A Rancho Santa Fe resident heading the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission said Thursday that it will be difficult to remove any bases from a list of military installations the Pentagon proposes to shutter.

Anthony Principi said it will be even harder to add a base to the list that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will issue on May 13.

"My philosophy is to not be inclined to add bases to the list," Principi said in a telephone interview with the North County Times from his offices in Washington. "To take a base off the list, the commission has to find that the secretary of defense deviated from the force structure requirements, and it takes seven commissioners to agree."

Any commission action requires seven of the nine panel members to agree, a key change from previous rounds of base closures.

Principi, who served as secretary of Veterans Affairs during George W. Bush's first term, was nominated by the president to chair the nine-member commission and agreed to take on what many consider a thankless task.

"I've always found it hard to say no to the president," said the 60-year-old U.S. Naval Academy graduate. "He asked me to do this and I am very close to him, so I was pleased to accept.

"This is very, very important to our national security, and not an easy task."

This year's commission is the fifth to oversee base closures nationwide since 1988. In the previous rounds, 451 installations, including 97 major bases, were closed or realigned, resulting in a savings of nearly $30 billion, according to the federal government.

For this round, Rumsfeld has previously said that up to 25 percent of the nation's military installations could be closed. The secretary wants the armed services to look for what are called joint-use opportunities, such as shared maintenance facilities for aircraft.

Rumsfeld has since backed away from that 25 percent closure figure, pointing out that about 70,000 overseas troops are scheduled to return to the United States soon.

"We were all heartened by the secretary's statements that he now expects there will be more realignments than closures," said Principi, who has a law degree from Seton Hall University and served in the Judge Advocate General Corps in San Diego in the 1970s.

The combat-decorated veteran of the Vietnam War said he was well aware of the vastness of the military presence in California and San Diego County. There are eight major bases in the county and numerous other installations that represent about $18 billion in direct and indirect spending, and more than 130,000 active-duty and civilian jobs. California has more bases than any other state.

"The San Diego military community has served our nation well," Principi said, adding that the commission will "be very mindful of the economic impact on communities such as San Diego that have contributed mightily to our defense."

The commission will conduct hearings with Rumsfeld and top brass the week after the Pentagon's list is published. Following the hearings, commissioners will fan out across the country to visit bases recommended for closure and conduct tightly controlled public hearings.

Commissioners who have particular ties to bases on the list will recuse themselves from the vote on whether to accept the Pentagon's recommendation, Principi said.

He denied published reports from Washington this week that suggested Vice President Dick Cheney is intimately involved in the closure process and specifically wanted Principi to head the commission in order to wield the administration's influence.

"My conversations were with the president directly and no one else," Principi said.

California officials gushed when Principi was nominated to head the commission. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and, according to published reports, virtually crowed when the selection was announced.

But in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee after his nomination and during Thursday's interview, Principi vowed to do all he can to make sure the commission is free of undue pressure from any source, and that none of the commissioners exercise regional favoritism.

"I will do everything in my power to make sure the commission is not politicized," he said. "I intend to insure that we are objective and independent."

The ultimate goal of the commission is to present the president with a force structure that can serve the nation's military needs for the next two decades, Principi said.

The commission must present its conclusions to the president by Sept. 8. If he rejects its list, it must submit a revised recommendation by Oct. 20.

Once his work with the commission is done, Principi, who has a home in Washington as well as Rancho Santa Fe, will return to a job he recently took with drug manufacturer Pfizer as vice president of its government affairs division.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.