My Dad had some more memories about past base closings, back in the 1970s:
In 1972 Rhode Island Republicans strongly and repeatedly urged RI citizens to vote for Nixon in order to save the bases. They argued that the anti-war, anti-military Democratic Presidential nominee George McGovern would most certainly close the bases. One of the loudest RI supporters of Nixon was the Republican Mayor of Cranston. I forget his name, but he made frequent TV appearances using the base closing scare as his main argument for Nixon. Nixon won the election in a landslide, carrying forty-nine states. South Dakotan McGovern carried only Massachusetts.
I left the Navy in August of 1973 and entered the University of Rhode Island. That same year the base closings were announced. Many RI Republicans felt betrayed, especially the Mayor of Cranston.
In a funny letter to the editor of the Providence Journal a McGovern supporter wrote, ?Everyone said that if you voted for McGovern, the bases would close. I voted for McGovern and the bases closed. Boy, am I sorry!?
Closing Quonset Point and Davisville might have made sense, but according to knowledgeable naval officers I knew, moving ships from Newport did not. Newport is one of the best deepwater ports on the East Coast, far superior to ports such as Charleston, SC, where ships must make a long trip up the Cooper River to moor at the Naval Base. In those days powerful member and later Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee L. Mendel Rivers represented the Congressional District that included Charleston. His bases remained.
