Nation IN BRIEF : NEW HAMPSHIRE : Defense Cuts Start With Air Force Base

Pease Air Force Base, on the Atlantic shore near Newington and Portsmouth, N. H., became the first military base shut down under budget cuts approved by Congress two years ago. The base, which was home to 3,700 military personnel and their families and employed about 1,000 civilians, was eerily empty in its last week. “It feels like a ghost town. It’s dead. You go from 9,000 people to less than 100--that feels weird,” said Master Sgt. Steve Campbell, one of the last 90 people to leave. Pease is one of 86 military installations ordered closed. It will remain a stopover on President Bush’s trips to his family home in Maine.