MEMO: BRAC IGNORED FACTS ANALYST WARNED OF MUGU 'BRAIN DRAIN'.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

A member of the Pentagon's base closure team who helped decide the fate of Naval Base Ventura County warned the agency months ago that it was using a ``flawed process'' that prejudged cutbacks at several military sites, a series of internal memos shows.

The memos - obtained earlier this month by the Federation of American Scientists and released to the public - do not specifically mention Naval Base Ventura County.

But local officials have seized upon the memos as proof that the Defense Department panel and base closure commission erred in deciding to move more than 2,000 jobs from Point Mugu to China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in Kern County.

``All of us have read it,'' Ted Rains, a member of the Ventura County base retention task force said of the documents.

``In our opinion, it was very explicit that the Joint Cross Service Group went about the process by deciding what they were going to do and then finding the data to support their decision. There was a breakdown in the process.''

Written between March 2004 and May 2005 as the Pentagon drew up its proposals, Navy analyst and base closure veteran Don J. DeYoung repeatedly warned the joint cross service group that it was improperly rating bases.

The group was the Pentagon team responsible for evaluating installations such as China Lake and Naval Base Ventura County that perform research, development and acquisition functions.

Specifically, DeYoung alleged, many of the group's recommended closures and realignments were developed long before members obtained the data they were supposed to use to make the decisions.

``Not one scenario was developed as a result of quantitative military value analysis or on the basis of excess capacity determinations,'' DeYoung wrote in an April 23 memo.

He also said the group used a ranking system that favored bases spending a lot of money, and warned that by moving workers, the Pentagon is in danger of treating top military scientists and engineers ``as interchangeable, conveyable, replicable items much like military housing, piers and hangar space.''

``Such simplistic treatment is harmful to national security because top technical talent is critical to the success of defense programs,'' he wrote. ``We all know the blunt truth is the best will not move with the work.''

DeYoung did not return phone calls, but his ``brain drain'' argument was noted by advocates of Naval Base Ventura County, with facilities at Point Mugu and Port Hueneme.

``I've said many, many times that most people won't go,'' said Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, who had not yet read the DeYoung memos.

Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood did not reply to specific questions about the DeYoung memos, but said the agency tried to incorporate dozens of views during two years of deliberations leading up to the base closure recommendations.

He also noted that an independent commission has reviewed the Pentagon's proposals.

``If they found anything that was different, they had an opportunity to modify as the law prescribes. And they have made changes, and we are analyzing the actions taken by the commission,'' Flood said.

While technically the base closure commission's work is done and it is now up to President George W. Bush and Congress to approve its proposals, Ventura County officials say they remain hopeful that they can still influence the process.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com