When the Military Leaves

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X07308634 2008 34: 662 originally published online 15 October 2007Armed Forces & Society

Meridith Hill Thanner and Mady Wechsler SegalArmy Post on the Local Community

When the Military Leaves and Places Change : Effects of the Closing of an

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Authors Note: The writing of this article was supported by the U.S. Army Research Institute for theBehavioral and Social Sciences under Contract W74V8H-05-K-0007. The views expressed in this articleare those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Army Research Institute, the Department of theArmy, or the Department of Defense. The findings reported in this article are from the first authors dis-sertation research, and she conducted all of the interviews and data analysis; the second author served asher dissertation advisor. The authors are grateful for comments on this research by the other members ofthe first authors dissertation committee: Michael Paolisso, Louis Hicks, David R. Segal, William Falk,and Kurt Finsterbusch. They would also like to acknowledge and thank Ann-Catherine Ventura for herhelp providing final edits and formatting. Finally, they would like to thank Armed Forces & Society edi-tor Patricia M. Shields and two anonymous reviewers, who helped improve the article.

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When the Military Leaves andPlaces ChangeEffects of the Closing of an Army Poston the Local Community

Meridith Hill ThannerJohns Hopkins UniversityMady Wechsler SegalUniversity of Maryland

Fort Ritchie Army Garrison in Cascade, Maryland, slated for closure as part of the 1995base realignment and closure (BRAC) round, officially ceased military operations onSeptember 30, 1998. More than eight years later, a confluence of circumstances hadprevented its reuse, and the community had yet to benefit from reuse efforts. To under-stand how such base closings affect the local community and the character of a place,an ethnographic case study and a post hoc social impact assessment were conducted.Told in this article is the story of how one community has responded and adjusted tothe loss of the military, which provides lessons for other communities facing base clos-ings and for federal entities tasked with overseeing and facilitating the process.

Keywords: BRAC; base closing; community; place theory; ethnography

Part of the Department of Defenses (DoDs) response to the broader social struc-tural changes that have occurred since the end of the cold war is the transforma-tion from a large industrial-based military to a smaller technologically based force.As part of this shift, large military bases built to accommodate the manpower andequipment needs of the World War II and cold war eras are now seen as redundant


Thanner, Segal / Closing an Army Post and the Local Community 663

and costly. The base realignment and closure (BRAC) process was reintroduced inthe 1980s to bring facility infrastructure in line with present-day troop levels andoperations. To date, with more than two hundred base closures and realignments,numerous communities have been affected.

Although there have been four rounds of BRAC, with the fifth round underway,research on the effects to local communities has been scant. While there are twonotable exceptions of studies published on the effects to communities when baseshave increased as a result of BRAC,1 studies (governmental and academic) that haveexamined effects of base closings are primarily econometric in nature and examineonly very broad economic changes.2 Furthermore, though an extensive literatureexists on the impacts on communities and workers following other similar events,such as plant closings and natural disasters,3 relatively little comparable literatureexists on such impacts when a military base closes.

The predominant theme throughout the scant literature on military base closures pre-supposes that the closing is the primary point of concern; that is, the closing itself is seenas the significant event. While this event does have a direct and significant effect on thelocal community, the focus on the closing assumes that the property will be turned overto the community and reused in a timely and profitable manner, thus compensating forthe financial loss to the community due to the withdrawal of the military.

This assumption, however, does not adequately acknowledge and thus does notreadily offer a means to address the situation that follows a base closing when the prop-erty is not handed over to the community in a timely manner (not necessarily the faultof the military) and therefore not able to be reused. In the case of the closing of FortRitchie Army Garrison in Cascade, Maryland (the focus of this article), the impacts onthe communitydirect and indirectstem far more from the fact that the transitionperiod (usually touted by the federal government as taking less than seven years)lasted more than ten years, with the future ownership and use of the property justrecently resolved.

Fort Ritchie was slated for closure as part of the 1995 BRAC round and officiallyceased military operations three years later on September 30, 1998. Despite the factthat Ritchie shut its gates more than eight years ago, a confluence of circumstancesincluding unexpected and extensive unexploded ordnance cleanup and lawsuits filedby a post-closure tenant and local community membershas prevented its reuse. As ofthe end of this research study in May 2006, the property remained the possession of theU.S. Army, and the community had yet to benefit from reuse efforts.4

When a military base, especially one that has served as a major communityemployer, leaves an area, we expect disruptions within the community, particularlyto social institutions (economic and political) and interpersonal relationships (famil-ial and social). Because communities are not monolithic entities but rather dynamicand multidimensional, we also anticipate that the effects of, and responses to, a baseclosure will vary (positively and negatively) within a community. However, thenature and extent of these disruptions and responses have not been examined in theliterature. Therefore, this case study of Fort Ritchiethe first ethnographic study


664 Armed Forces & Society

conducted in a community as part of the BRAC processseeks to understand howa community was affected by the closing of a base and how residents were affectedby and responded during the long transition from a military to a non-military com-munity. This study also further exemplifies the important relationship betweenpeople and places and how particular places give meaning to the lives people live byhighlighting the important concepts of sense of place and place attachment.

The first author of this article spent five months in the community around FortRitchie (or Ritchie as the locals affectionately refer to it) to understand how thecommunity has been changed by the closing of the base. Primary data were collectedby talking with people connected to Ritchie. Recognizing that much reliance wasplaced on the recalling of memories from many years past, data-collection methodswere triangulated by also reading through local newspaper archives (mostly concen-trating on the period since February 1995, when it was announced that Ritchie wason the draft closure list) and published government reports related to the closure.Also, demographic and economic data were collected and reviewed to quantify someof the social and economic impacts on the area over time and to conduct a post hocsocial impact assessment (SIA).

