Memo: Obama could OK Joint Forces closure by Sept. 1

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ decision to close the Joint Forces Command has the backing of its former and incoming commanders and is likely to be approved by President Barack Obama before Sept. 1, according to a memo widely circulated to Hampton Roads elected officials Friday.

If true, that means local officials’ efforts to halt the planned closure face very long odds.

The memo from Dan Abrams, government affairs coordinator at the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, cites “strong evidence” that the decision to shut down the Norfolk-based military command is close to being finalized.

The memo does not identify the source of the information, but it was believed credible enough that local officials were urged to call or e-mail the White House on Friday afternoon in a last-ditch effort to save the command and its 6,000 local jobs.

According to the memo, Gates’ decision has the support of both Marine Gen. James Mattis, who commanded JFCOM from 2007 until this year, and Army Gen. Ray Odierno, who is slated to assume command in October.

The decision also has the backing of Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the memo says. All three generals are said to have known about the plan for several months.

The move to close JFCOM is the product of a five-month internal study led by Christine Fox, director of cost assessment and program evaluation at the Pentagon, according to the memo. Mattis is said to have had “significant input throughout the process.”

Fox’s study recommends giving JFCOM’s mission of assigning military forces worldwide to the individual armed services and eliminating its experimentation function outright, according to the memo. “Gen. Mattis never believed they provided anything of value,” it says, referring to the experimentation function, known within JFCOM as J-9, which involves developing and testing new warfighting concepts.

The study found value in JFCOM’s Joint Warfighting Center but recommended getting rid of its leased space in northern Suffolk “so it could potentially go anywhere,” the memo says.

The intent is for Obama to sign off on the closure by Sept. 1 so it is done before Congress returns from its summer recess, according to the memo. The goal is to have a recommended course of action in Gates’ hands by mid-October and an approved plan with milestones in place by mid-December. The first job losses would occur after Jan. 1.

“Even more disturbing,” the memo says, is that Gates is considering a move to “mothball” the Navy’s Norfolk-based 2nd Fleet.

Frank Roberts, executive director of the Hampton Roads alliance, said that local officials have understandably been focused on Gates’ proposal to close JFCOM, but the defense secretary’s other initiatives – to reduce contractors and slim the ranks of admirals and generals – could also have a big impact locally.

Roberts said Gates gave all the branches of the military an “implied challenge” to eliminate commands and higher headquarters whose functions could be consolidated elsewhere.

“We believe that if you follow Gates’ direction and some of the implications he’s stated along the way … that there’s planning under way within the Navy that would consider the potential demise of the 2nd Fleet,” Roberts said.

Despite the memo’s use of the word “mothball,” the fear isn’t that the more than 100 ships based in Norfolk would disappear – rather, that the command structure overseeing them could be downsized.

Roberts also acknowledged that, contrary to earlier claims, the proposal to eliminate JFCOM seems to have been months in the making. Many members of the alliance as well as local legislators had criticized Gates for not thoroughly analyzing the command’s functions and importance.

But now Roberts believes that at least a few high-level Pentagon analysts – working in Fox’s office – may have quietly spent months studying the matter.

The CAPE office, as the cost assessment and program evaluation office is referred to, works in an advisory role and has no decision-making authority or responsibility. But its director serves as secretary of a senior leadership group that advises the secretary of defense on resource issues.

Army Lt. Gen. Keith Huber, JFCOM’s acting commander, led staff briefings at the command’s Norfolk and Suffolk locations Friday in which he referred to a previously announced timeline for the closure plan. A JFCOM spokesman said he had not seen the Hampton Roads alliance memo and could not comment on it.

Leah Nelson, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye, D-Virginia Beach, said Virginia legislators are frustrated by the lack of hard information from the Obama administration and the Pentagon.

“All these internal rumors are flying around about how the secretary of defense made this decision,” Nelson said, but Nye “still has yet to receive anything tangible from the Department of Defense.”

Members of the Hampton Roads delegation have tried to get more details from the White House and the Pentagon but have been stonewalled, Nelson said.

“If they were doing all this analysis for five months, let us see it,” she said. If the memo is correct, and the president plans to approve Gates’ proposal in the coming days, she said, “that would be a direct subversion of congressional oversight.”

Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake, said his office was trying to verify the information in the memo.

“If the memo proves to be accurate,” Forbes said, “then the lack of transparency and secretive nature in which this administration seeks to conduct our nation’s business is even more frightening than we thought.”