Hollingsworth supports military bases

OCEANSIDE — Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth (R-El Cajon) released a statement to the California Council on Base Support and Retention today during the committee’s meeting, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appointees solicited ideas to help protect more than a dozen military installments in San Diego County from closure or realignment.

“Of the more than 180,000 Department of Defense military and civilian personnel in California, over half reside and work in San Diego and Riverside counties,” Hollingsworth said. “The geography of San Diego alone makes it a perfect location for not only training of recruits, pilots, artillery personnel and Special Forces, but also creates an environmental that makes people want to stay and raise their families.”

As Pentagon officials sort through ways to cut as much as 25 percent from the national inventory, Senator Hollingsworth illustrated for the committee how necessary the military bases are in the county to both the military and the non-military populations.

“In the county, we have many defense contractors… that have active contracts both for supply and development of equipment for all branches of our armed forces as well as some of the intelligence agencies,” he said. “Therefore, it is imperative that this committee make it clear to those in Washington, DC, that closing a base in San Diego would clearly not be good for the future training, deployment and development of the next generation of our military.”

Dennis Hollingsworth is the Senate Republican Caucus Whip representing the 36th District, which includes North Inland, and East San Diego County, portions of the City of San Diego, and Southwest Riverside County.