COLUMBIA - S.C. chambers of commerce are cranking up and retired generals are readying to lead the charge as the Palmetto State girds for a pitched fight to keep its major military installations.

The effort is necessary if the state wants to keep what amounts to a $4.3 billion-a-year business, officials say.

Local communities and the state have pledged thousands of dollars to sell the story that South Carolina is a friendly place for the military to do business and even expand.

No one is playing it safe. They all remember what happened in 1995 at Charleston.

"A lot of people, including our two senators at the time, didn't think the Charleston Navy Yard would be closed, and it was," said Ike McLeese, president of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

Beaufort, Charleston, Columbia and Sumter are nervous because Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to shut down 100 of 425 military installations in the United States and overseas.

That's as many bases as were closed in the first four rounds combined of the Base Realignment and Closure Act.

"There's going to be a lot of blood on the floor," said U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., whose district includes Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter.

The work of coming up with a list of installations to be closed by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission starts after the Pentagon releases its guidelines for identifying unneeded bases later this month.

In 2004, the Pentagon will compile its inventory of installations. A final list of bases to be closed won't be released until 2005. That list requires the approval of Congress and the president.

"We're going to make a full-court press to tell the best story we can," said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who will be a key player in deciding the fate of S.C. bases as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Our ace in the hole is that every base that's left [in South Carolina] is essential to war-fighting."

Money will be one of the primary weapons used by state and local groups to save the S.C. bases. The state has allocated $700,000 to the cause, and local communities are raising money to pay for consultants and lobbyists.

The Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, for example, is trying to raise $650,000 to keep open Fort Jackson and McEntire Air National Guard Station.

The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce won't say how much it is raising, but a spokesman said it would exceed Columbia's goal.

To improve South Carolina's chances, Graham said a case has to be made that the bases have room to grow and can take on new or expanded missions.

Shaw, home to the 20th Fighter Wing and 9th Air Force command, is considered the most vulnerable of the state's major military installations. That's because the Air Force plans to cut its fighter force in half in the next 20 to 30 years. As a result, it won't need as many bases.

There's also pressure on the Army to consolidate its training sites. That means Fort Jackson isn't safe, even though half the nation's soldiers graduate from basic training at the Columbia facility.

The Army has five basic training installations, including Fort Jackson. Other services have fewer - the Marines, two; the Air Force and Navy, one each.

In Charleston, the closing of the shipyard set back the Lowcountry economy, where the Navy was the area's top employer.

But that setback didn't last long.

A new study, by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, found the Navy once again is Charleston's largest employer, ahead of the Medical University of South Carolina and the Air Force. With more than 12,500 active-duty and civilian employees engaged in weapons storage and training missions, the Navy has more than twice the number of Charleston area workers as the Air Force.

Retired Brig. Gen. Tom Mikolajcik, who's leading the Charleston base effort, said the Iraq war has shown the Holy City remains a key player in the nation's defense needs.

Charleston is the No. 1 U.S. port for shipping equipment and supplies overseas, said Mikolajcik, former commander of the 437th Airlift Wing at Charleston Air Force Base.

Beaufort may the S.C. community with the least to worry about from the round of base closings, Graham said.

The Marine Corps is about as likely to close its much-storied recruit training depot at Parris Island as he is to get drafted by the NBA, Graham said.

The nearby Beaufort Air Station, home to nine F/A-18 fighter jet squadrons, also probably won't be touched, said Carlton Meyer, editor of g2mil.com. That's because the Marine and Navy probably cut back too much in previous base closings. "They've had to squeeze in units at existing installations."

In a job-weak economy, the loss of a major base could be crippling to the S.C. economy.

Graham said keeping South Carolina's military bases is worthy of the same kind of effort that state and local leaders would make to attract a major, new industry, like the BMW plant in the Upstate.

"I assure you that you could not duplicate, you could not make up the loss of Fort Jackson. You could not grow enough businesses and the land couldn't be converted to another use. The same for Shaw. You take Shaw out of Sumter County, there is no way it could recover economically for years."