Throughout the time spent around Fort Ritchie (with community residents, localbusiness owners, Army representatives, members of the local redevelopment author-ity (LRA), and county commissioners), Ritchies importance to those connected toitboth historically and contemporarilywas evident and appreciable. A sec-ondary, though significant, concern of the research was to understand the reasonswhy this place holds such importance in the lives of those around it and how thesefeelings, in turn, affected the actions of community members.

This article contains two main sections presenting the results of the researchthrough (1) conducting a SIA and (2) discussing the implications of the closing asanalyzed using the concepts of place theory. The SIA approach provides a quantita-tive framework with which to study the various impacts on the community aroundRitchie when the military left; the addition of ethnography enriches the analysis byproviding qualitative context to the numbers. Quantitative impacts were assessed byreviewing local news articles over several decades, by reviewing related governmentand legal documents, and by examining census economic and population data on thearea. The personal and qualitative effects of a base closing on the local communityare illuminated through the ethnographic case study that included the collection ofdata via in-depth interviews and conversations with community members and othersrelated to the closing and reuse process of Ritchie.

Effects of the Closing of the Fort: Post Hoc SIA

SIAs are typically conducted prior to the implementation of policy; they serve asevaluations of policy alternatives with respect to their estimated consequences on anumber of predetermined impact areas and are based on the synthesis of information


from the literature, information from experts in the field, project-specific data, anddirect experience.5 Though in this circumstance the policy has already been imple-mented (i.e., Fort Ritchie has been closed), the tenets of SIA can be instructive indetermining what impact areas are important to study and how best to study them.When undertaking an SIA, the unit of analysis for assessing impacts must be prede-termined because this guides the types of impacts examined. In this case study, thecommunity around Ritchie is the unit of analysis. Taking the community as thesocial unit usually presupposes the existence of a community government, whichthe community around Ritchie does not have. However, while the fort was stillactive, many in the community saw it as a surrogate government that planned com-munity social events throughout the year and provided support to other local institu-tions, such as the community school and the American Legion. However, themilitary did not have any authority or control over those living outside its gates, asits legal jurisdiction pertained only to its property and its members.

When selecting the community as the unit of analysis, and thus viewing it as asocial system, inputs, structures, activities, and outputs (including quality-of-lifemeasures) can all be examined. Studying communities in this way includes analysisof the impact of exogenous policies and projects on the various dimensions thatcompose the social system.

Inputs and Outputs: Impacts on the Communitybefore and after the Closing of Ritchie

Comparing economic and population statistics from 1990, when the military wasstill active, to 2000, when the military had withdrawn, shows a number of quantita-tive impacts of the closing on the area.6

Population size, households, and transience. The community experienced a steepdecline in population from 1990 to 2000 from the time the Army was present to thetime the base was closed (Table 1). For example, with the departure of military per-sonnel and their families, the total population was reduced nearly 50 percent. Thenumber of total households declined by more than 20 percent, as would be expectedgiven the departure of the military and its personnel and dependents, with no newenterprises having been established on post that would precipitate an influx of newworkers and their families into the community.

Several trends are consistent with what would be expected to occur with thedecline of a significant portion of the populationparticularly a military personnelpopulationfrom an area. When the military moved out, personnel and their familymembers moved too, thus reducing the number of overall households in the com-munity. In addition, since the military is a very transient population (personnel areoften rotated every three to four years), it is not surprising that the proportion ofpeople in their homes for more than five years increased when the military left.




Table 1Socioeconomic Changes in the Community Surrounding Fort

Ritchie from 1990 to 2000 (Communities of Highfield, Cascade, and FortRitchie), Census TractLevel Data

% 1990 2000 change

% of Total % of Total 1990 nn Population n Population 2000 n

Population characteristicsTotal population 2,469 100 1,319 100 46.6White 1,751 71 1,222 93 30.2African American 542 22 46 3 91.5Female 1,101 45 639 48 42.0Male 1,368 55 680 52 50.3Adult 1,769 72 991 75 44.0Child (younger than 18) 700 28 328 25 53.1Persons 65 or older 194 8 213 16 9.8Males in Armed Forces 483 20 32 2 93.4Females in Armed Forces 57 2 0 0 100.0

Educational attainmentAdults with less than high school 272 11 148 11 45.6Adults with high school diploma, no college 473 19 311 24 34.2Adults with some college, no degree 372 15 229 17 38.4Adults with college, professional, 157 6 45 3 71.3

or graduate degreeHousehold characteristics

Total households 686 28 538 41 21.6Living in military quarters 297 12 0 0 100.0Receiving public assistance 35 1 9 1 74.3People in homes more than 5 years 854 35 801 61 6.2Mean household income (year 2000 $) 41,837 46,794 11.8

Employment characteristicsEmployed civilians 768 31 614 47 20.1Unemployed persons 64 3 21 2 67.2Working in Washington County 830 34 183 14 78.0Traveling less than 25 min to work 867 35 326 25 62.4Traveling 25 to 44 min to work 331 13 150 11 54.7Traveling more than 45 min to work 89 4 149 11 67.4Professional, technical 61 2 34 3 44.3Executive, management, administration 68 3 71 5 4.4Sales 81 3 64 5 21.0Administrative support, clerical 128 5 112 8 12.5Production, craft, repair 167 7 226 17 35.3Operation, assembly, transport 87 4 9 1 89.7Non-farm labor 73 3 26 2 64.4Service 92 4 51 4 44.6Farming, forestry, fishing 11 0 0 0 100.0



Many, if not most, community members have in fact been in their homes for con-siderably more than five years. Finally, when the military moved, while the majorityof military personnel moved out of the area as well, the civilian personnel employedat Ritchie did not, thus accounting for the increase in the proportion of civiliansemployed in the area from 1990 to 2000. The temporary renting of part of the basefacilities to the International Masonry Institute also increased the number of civilianemployees in the area.

