To many, it's the best of both worlds: a challenging, high-paid job with small-town appeal.

"There's a set of moral ties, an element that keeps us here," said Dusty Wilson, 35, an electrical engineer who is the fourth generation in his family to work at the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center. "Everything you need is here. You don't have to leave your roots."

But times could be changing for this southern Indiana community and others across the nation that depend on military bases for jobs, tax dollars and retail sales.

Pentagon officials are preparing for their fifth round of base closings, and they say there's plenty of fat to trim. Officials won't specify how many of 400 bases are targeted - but say the military has 24 percent more capacity than it needs.

Recommendations for closings are due May 16 to a nine-member Base Realignment and Closure - or BRAC - commission. Defense leaders say the closures, the first since 1995, could save billions.

But what's good for the federal pocketbook is causing anxiety in military-dependent communities.

"There are a lot of people saying they don't know what they would do," said Jeff Bowling, 32, an electronics technician at Crane whose stepfather also works at the base and whose brother is employed by a Crane contractor.

Bowling lives in Loogootee, a town of 2,741 people where 67 percent of all wages paid come from Crane.

Crane - Indiana's 12th largest single-site employer - provides 8,100 jobs either through the government or related contractors, with a total payroll of $368 million. Its tasks range from modifying weapons for Navy SEALs to testing laser-guided bombs, and it has 650,000 tons of ordnance storage capacity.

Many employees say they'd have to move to find similar work.

The sentiment is similar at Fort Knox, Ky., where Bill Barron, a retired Army Reserves major general, is leading an effort to keep that installation open.

"Some people speculate that this round of base closures could be worse than all the previous ones combined," Barron said. "All the low-hanging fruit has been picked, so BRAC '05 is going to be pretty painful for a lot of installations."

Barron said Fort Knox generates $1.4 billion annually in contracts and payroll, but economic impact ranks low on the military's list of reasons to keep a base open. "Military value" - how well the base contributes to defense needs now and in the future - is the primary consideration.

Communities are spending millions on consultants, lobbyists and construction projects to prove their worth.

In Brunswick, Maine, officials have compiled a 20-page document to promote Brunswick Naval Air Station. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has formed a commission to discuss ways to keep California's bases open.

In December, officials at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma broke ground on a $15 million logistics center. They hope the project will address a vulnerability identified during the 1995 base closures - having its logistics facilities scattered in various areas.

Loren Thompson, a defense industry analyst with the Lexington Institute, a Washington think tank, said all the efforts have merit.

"There's always a case for keeping a base," Thompson said. "Otherwise, it wouldn't be there in the first place."

Pentagon leaders say they try to keep the process removed from politics. The analysis is done in a "windowless room tightly sealed and locked," said Raymond DuBois, who oversees the BRAC process for the Pentagon.

Still, townspeople here hope the message gets through.

"I'll be praying about it," said Cheryl Biggs, 55, who owns Blessings Christian bookstore in Loogootee. Without Crane, she said, "This town would be a ghost town."

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