"Jointness is an important part of the BRAC process," Philip Grone, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, recently told the House Armed Services Committee.

The air logistics centers at Hill, Robins and Tinker Air Force bases are the perfect place to execute Rumsfeld's transformation, said Ron Carbon, executive director of 21st Century Partnership, a group lobbying to save Robins Air Force Base.

Work at some Army and even Navy maintenance depots could be transferred to one of the remaining Air Force air logistics centers, he said.

"We have some very large bases, we have the ability to receive new missions, and we don't have any operational restrictions," Carbon said. "We can easily serve the roles that the (Department of Defense) is wanting to do."

Private-sector competition

Even if Utah's bases are not shut down, they could lose some of their workload to private contractors.

Boeing has expressed interest in taking over Hill's landing-gear workload, McCall said. Hill performs 70 percent of all Defense Department landing-gear repair efforts.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said one possible BRAC outcome would leave all workloads at Hill privatized except for the intercontinental ballistics missile mission.

But Hill can find hope in a law that limits how much work the Defense Department can contract out.

Under the 50-50 law, at least half of all military maintenance must be performed by government-run facilities like Hill.

"You can't privatize everything," McCall said.

Indirect threat

A small Indian tribe in Utah's western desert is another major player in Hill's fight for survival.

Some leaders of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes want to store spent nuclear rods above ground near the military's Utah Test and Training Range.

With 12,574 square miles of airspace, the Utah Test and Training Range is the Defense Department's largest test range and "critical to our national defense," McCall said.

On that land, F-16 pilots at Hill can train in air-to-air combat in a place that mirrors where U.S. troops are fighting today. The hills and valleys match the geographical features of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Utah Test and Training Range is also the only place where the Air Force tests cruise missiles.

F-16 pilots shouldn't have to worry about crashing into in spent nuclear waste, said Jim Hansen, the former Utah congressman who has been appointed the the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

"That's scary business. If you're in the Air Force and you don't want that liability, what would you tell your pilots?" Hansen asked. "You'd probably exclude a big chunk of that range."