WASHINGTON -- Battle-worn Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles still will be repaired at Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, but the Gulf Coast no longer will be the Navy's training site for mine warfare, a federal commission decided Wednesday.

Across the nation, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, or BRAC, also voted to spare a submarine base in Connecticut and the Navy's Portsmouth shipyard, straddling the Maine-New Hampshire border, preserving a major military presence in New England and 12,000 defense-related jobs.

But the base-closing panel agreed with Pentagon proposals to shutter hundreds of small and large facilities in all corners of the country, including major bases such as Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, a naval air station in Georgia and an Army garrison in Michigan.

The Pentagon in May proposed closing or consolidating a record 62 major military bases and 775 smaller installations nationwide to save $48.8 billion over 20 years, streamline the services and reposition the armed forces. Commissioners, though, have voiced concerns about several parts of the Pentagon plan, including the estimate of how much money would be saved.

On the first of at least two days of meetings, BRAC members rejected the Pentagon's plan to close Red River, voting instead to move 400 jobs elsewhere.

But Gulf Coast residents lamented the commission's decision to close Naval Station Ingleside, which the Pentagon estimates could cost more than 6,000 jobs.

"It was an uphill battle, and we knew it," said U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, whose district includes the naval station.

Texas lawmakers and some members of the commission said the panel's decision to close Ingleside would leave the Gulf Coast without the critical homeland defense resources needed for the deep-water port, its oil and gas resources and busy ship channel.

Ingleside is home to the Navy's Mine Warfare Training Center, which will move to San Diego.

"We are hoping also to come up with a Homeland Security deal for Ingleside, maybe combining federal law enforcement agencies, DEA and FBI, to be on board ships, then they could make arrests. . . . There are options on that. It's not over yet," Ortiz said.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said she would follow up with legislation directing the Homeland Security Department to come up with a defense plan for the area, possibly locating F-16s in the area to protect Gulf Coast ship channels and NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. She said the Defense Department should have a greater role in homeland defense.

"We're going to have to step back and think about what's the next step," said Gary Bushell, a veteran who is a consultant with a task force put together to keep Ingleside open.

In its 7 1/2-hour hearing, the commission also voted to close the Lone Star Army Ammunition plant, adjacent to Red River Army Depot, costing some 400 civilian jobs, and agreed to send the 4th Infantry Division headquarters and a combat brigade at Fort Hood to Colorado.

The panel left open the possibility that some Navy flight training operations could be relocated in Kingsville, near Ingleside. It approved moving the air defense artillery school and units at Fort Bliss near El Paso to Fort Sill, Okla., and moving the 1st Armored Division and other units from Germany and Korea to Fort Bliss.

Texas still is considered a gainer in the BRAC process. Even with its losses, Fort Hood will still have five combat teams. It's expected to have a troop strength of about 41,000 and might get more troops from overseas base closings.

Although some of Red River depot's work is being exported to other states, Texas lawmakers said the depot could be hiring more people because of the workload from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The commission was to continue voting today, taking up proposals such as consolidating medical missions at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

The commission has yet to take up any Air Force proposals, including closing Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and stripping aircraft from about two dozen Air National Guard facilities across the country.

The commission's recommendations will go to President Bush for approval by Sept. 8.

Congress also will have a chance to pass the plan or veto it outright but has not taken that step in four previous rounds of closures.

If ultimately approved, the changes would occur over the next six years.

Altogether, the panel on Wednesday voted to close 17 major bases across the country, including one that the Pentagon wanted to keep open. However, six major bases the Defense Department wanted to shutter got a reprieve from the panel.

In some of its first decisions, the commission voted to keep open several major Army and Navy bases that military planners want to shut down, including the Portsmouth shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and the New London submarine base in Groton, Conn., two of the Navy's oldest bases.

To reject a recommendation, the commission had to find that the Pentagon substantially deviated from criteria that focused mainly on the military value of each facility.

Commissioners shared the concerns raised by congressional delegations, retired Navy officers and others who had fiercely lobbied to spare the bases that the economic impact would be devastating and the region would be unprotected in the face of terrorist threats.

Some analysts have said closing both the shipyard and the submarine base would devastate the economy along the coast from Maine to Rhode Island. Loss of the submarine base would have cost about 8,000 jobs, and closing the shipyard would have cost 4,000, some estimated.

The commission did, however, decide to close Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine, rather than drastically reduce forces there as the Pentagon wanted. Commissioners argued that savings could be realized more quickly if it were shut down altogether.

Fort Hood
LOCATION: Central Texas, between Killeen and Copperas Cove

PERSONNEL: About 46,000 military; business leaders estimate about 53,200 counting civilian workers and contractors

WHAT'S NEXT: Move 4th Infantry Division headquarters and a combat brigade unit to Fort Carson, Colo.; move maneuver battalions, a support battalion and aviation units to Fort Bliss.

Fort Bliss

LOCATION: El Paso

PERSONNEL: About 12,000 soldiers and 7,000 civilians

WHAT'S NEXT: Transfer Air Defense Artillery Center and School to Fort Sill, Okla.; receive 1st Armored Division and various units from Germany and Korea.

Red River Army Depot

LOCATION: Texarkana

PERSONNEL: About 4,500 employees, mostly civilians

WHAT'S NEXT: Realign Red River Army Depot instead of close it, as recommended by the Pentagon. Retain work on Humvees and Bradleys and move parts of the depot's mission elsewhere. Close Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant

Naval Station Ingleside, Naval Air Station Corpus Christi

LOCATION: Along Corpus Christi Bay in South Texas

PERSONNEL: Business leaders estimate about 3,600 employees at Ingleside

WHAT'S NEXT: Close Naval Station Ingleside and realign nearby Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, moves the Pentagon estimates could cost more than 6,000 jobs

Other BRAC actions Wednesday

* Close several Texas Army Reserves centers and relocate them within the state.

* Close Navy Reserve Centers in Lubbock and Orange, a loss of 20 military jobs.

* Transfer Culinary Training from Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, to Fort Lee, Va.

* Relocate correctional facilities at Lackland Air Force Base to Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

* Realign a leased installation in San Antonio by relocating Air Force News Agency-Army/Air Force Hometown News Service to Fort Meade, Md.

— Associated Press