Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard B. Myers, U.S. Air Force, comments during a Pentagon press briefing about the process followed by the Base Realignment and Closing Commission on May 12, 2005. The commission had the mandate to reduce excess capacity in owned and leased properties. Myers, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and representatives of each of the service chiefs thanked members of the commission for making the difficult decisions inherent in the process.