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"The Kirtland Air Force base and the entire state is preparing, waiting to find out if the air base, a multi-billion-dollar industry that fuels Albuquerque and helps protect the entire city, will be one of the bases to close due to Department of Defense budget cuts.\"It's all very important to national security, and it happens to be in our city,\" said Mayor Richard Berry. \"The $4.3 billion of direct spending in our city, the 21,000 jobs are very meaningful for Albuquerque.\"Berry said he'll fight tooth and nail to keep the base open if necessary.On Thursday, the Department of Defense announced that it will look to close some military bases as part of a proposed massive cost-cutting overhaul, but which bases remain unknown.Officials said Kirtland has been down the same road before. In 1995, the base ended up on a list of potential closures, but Michael Chase, of the Kirtland partnership committee, said they were able to convince Washington to keep the base open.\"If we show up on the list, it's not where we'd like to be, but it's not necessarily the final statement,\" Chase said.Chase said he's optimistic because he believes Kirtland's role in nuclear development makes it relevant enough to keep open.\"We're very hopeful that the role Kirtland's been playing in that we'll be one of the linchpins in keeping Kirtland viable,\" Chase said."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.koat.com/article/military-base-on-edge-as-cuts-loom/5039013>