Racial diversity. Most striking is the decline in the African American population by92.0 percent, resulting in a percentage that is significantly below the state average. Ofthe forty-six African Americans in the area in 2000, most live in the rental housing onbase, with only two African Americans residing in the HighfieldCascade area (repre-senting only 0.2 percent of the CDP population; see Table 2). The decline in thenumber of African Americans reduced the diversity within the community. Manyresidents saw the diversity brought in by the militarydifferent people from differ-ent places with different culturesas very positive for the community, especially thechildren, as military and local children attended school together, intermingled, andbecame friends. For local adults and their children, the withdrawal of the militaryalso meant the loss of good friends; though the community was used to the changeof personnel every few years, the closing of the base stopped the entry of new peopleand potentially new friends altogether.

Children and schools. Striking too is the decline in the population of children by53 percent (Table 1). It is this particular decline that has hurt the local elementaryschool, Cascade Elementary. Cascade Elementary has a capacity of 468, yet accord-ing to Washington County Public School records, it currently has only 140 studentsenrolled (thus operating at only 30 percent capacity). The loss of more than half ofits population nearly resulted in the closing of the local school, one of the fewremaining significant social organizations in the community. It is also likely that thenumber of teachers and/or administrators declined, though some of these teachersmay have been spouses of military personnel and not local residents.

The loss of military children from the school led to the loss of funding provideddirectly to the school by the military on a per-military-dependent basisa loss ofapproximately $1,700 per student in Student Impact Aid to Washington CountySchools.7 The school also lost financial support provided by Ritchie in the form ofdirect funds and donations (e.g., computers). With the loss of population in generaland the loss of children, the neighboring Blue Ridge Summit Library lost its fund-ing by Washington County. With the perseverance of community members and assis-tance by more community minded commissioners, however, this funding wassubsequently restored, though not fully, and it must be requested every fiscal year.

Education. The population with advanced degrees declined by 74 percent due tothe nature of operations at Fort Ritchie (military intelligence) that required soldiers



to have advanced degrees, and the reported proportion of the population with a bachelorsdegree or higher in 2000 is significantly below the state average. The average householdincome, however, from 1990 (adjusted to year-2000 dollars) to 2000 increased by12 percent, or a little more than $5,000. This might be explained by the fact that1990 figures took into account the income earned by soldiers working at Ritchie,income figures that are low relative to civilian earnings. This change in householdincome might also be accounted for given the recent interest by professionals(albeit a small group)in Washington and other areas to the southin purchasingand renovating older summer homes and hotels in the area. This situation, in par-ticular, has helped some of the local businesses and contractors since the loss ofthe military, including the hardware store, which provides hardware and suppliesto this new group of residents.

Employment and travel to work. The loss of the military also seems to havealtered employment and travel to work patterns. When the military base closed,many civilians who worked for the base and lived in the area did not move their res-idence, but their place of work moved, for example, to Fort Detrick in Frederick,Maryland. This serves as an indication of many residents strong sense of place andattachment to the area and the feeling that the community is home. This can helpaccount for the 67 percent increase in the number of people who traveled more thanforty-five minutes to work in 2000 as compared to 1990. Still others may have totravel further now because their job at Ritchie was eliminated and they were unableto find comparable work closer.

Crime. A particular negative impact cited by many residents in the community withthe closing of the base is the increase in crime. When the military was active, though it

Table 2Census 2000 for HighfieldCascade Census Designated Place

(not a Census Designated Place in the 1990 Census)n % of Total Population

Total population 1,141Median age (years) 35.7White 1,123 98.4African American 2 0.2Hispanic 7 0.6Civilian veterans 114 13.9In the Armed Forces 0 0.0Government workers 3 12.4Families in poverty status 15 5.2Householders who moved into home in 1990 or earlier 285 68.0

Note: Data presented in this table are from U.S. Census figures, which, in 2000, do not include statisticsfor those residing on Fort Ritchie.


did not have legal authority in the community, its presence still served as a deter-rent to criminal activity and made residents generally feel safer and more secure.With the withdrawal of the military and particularly with the rental of former officerquarters (some of which are section 8) to people from down the mountain, com-munity residents have noticed increases in graffiti, drugs, vandalism, property dam-age, and petty theft. Despite an increase in crime, there is still a lack of policepresence by the county. A representative of the Washington County Sheriffs Officedid attend a community meeting to address the rise in crime, yet many residents felt thiswas an attempt to simply appease them without altering their actionsfurthering thecommunitys perception that those in power look at those on the mountain as on thefringe of the county.

Community activity and social interaction. A negative consequence was thatwhen the military left Ritchie, all of the activities and social events, especially eventsthat drew community members together, ceased. These had included fireworks onthe Fourth of July and the lighting of the Christmas tree in front of Lakeside Hall.Since no other organization in the community has the resources to fill this gap, thishas reduced community members opportunities to intermingle and connect withothers on a somewhat regular basis. In addition, the initial loss of the use of Ritchiesopen space was extremely disheartening to many in the community; while they havesince gained access on a limited basis to walk a predetermined path, many no longerfeel welcome on the grounds of what once was such a hospitable place and integralpart of their community. Moreover, the act of the base closing and the subsequentactions of LRA to restrict access to the property once the military left led to a lossof vitality in the community and among its residents.8

When Ritchie closed, there were impacts on other social institutions as well. Thenumber of parishioners at the local churches declined, especially in one church thatwas popular with many military personnel and their families; even though there wereservices held on post, many military members enjoyed attending church with localcommunity members. The loss of the military in the area affected the local AmericanLegion post, with membership declining by about 25 percent as many members(including soldiers and auxiliary members and Legionnaires who were civilianworkers at Ritchie) switched to the American Legion post closer to their newemployment at Fort Detrick.

At the time of the announcement in 1995 that Ritchie would close, there were areported 7,000 retirees living in the area.9 As a group, they were affected by the lossof the amenities and services they were entitled to use on Ritchie, requiring them toeither pay more to use these same services in the local community or drive furtherto other military posts to which they had access (e.g., Fort Detrick). The generalsense is that they were unhappy with the loss of use of services on Ritchie and didnot like the fact that they had to drive further to receive military benefits. However,retirees, like most others affiliated with Ritchie, did not move from the area.



