As far as it is possible for anything to be in the middle of nowhere, Dugway Proving Ground qualifies.
"Dugway is remote," testified retired Maj. Gen. John Matthews to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission at a regional hearing Thursday. "It is a good 45 minutes driving at top speed from Dugway's front gate until the next real signs of civilization. . . . There's no gas station, no convenience store and not much else except sagebrush, coyotes and jack rabbits."Matthews, Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt's top military adviser, used Dugway's lonely location as ammunition against the Army's recommendation to close English Village. The equivalent of a small town on base, English Village houses about 1,300 Dugway workers and family members.
It's unrealistic to expect that many people to commute those long distances to the base every single day, Matthews said.
The seeds of doubt found fertile soil in Commissioner Wendi Steele, who visited Dugway in person last week.
"Just how long it took to get out (to Dugway) convinced me right there," she said. "If English Village were closed it would be harder to retain good personnel, since they would have to drive so far to get there, and naturally the quality of the personnel would go down.
"My impression at this point is that (English Village) is an investment, not simply an expense."
Over the last decade, the Army has spent almost $500 million in new facilities and modernization at Dugway. Closing English Village would save a relatively paltry $6 million per year.
"That's it! $6 million!" said Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah. "While that is a lot of money to me personally, it's not even budget dust when looking at a $250 billion defense budget."
Matthews and Hansen were joined by Leavitt, Sen. Orrin Hatch and retired Maj. Gen. Mike Pavich in making the case for Utah installations during the state's 90-minute presentation in the cavernous Albuquerque Convention Center.
Hatch said Dugway's remoteness not only weighs against closing English Village, but also makes the Army proposal to move its smoke and obscurant testing and some of its biological and chemical research to other areas "crazy."
"It's almost ridiculous," he said. "In fact, it is ridiculous. . . . There are 27 million people around Aberdeen, Md. (where the Army has proposed moving Dugway's chemical and biological work), and with the Chesapeake Bay's fragile ecology, getting all the environmental permits would be a nightmare."
Hatch brought the Dugway issue up to the minute in breaking news. While he was sitting on the stand listening to other speakers, he said, he took calls from FBI Director Louis Freeh and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to discuss Wednesday's bombing in Oklahoma City.
"We're talking about terrorism on a large scale," Hatch said. He said that given the weapons used in recent terrorist acts, including the subway nerve gas attack in Tokyo, Dugway's mission is indispensable.
"I'm really not worried about Dugway being closed down," Hatch said. "It can't be closed down. No one else has the requisites."
While many of the base closure commissioners were reticent when asked their reactions to the presentation, Steele did not hesitate to express her opinions. Utah appears to have a friend in Steele, who was openly receptive to arguments supporting the state's installations.
Regarding the argument that Defense Depot Ogden shouldn't be closed because it has easy access to West Coast ports and eastern locations, Steele said, "if the (commission) staff back up the data, that could be a deciding point in (DDO's) favor, at least for me."
On the other hand, Steele cautioned that any base slated for closure has at least some things going for it.
"Frankly, every site I've been on has not been a clean kill," she said.
Commission Chairman Alan Dix-on gave himself plenty of wiggle room when asked his reactions with such responses as "I don't assume any information is correct until it's finally analyzed," and "I really can't tell you what the final decision will be until it's made."
But all in all, the Utah delegation considered its presentation - the state's last, best chance to impress the commissioners - a success.
"I thought it went very well," Leavitt said afterward. "Gen. Pavich and Gen. Matthews (the two who carried most of the load in the presentation) were very persuasive."
Pavich made his arguments using a hand-held microphone, the better to move around and get close to his listeners. His statement to the commissioners well reflected the attitude of the whole Utah delegation.
"Here I am, right in your face," he said.