Willow Grove, considered

First, here's the link to the full Inquirer article from Saturday. The result is quite odd:

Willow Grove Naval Air Station will close, with the loss to the area of as many as 1,200 jobs, but Gov. Rendell claimed a victory of sorts because the base's National Guard unit will survive, though without airplanes or a mission.

No idea what those Guardsmen will be doing now, or where there funding will come from. However, the decommissioning of the Naval and Marine corps on the base will happen over a couple of years, so there may be transition time to figure it all out.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offers this rumination over who won and lost in the base decisions. Senator Rick Santorum has been criticized for putting-down Willow Grove in the past, and thus could take some blame in its closing, but will probably garner praise closer to home for his defense of the Pittsburgh base (which will be expanding under the new plans). Also mentioned are possible impacts on the re-election campaigns of Governor Rendell (D) and U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy (R).