Along with the obvious overwhelming feelings people had toward Ritchie, peoplealso express a true love for the area around the base. I love the area was a com-mon refrain when asked about living on the mountain. One county commissioneralso noted that folks love the area so much. And when the jobs left, most folks didnot, they kept their homes and simply traveled farther to work. This stability is alsoshown in the fact that people living in the CascadeHighfield area have been in theircurrent homes for a much longer period than the state average. Many people cite thepeacefulness, the remoteness, the serenity, and the unassuming beauty of the area asreasons why they love living where they do, in addition to the fact that many familieshave been up on the mountain for generations. Simply put, for many, the moun-tain is home. Alongside those residents who have lived in the area their whole livesare military retirees who served at Ritchie and on retirement chose to settle in thearea because they loved it so much when they were stationed there.

Important Social ImpactsAside from lost friendships and the loss of racial diversity in the community, the

transition period has had particularly important positive and negative social effectson the community. Interviews with residents reveal two main effects. First, the fightto save Ritchie, and the subsequent battles fought to protect the remaining socialinstitutions (the school and the library), brought community members together in anew way. With a common agendafirst to try to save the base and then to try to savethe community more broadlynew social networks were formed, new residents tothe area became integrated more quickly, and a cognizant recognition of the love ofplace (of Ritchie and the community) emerged.

However, the transition period has been rather divisive within the community andhas forced groups of people who were once friendly to take sides regarding theplanned reuse of Ritchie. The length of time and the delays in the process have frus-trated everyone. Many, such as those in the business community, see the new rede-velopment plan as a good thing, a way to move forward, and as the only viable reuseoption. Others, however, such as those affiliated with the local community organiza-tion (the Cascade Committee) and those involved in a local lawsuit to fight theplan, are concerned that the plan is too much for their little area; this group in par-ticular is attempting to protect the Camp Ritchie historic district, citing the negativeimpacts this new plan will have on their quality of life up on the mountain.

Another issue brought up by some who have been on the mountain their whole livesis the expressed disdain for the involvement in local affairs of people who are notnative to the area, especially some of the members of the Cascade Committee whohave been in the area less than ten years. The very active stance taken by the found-ing member of the Cascade Committee and several of its Steering Committeemembers regarding the reuse of Fort Ritchie is similar to what Falk describes (in hisethnography of a small southern rural community) as the effect of the arrival of




newcomers on local politics. As he suggests, and as is the case in the present study,to newcomers, most of whom have migrated from larger, ostensibly more sophisti-cated places, local politics probably appears a vestige from some bygone era, defi-nitely small town and small time. Falk finds that newcomers, who may be bettereducated and more used to arguing openly for what they want, begin to appearmore at county meetings and eventually may run for political office themselves.10Interestingly, when asked about the community and local politics, one Ritchie com-munity newcomer likened the current situation to that found in a small southerntown or coal mining town where a handful of families [who have been on the moun-tain for generations] . . . attempts to control the life of the community. Thesefeelings by both sides add to the divisiveness within the communitya divisiveness,unfortunately, that can only hurt the community. Unable to present itself with oneclear and focused voice, the community lessens its power to demand and achievewhat it wants.

Impacts on Local BusinessesThe neighborhoods around Ritchie are primarily residential, with some small

businesses, while Blue Ridge Summit is a mix of residences and small businesses.While no businesses closed as a direct result of the fort closing, some were hit hard.For example, around Ritchie are what used to be either summer homes or hotels forthe elite of Washington and Baltimore. Over the years, many of these old homes havebeen converted to apartment houses, and when Ritchie was active, mostly militarypersonnel, either singles or families, occupied these apartments. This cottage indus-try provided a nice stable living for the landlords since the military reliably providedthe subsidy (housing allowance) for the military personnel to pay rent. When Ritchieclosed, the rental market declined as supply far exceeded demand.

Another business, the pizza shop right outside the main gate, also did not farewell. And while Rockys is still in business, the original owner sold it and movedback to Italy, citing that since the closing of the base, business had declined to thepoint that it was not worth keeping the shop: The Fort hurt business when it closed. . . [and] Im not the only one. All of the businesses in the area have felt the pinch.

Other businesses also suffered. A local storeowner and caterer said that his cus-tomer base was about 35 percent military, and when the military left, he had to findways to make up for this loss. Another local storeowner cited an approximate 20 per-cent hit when the military moved out. He too sought ways to compensate. Both men,fortunately for their businesses, have been able to establish relationships with theLRA by providing supplies and or services directly to the board. The local barber-shop also took a financial hit when the base closed, estimating that business declinedby about 35 percent with the closing; like other businesses, the shop owners had toadapt to the situation to stay in business, for example, by extending their hours toaccommodate civilian workers who now worked at Detrick and could no longercome in during the day but rather in the evening on their way home.



One business, however, profited by the closing of the fortthe local bar locatedjust down the street from the main gate of Ritchie. One of the reasons for this, citesthe owner, is the fact that Ritchie had three outlets on post for beer and liquor; whenthe military moved out, therefore, so too did the competition.

Effects of the Closing of the Fort: An EthnographicAssessment of Ritchie the PlaceImplications for Meaning,

Memory, and the Exercise of Power

Ritchie is a place both real and imagined. It is a place of the present built of brickand mortar, a place of the past conjured in the memory, and a place of the future thatis yet to be determinedit is a remarkable unwindable spiral of [geography], mater-ial form and interpretive understandings [and] experiences, quite distinguishable fromits backdrop.11 These three defining features create an unwindable spiral in the sensethat they are interconnected and irreducible (i.e., one feature cannot be collapsed intoanother for analytical or explanatory purposes).12 The concept of the unwindable spi-ral is akin to Durkheims conception of a social fact: something sui generis that is cre-ated by, yet external to, human activity and that can only be understood as a whole(a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts).13 This unwindable spiral of Ritchieas a place is at once a bounded geographical area, populated with buildings and struc-tures and open spaces and filled with special meaning by those around it. These mean-ings are interwoven with, and unwindable from, its geography and material forms.

