Paul Denounces Recommendation to Close Naval Station Ingleside

May 13, 2005    Washington, DC:  Congressman Ron Paul today denounced a Pentagon recommendation to close Naval State Ingleside, as “short-sighted and misguided defense policy.”  The Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission released a report this morning, which included the recommendation to close Ingleside.  NAS Ingleside is located north of Corpus Christi.

“The Pentagon talks about saving $3 or $5 billion annually by closing American military bases, but we spend that much in a single month in Iraq,” Paul stated.  “Our priorities are dead wrong.  It’s absurd to spend so much building bases overseas while closing bases at home.  Homeland security, first and foremost, requires securing American shores and borders.  What kind of national security policy deems the defense of Uzbekistan, Korea, or Iraq more important than the defense of the Texas Gulf Coast?”

“Ingleside is critical to the defense of the entire Gulf Coast,” Paul continued.  “It is the only deep-water Navy port on the Gulf that is capable of docking any vessel in the fleet, including aircraft carriers.  It represents a staging point for the shoreline defense of the entire southern United States.  If the Pentagon closes Naval Station Ingleside, America’s southern shoreline will be essentially unprotected.  It makes no sense whatsoever to close the sole military ship channel in the southern U.S. capable of docking and launching a complete defensive fleet."