huge facility there , with northrop grumman with a large and expanding facility there . 
we have defense electronics and a very patriotic , one of the highest , if not the highest , congressional districts in america in military recruiting for army , navy , air force and all of the various guard and reserve groups . 
we have an air guard base there in fort wayne , indiana , that is gaining under this process . 
it was a very difficult process as to how we deal with the guard and particularly the air guard , and it was a very stiff competition with the gentleman from illinois ' air base and the air base in terre haute , and we can argue the relative merits . 
what i heard at the hearing is , look , i am very proud of our air guard . 
they are way over . 
they have the highest percent retention , actually overretention at 116 percent of their recruiting quota . 
they have won national outstanding unit award three times by the air force and recipient of the national guard number one air guard unit in the united states . 
but i also heard from the people in the capital region air guard unit and the people in the terre haute guard unit . 
in fact , they were all high in recruitment , and they were all high in national awards . 
the problem is the air force is cutting . 
the f-16s are aging and declining in quality and disappearing from our defense system , and the air force plans are to reduce the number of fighter planes by two-thirds . 
so where is this going to leave the air guard and the reserve , and how do we work this through when we head into a brac process ? 
i am very concerned where we are headed long term with this , not just this brac process but the next brac process . 
it is clear we are leaning heavily on guard and reserve . 
are we going to the point where guard and reserve and the air force are only going to be at active bases , and where does that leave the heartland of the united states as we move everything to the coast ? 
where does it leave us in homeland security ? 
the gentleman from illinois ( mr. lahood ) xz4002280 raised a very difficult and interesting question that worked through the courts in this process , that it is pretty clear that the department of defense can not close an air guard base , but they can move the airplanes . 
so we had one court ruling in pennsylvania that said they could not close the base , but we have other rulings that said they could move the airplanes . 
what exactly is the role of an air guard base if it does not have any airplanes , and how are we going to work this through ? 
i believe there will be other types of defense systems in homeland security that hopefully will be located in terre haute and will be located in springfield , illinois , very important cities to homeland security and our national defense . 
we have to work this through . 
i believe the brac commission made the right decisions , but this does not necessarily give us much guidance as to where we are headed and how we are going to integrate and maintain the defense structure we have in the united states with our air guard , army guard , and all of our reserve units around the country if we do not have an adequate base structure , if we do not have adequate training places and ways to do this . 
i hope we can find , in addition to the fighter planes that are located in fort wayne , and the expansion of our base , for which i am very thankful , ways to work with springfield , illinois , with terre haute , indiana , and other bases around the united states because we need all of those pilots . 
we need all of those guard and reserve people around the united states because we are strapped very thin . 
i hope this brac commission report , while i strongly support it , will also be a launching point as to how we are going to work and build and keep this very diverse armed forces system in the united states . 