Ritchie is a place that was made by those around it through the attributions ofmeanings (the sense of place people have about it) given to it over time, meaningsthat are more or less embedded in historically contingent and shared cultural under-standings of the terrain.14 For example, as an active military post, Ritchie was a safe,beautiful, accessible place that encouraged interactions among community membersand served as the proverbial town square. It served as the cultural center of the com-munity, providing safe open spaces for community members to use on a daily basisand hosting events open to the public on special occasions such as the Fourth of Julyand Christmas. In this way, Ritchie, though not intentionally designed for this pur-pose, was a place that engaged community members in ways that they would other-wise not have had the opportunity to interact. Ritchie was part of the daily rhythmof life for many residentsas a place of work, a place of recreation, or a place ofinteraction. It was thus part of the routine, the mundane, the profane. And it wasthrough these mundane, everyday, taken-for-granted uses that Ritchie became aplacea literally socially constructed place that emerged from the social relationsand, more importantly, social uses it encouraged and that were embedded in it.

Ritchie served as a unifying source of collective identity for the community;when asked where they lived, people often would not say in Cascade or Blue RidgeSummit but rather would say around Fort Ritchie. The base, with all that it offeredand all that it represented, contributed to the collective well-being of the community.


Following its closure, however, the meanings attached to the base changed, andmany began to see Ritchie as unsafe, wasting away, and inaccessible. When strippedof this important social institution, a place of collective good, the community wasleft with a collective sense of anomie.

It is also a place through which important social processes have worked over time,including collective action, power, and inequality. As part of the story of Ritchie, theseprocesses inform an understanding of how the community outside its gates reacted tothe announcement of the closing and responded in the subsequent years of transition.Ritchie, thus, as a place of physical and interpretive realms, has mattered for the socialprocesses and historical change in the local community, a community albeit composedof groups with different nested interests, whether economic development, continuationof the quality of life of the rural village, or historic preservation.

When Ritchie was placed on the initial BRAC closure list, it became a place wherenetworks were formed and collective action took hold in an attempt by some in the com-munity to fight the closure; some meetings were even held on post at Lakeside Hall.Save the fort and save Ritchie became protest rallying cries. The threat of the loss ofRitchie (the loss of place) evoked emotions in residents who felt connected andattached to it and whose senses of place and community identity were threatened.15This threat also highlighted divisions in the community between those who wanted tofight the closure and those who felt they had no power to effect change.

The decision to close Ritchie by those involved with the federal BRAC processmeant that some entity at the local level had to assume responsibility for the reuseof the base. As there was no formal governing body at the community level (a rolethat was often assumed by the base commander and the commanders deputies whenRitchie was active), this meant that an entity had to be created specific for this pur-pose. The Washington County Commission assumed this role and created the LRA.This reuse authority, primarily composed of area business leaders, was not repre-sentative of the community in the sense that no member of the board resided in theimmediate local area and many community members felt that other non-businessconcerns were not given due consideration by the LRA (e.g., historic preservationand environmental impact). Furthermore, the LRA was not democratically elected,as all members were appointed by the County Commission, a commission that itselfwas composed of commissioners who were elected by a wider geographical area andwho did not share the views of the small community around Ritchie. This initial stepundertaken by the County Commissionof appointing members to the LRAreflected the way things were traditionally done in the county: without input or repre-sentation from local residents, particularly those up on the mountain outside Ritchiesgates. When the military moved out and Ritchie officially closed, community memberswere not only physically kept off the base initially but also kept out of much of thereuse process. They were both spatially and symbolically separated from the decision-making process. For example, locals were not invited to sit on the LRA or PMDCboards, and they were not allowed access to information or documentation or




decision-making processes (at least not without resistance). These activities contin-ued to reproduce (to reify) the power and privilege of those involved with the CountyCommission. The local redevelopment board also took up residence on post in theCastlean impressive structure that served as the post headquartersthus reinforc-ing the sense of who was now in charge and in power.

Social and political inequalities were thus once again reified; that is, inequitable rela-tionships, which have been created through social interactions over time, have come tobe seen and thus treated as natural, absolute, and beyond the control of any one person.16This traditional divide between those in power occupying the political seats inHagerstown sixteen miles down the mountain and those up at Ritchie exemplifiesC. Wright Millss power elite argument. While the local redevelopment board in WashingtonCounty, Maryland, is not a national power and not part of the power elite, it is nonethe-less in a structural position above others in the populace, and the County Commissionmakes decisions and controls political and financial interests that have consequences forthe populationa power, in this case, ordained and supported by the U.S. military. TheCounty Commission too represents the interests of families who have been in the areafor a long period and who have interests and values different from those newer to thearea; the newcomers challenge the power and status held by the local elite. Operatingthroughout were the interests of both local and distant elites, elites, it could be argued,who represented wider geographical areas and interests and who did not share the sameconcerns as the smaller group of local residents on the mountain.

The reuse process of a place that once encouraged engagement of diverse com-munity members now created estrangement and further heightened divisions amongthe populace. While in some cases segregation can encourage community solidarity(by bringing like-minded people together), in this case it led to further divisionsamong members of the community with different interests and motivations. Andwhile closing the base was not as devastating as predicted, the subsequent transitionperiod has been fraught with frustration, conflict, and distress. Furthermore, becausethere are competing factions within the community, the community is essentiallywithout a clear direction during this transition period.

