Fort Monmouth Commissary Still on Schedule to Close in September

While the official Commissary has been pushed back a few times, the perennial staple is its doors along with the rest of the base's operations in September.

For some, the decision is financially driven -- commissaries are meant to be used by active duty military and the closing of the fort eliminates that demographic. But then others argue that which offers a significant savings to shoppers, is part of the fort culture upon which many retirees and reservists depend.

Although Sally Paul of Lakewood, who moved to the area when her husband Bill was first stationed at the fort in 1954, doesn't get to the commissary as much any more, she said there was a time she felt like she was "practically living there."

"(The low prices) helped make up for what we didn't have in salary," said Paul, who lived in the area for the better part of 40 years, raising her five sons in Tinton Falls and Monmouth Beach.

She said that whenever she and her husband, who retired as a colonel in the Army in 1979 after 25 years of service, were in the Fort Monmouth area, they'd make time for a trip to the commissary.

"The potential closure of Fort Monmouth's commissary has caused deep and understandable concern among the 19,000 troops, reservist and retirees who depend on the facility," said U.S. Rep. Rush Holt in a statement last week.

During an interview on July 7, Holt said that military personnel stationed at Naval Weapons Station Earle also use the commissary at Fort Monmouth.

Holt has joined other local officials to call for a two-year extension for the commissary, and has so far secured the support of the Secretary of the Army and has met with the Under Secretary of Defense about the issue.

The congressman has also gotten the backing of Rep. Bill Young (R-FL), the chairman of the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Deense, and Rep. Norman Dicks (D-WA), the ranking member of that subcommittee, to work to keep the commissary open for another two years.

"It's part of the deal that lead them to agree to military service," Holt said last week of the commissary's importance to the military community. "It's part of what we owe them."

But from the Defense Commissary Agency's (DeCa) point of view, commissaries are intended for active military personnel, according to a spokesman for the agency.

DeCa's Richard Brink said that there needs to be at least 100 active duty personnel in the area to maintain a commissary and that will no longer be the case at Fort Monmouth. Those remaining in the area would still be able to travel to the commissary at Joint Base
McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst about an hour away.

"It's not that simple," said Holt, disputing that idea. "There are still people actively involved in the military even though they are not active duty."

Brink said that it is not unusual across the country for military shoppers to travel to the nearest commissary to take advantage of the stores' savings.

Paul said she sees that firsthand every winter when she and her husband spend a few months near MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL.

"You see them coming from far away with coolers in their cars," she said. "The parking lot is full all day."