Another 180 military jobs would be lost under force changes at the Pearl Harbor shipyard and Hickam Air Force Base.

Overall, none of Hawai'i's major military bases was recommended for closure as the Defense Department recommended shuttering 33 major bases and realigning 29 more to save nearly $50 billion over the next two decades and modernize the military to fight terrorism and other new threats.

"Our current arrangements, designed for the Cold War, must give way to the new demands of the war against extremism and other evolving 21st Century challenges," said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Most of the installations on the Pentagon's list will stay there unless the lawmakers, lobbyists and others advocating for them can convince the independent Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission they should be removed.

That won't be easy.

In the previous four BRAC rounds that began in 1988, about 90 percent of the Pentagon's recommendations were enacted, including the closure of 97 major bases.

And the rules for the new commission will make changes even more difficult.

The commission is supposed to make its decisions free of political considerations, although politics could creep into the process. The commission will consider the economic and environmental impact of potential closures, but the top criterion is supposed to be national security.

The nine-member, president-appointed commission is the only player in the BRAC process that can alter the list. Congress and the president can only accept or reject it in its entirety.

The commission will spend the summer analyzing the Pentagon list, holding public hearings in or near base communities and making changes to the list where it deems appropriate. The list must be submitted to the president for approval by Sept. 8.