Despite this, residents on the whole (regardless of vested interests), especiallylonger-term residents, continue to express not just their strong feelings for Ritchieand their community but also an actual love of the place. This finding is not unlikethat discussed by Falk and others,17 where residents of a place (as rundown or flawedas it may seem to outsiders) are able to separate the place from the sometimes neg-ative events that surround and involve it. How people are related to the place overtime, how they are rooted in it, and how they remember it are much stronger sourcesof identity and attachment. The power of certain places for their residents is the cre-ation of the feeling of simply being home, with memories good and bad, whichcannot be taken away and which grounds those people to that particular spot.18

Over time, the meanings Ritchie held for those connected to it changed based onhow they knew it before (how they remember it), how they see it presently, and what


they hope it will become in the future. In this transitional battle, Ritchie simultane-ously evokes memories and embodies history. People remember it as a place of his-torical significance, where World War II spies trained, and as a place of good timesand fun gatherings, memories that are stabilized by the attachments people have toit.19 Ritchie has in a sense become a place of greater respect and reverence and hasbeen elevated from the profane to the sacred. This is due, in part, to the ghost, to thememory, of Ritchie, which evokes an emotive response to those who walk itsgrounds. This happens because a place, such as Ritchie, is constituted in large mea-sure by the ghosts sensed to inhabit and possess it.20 This process, then, makesspaces into places and places personed; places are experienced through the socialsenses and the social meanings attached. And when we, through ghosts, make spaceplace, we treat that spirited space with ritual care. . . . We treat a place as a shrine.It becomes sacred, elevated above the profane.21 This process was evident in the waysome residents spoke about Ritchie and the way they reacted to losing it.

The ghosts associated with such places have real consequences for social life and,in the case of Ritchie, affect how certain groups of people have responded to themost recent reuse efforts proposed by the local redevelopment board. For example,some, who seem to attach more sacred ghosts to Ritchie, have chosen to fight thecurrent plans (via a lawsuit) to preserve the rural and historic quality of the commu-nity (and to protect their property from either possible eminent domain seizures bythe county when the community roads will likely have to be widened and from pos-sible higher property taxes that often come with increased development). Still others,perhaps with a less sacred perception of the place, have chosen to counter these mea-sures with a petition of hundreds of signatures delivered to the County Commissionin support of the development of Ritchie, development that promises to bring in alarger customer base for area businesses. Though these groups have different moti-vations for their actions, both believe that their actions may be futile; they see thosein the political seats in Hagerstown as continuing to view them, on the whole, as onthe fringe and without much influence in the political realm.

Ritchie too has different meanings attached to it by those who knew it when it wasactive and by the newcomers who have moved into the community since its closing.To this newcomer group, in particular, Ritchie has always been something moresacred, something of historical significance, and something worth saving for poster-ity. This group has economic ties that extend beyond the local community; theirinterests are focused more on the preservation of the quiet quality of life they boughtinto and not on economic development, as is the case with local business ownerswhose livelihood is more dependent on the condition of the local economy.

This then elaborates the Marxian notion that what you see and what you valuedepend on where you stand in the socialpoliticaleconomic strata.22 Furthermore,individuals occupying similar social positions are likely to become involved in acommon struggle when their social position is challenged. Thus, a class conscious-ness develops among persons of similar economic and social interests to preserve



these interests.23 Class in this case is equated to group interest and not business or eco-nomic position in the bourgeoisieproletariat sense. For example, while, for Marx, thefactory was the classic locus for the categorization of classesbetween those who ownthe means of production (the bourgeoisie) and those who do not (the proletariat)in thecurrent case classes are constituted by those who are in a structural position of power todetermine how Ritchie should be reused and those who are not.

While members of the local business group have strong connections to Ritchie, theyalso have strong connections to preserving their economic way of life and helping theircommunity economically survive in the face of a changing economic market. It is notsurprising therefore that a division has occurred between the newcomers and longer-term residents with regard to supporting the current redevelopment plan. This plan hasbeen developed by what Gieryn calls professional place makers, entrepreneurs moreinterested in the exchange or profit value of an area than its use value (which is oftenmore the concern of community members). These place makers have the ability andthe means to recreate completely what once was, either by preserving parts of theold or by completely remaking it into some place new altogether. Generally, theseplace makers are from outside the community, unaware and often unconcerned withthe attachments people have and the ghosts affiliated with certain sacred places;accordingly, without community input and representation, as in this case, the futureof a place is often left to those with the deepest pockets and not those with the deep-est attachments.

Conclusion

The main aim of this research was to learn how a local and somewhat isolatedcommunity responded when the military base (which was also the largest localemployer) closed. In particular, we were interested in examining how the closingwas perceived and interpreted by various local actors, ranging from local residentsand business owners to military personnel and local political leaders. To understandwhat peoples lives had been like when the base was fully operational and what theirlives were like as the base anticipated closing and then actually closed requiredspending time in this placein the community around the basewith the peopleconnected to it. The ethnographic case study, including spending months in andaround the community, allowed us to more fully understand the dynamics associatedwith this forced social change.

Spending time with those associated with and affected by the closing of Ritchieand listening with care to their varied stories enabled identification of the rich pointsin their stories, reflecting on the essence of these rich pieces of data and identifyingand further exploring emerging themes. Examining news articles, government andrelated policy documents, and census data enriched the analysis. Gathering infor-mation from multiple sources led to a fuller understanding of the main event (the




closing) and the events that followed. This approach has not yet appeared in the aca-demic literature on military base closings. While Lutz has constructed the complexand compelling story of the community surrounding Fort Bragg in Fayetteville,North Carolina, the circumstance that she was studying was quite different: the basewas expanding. However, her methods of investigation, including the importance oflearning through the lens of the experience of the people, helped to guide ourapproach.24

After exploring all relevant theoretical approaches, we chose to employ placetheory. While this theory has the limitation of being somewhat imprecise in its the-oretical statements, it also has the advantage of allowing considerable latitude inhow to employ it. (Indeed, as Gieryns conceptualization of place as an unwindablespiral suggests, in the most sociological way, not everything can be disaggregatedinto and best understood via a multivariate statistical scheme.) It was axiomatic thatplace matters, but it is important to analyze what about place matters and what hasbeen unique about this particular place of Ritchie. Moreover, we wanted to knowwhat could be learned from analyzing this place to advance both sociological theoryand applied practical matters related to other base closings.

We also have been guided by the desire to examine social relations, especiallyamong those on and off the base. Our findings show that power is central to howthese people behavewith respect to one another and to the place itself. In particu-lar, this research demonstrates that those with power perceive things much differ-ently than do those without. Although it is well known that base closings are highlypolitical decisions, our research shows what this has meant for the local communi-ties most directly affected by them. In particular, while the decisions as to whichbases to close are argued and decided in our nations capital, those in the hinterlandfeel their consequences most heavily.

C. Wright Mills (although writing more than fifty years ago) grasped this notion in hisstatement concerning the power elite: that power (actual and perceived) resides in thepolitical, economic, and military domains of American society and that those in powerboth distant and localshape and make decisions that have consequences for ordinarypeople. His arguments help to elucidate how power relations and the distribution ofpower and resources affect how people in a particular place respond when that placeis taken awayregardless of whether that place is a military base, a factory, or a coalmine. Related to the notion of power is that of class (or group) interest; this studyhighlights how group interests (social or economic) bring individuals together topreserve those interests regardless of the groups relative position in the formal polit-ical structure.

Furthermore, this study exemplifies how the material and symbolic elements of aplaceincluding its geography, history, economy, and cultureinteract to influencelocal patterns of meaning and action. In addition, the importance of the politicaldynamic within the area and the structure and capacity of the local governing body arehighlighted. It is the understood character of this place that helps us appreciate theactions (or inactions) by community residents from the time of the announcement of



the closure and subsequently. These various elements and their meanings set the toneof local life and encourage (or discourage) different patterns of social action andresponses such as choosing to stay and fight, choosing to stay and acquiesce, orchoosing to leave. In this case, the historical pattern of political disenfranchisementfelt by those on the mountain (by those living in this remote and somewhat secludedgeography) muted residents initiatives to try to fight the base closing, despite thefact that they were extremely saddened by the prospect of losing a place so distinc-tive and important to the community. Their silence most certainly did not meanassent, though outsiders unfamiliar with the historical dynamics between those onand those off the mountain may have viewed their silence differently. Sociologicallyspeaking, this understanding furthers an appreciation for how a place can affect, forexample, the exercise of power or the distribution of resources. As demonstratedthrough the course of this research, the exercise of power was rather limited by thoseliving on the mountain, particularly longer-term residents, although the newcom-ers, through their actions, have begun to alter this obvious imbalance of power.

Given the predominant sense by many on the mountain that they could not makea difference once the government made the decision to close Ritchie, akin to find-ings in other similar situations such as plant and mine closings,25 residents aroundRitchie showed little resistance, with some exemplifying dejected acceptance andcomplacency. The power (or perceived power) public decision makers have inshaping the closure and reuse process, including whether or not to involve particu-lar citizen groups in the decision making, also affected community response.

This is similar to Portzs findings in his examination of the political dynamic of threecommunities facing major economic dislocations (e.g., industrial closings).26 He observesthat such events (or even the threat of them) leads different groups of people, with differ-ent motivationsfrom workers to plant managers to local government officialstorespond in different ways. The overall effect of the plant closing on the community, how-ever, relies on the strength of the local economy and the ability of the local government tocreatively meet the demands and needs of its constituents within such a constrainingenvironment. As found in our research, while the local economy was relatively stable (and,in fact, growing in some sectors), a local government structure was lacking. TheCounty Commissioners attempted to compensate for this with the development ofthe LRA. However, it was not an elected decision-making body and was seen asunrepresentative and unresponsive to local concerns. The County Commission itselfwas seen by many residents as representing areas down the mountain and not thelocal community near Ritchie. The LRA did not have the credibility it needed bycommunity members to fulfill the function of a local government agency looking outfor its constituents.

The balance of power and the understanding of who was and who was not involvedin community decision making can help clarify why some citizens responded and howand why others did not. Hirschmans theory on the intersection of exit and voice,though focusing on behavior in response to actions taken by firms and organizationsrather than communities, also adds some insight into this finding.27 In particular, he



suggests that when an event occurs, individuals have three response choices: exit(quit), voice (speak out to try and effect change from within), or loyalty (go along).Loyalty to the organization also helps to slow the exit process and promote voice.With respect to those involved with the closing and reuse of Ritchie, these sameprocesses seemed to play out. Few quit and left the area as a result of the govern-ments decision to close the fort. In fact, as a result of loyalty to the area, as dis-cussed at length throughout this article, many chose to speak out and try and fightthe closing. However, while loyalty does promote voice, it does not guarantee it; asshown, despite the love of the place, many, due to power imbalances and other feel-ings of disenfranchisement, chose to stay silent, thus giving the appearance ofsimply going along with the LRA.

Case studies, though allowing for rich and detailed contextual analysis of real-lifeevents and the attendant social conditions and relationships, are often limited by thefact that they are retrospective, with a heavy reliance on memory recall from thoseinvolved. This study, similar to many case studies, addresses events ex post facto andthus, to compensate, employed multiple methods of gathering information including areview of historical documents and records and economic and demographic statistics.In light of the fact that a case study of any kind has not yet been conducted within acommunity that has experienced a base closing, it is unclear as to whether the findingsfrom this study are generalizable to other like places. However, given that our findingsare akin to other studies examining comparable events (e.g., plant closings), it is notunreasonable to proceed with future research that hypothesizes similar outcomes undersimilar conditionsor dissimilar outcomes given variations in conditions. Certaincharacteristics could be used to predict the extent to which outcomes might be similaror not: geography, how isolated the community is, the political or decision-makingstructure in the area, and so on. For example, we might expect that a community witha more representative local government body would have more legitimacy with resi-dents and provoke less resistance. Furthermore, the geographic isolation of the areaaround Ritchie clearly contributed to its lack of faith in the political entities thatexisted; residents of a less isolated area are likely to feel more in common with sur-rounding communities and their electedand even appointedrepresentatives.

The particular lessons of this studythough drawn from the story of how one com-munity has responded and adjusted to the loss of a military postcan be instructive toother communities facing base closings. In addition, these insights might well serve thosefederal entities tasked with overseeing and facilitating the process of aiding communitiesfaced with a base closure in the transition from a military to a non-military place.

Notes1. Louis Hicks and Curt Raney, The Social Impact of Military Growth in St. Marys County,

Maryland, 19401995, Armed Forces & Society 293 (2003): 353-71; and Catherine Lutz, Homefront: AMilitary City and the American 20th Century (Boston: Beacon, 2001).


2. Mark A. Hooker and Michael M. Keeter, Measuring the Economic Effects of Military BaseClosures, Economic Inquiry 39, 4 (2001): 583-98; and C. J. Krizan, Localized Effects of CaliforniasMilitary Base Realignments: Evidence from Multi-Sector Longitudinal Microdata (Washington, DC: U.S.Bureau of the Census, Center for Economic Studies, 1999).

3. Scott D. Camp, Worker Response to Plant Closings: Steelworkers in Johnstown and Youngstown(New York: Garland, 1995); W. F. Cottrell, Death by Dieselization: A Case Study in the Reaction toTechnological Change, American Sociological Review 16, 3 (1951): 358-65; Jeanne Prial Gordus, PaulJarley, and Louis A. Ferman, Plant Closings and Economic Dislocation (Kalamazoo, MI: W. E. UpjohnInstitute for Employment Research, 1981); Lee V. Hamilton, Clifford L. Broman, William S. Hoffman,and Deborah S. Renner, Hard Times and Vulnerable People: Initial Effects of Plant Closing onAutoworkers Mental Health, Journal of Health and Social Behavior 31 (June 1990): 123-40; JohnPortz, The Politics of Plant Closings (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1990); and Kai Erikson,Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood (New York: Simon &Schuster, 1976).

4. In October 2006, the majority of the base was sold to a private developer, following the resolution ofseveral pending court cases filed by private citizens and the lifting of an injunction on the sale of the base.

5. Kurt Finsterbusch, Understanding Social Impacts: Assessing the Effects of Public Projects(Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1980).

6. Data were gathered from the U.S. Census Bureaus Neighborhood Change Database19702000Tract Data, Short Form Release (developed by GeoLytics and the Urban Institute). This database containsnationwide tract-level data from the 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses, with variables andtract boundaries consistently defined across census years, thus allowing for comparisons over time forexactly the same geographical area. The information presented is based on data from the rather small cen-sus tract geographic boundary that includes Fort Ritchie, Cascade, and Highfield (the base itself and thetwo small communities just outside its gates). It does not, however, include the small neighborhood ofBlue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, which lies adjacent to, and is a part of what would be defined as thecommunity around, the base. Nevertheless, the data provide a real sense of the quantitative changes thathave occurred in the community over time.

7. Amy Giancoli, BRAC Would Impact Schools, The Record Herald, March 6, 1995.8. The local redevelopment authority is the local organization, in this case the PenMar Development

Corporation, tasked with reuse planning and implementation efforts.9. Laura Ernde, Hit List Battle Set to Begin, Morning Herald, March 2, 1995.

10. William W. Falk, Rooted in Place (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004), 196.11. Thomas Gieryn, A Space for Place in Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology 26 (2000): 471.12. Thomas Gieryn, Truth-Spots: How Place Lends Legitimacy in the Arts & Sciences (paper pre-

sented at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, March 13, 2006).13. Emile Durkheim, The Rules of the Sociological Method, ed. Steven Lukes, trans. W. D. Halls

(New York: Free Press, 1982).14. Gieryn, A Space for Place, 473.15. M. T. Fullilove, Psychiatric Implications of Displacement: Contributions from the Psychology

of Place, American Journal of Psychiatry 153 (1996): 1516-23; and Yi-Fu Tuan, Sense of Place: ItsRelationship to Self and Time, in Reanimating Places: A Geography of Rhythms, ed. Tom Mels (Burlington,VT: Ashgate, 2004), 4555.

16. George Ritzer, Classical Sociological Theory (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992).17. Falk, Rooted in Place; and William S. McFeely, Sapelos People: A Long Walk into Freedom

(New York: Norton, 1994).18. Falk, Rooted in Place.19. John Logan and Harvey Molotch, Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1987).20. Michael Mayerfeld Bell, The Ghosts of Place, Theory and Society 26 (1997): 813.



21. Ibid., 820.22. Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859; repr., New York: International,

1970); and Ritzer, Classical Sociological Theory.23. Marx, A Contribution.24. Lutz, Homefront, 1.25. Camp, Worker Response; Dale A. Hathaway, Can Workers Have a Voice? The Politics of

Deindustrialization in Pittsburgh (University Park: Penn State University Press, 1993); and Carolyn C.Perrucci, Robert Perrucci, Dena B. Targ, and Harry R. Targ, Plant Closings: International Context andSocial Costs (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1988).

26. John Portz, The Politics.27. Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and

States (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970).

Meridith Hill Thanner is on the Research Faculty of the Department of Emergency Medicine, JohnsHopkins University, Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response. She has published articlesrelated to the design and delivery of substance abuse treatment for criminal populations, the provision offaith-based services to underserved populations, and the impact of diversion programs on juvenile andadult drug offenders. Her research focuses on preparedness and response efforts by those in the publichealth and medical fields in the event of a catastrophic (natural or manmade) occurrence.

Mady Wechsler Segal is professor of sociology, distinguished scholar teacher, and associate director ofthe Research Center on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. Her recent research andteaching focuses on military families and on diversity in the military. She is writing about the well-beingof military families and trends in the representation of African American and Hispanic men and womenin the military. She has recently coauthored What We Know About Army Families: 2007 Update.



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When the Military Leaves