Eatontown, N.J. ? It’s the biggest employer in the county, a storied Army communications center whose vital high-tech work and unique place in the nation’s military arsenal have helped it survive Pentagon cuts before.

Now, Fort Monmouth is in for another battle.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld delivered the news Friday that everyone here had been fearing: the Pentagon’s recommendation that Fort Monmouth be closed along with 32 other major installations as part of a plan to save billions of dollars and make the military more modern.

The reaction to the announcement by the communities affected — from New Jersey to California, Wisconsin to Texas — was first disappointment, then determination to fight for their livelihoods.

Long a hub of communications and electronics research-and-development functions, Fort Monmouth is the home of the Army’s Communications and Electronics Command.

The installation contributes $3 billion to the local and state economies; its closing would put about 6,000 people out of work, deal a blow to area businesses and close the book on a base that’s been part of the community since 1917.

About 500 people — many base employees — turned out in Tinton Falls for a rally organized by the Save Our Fort Committee, co-chaired by Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt.

“I’m going to be honest with you. We’ve got a hell of a fight on our hands,” said Pallone, D-N.J.

The rallying cries were just as strong elsewhere in the country.

In this photo released by the U.S. Air Force Friday Lt. Col. James Hecker flies over Fort Monroe Virginia before delivering the first operational F/A-22 Raptor to its permanent home at Langley Air Force Base, Va., on Thursday. This is the first of 26 Raptors to be delivered to the 27th Fighter Squadron.

South Dakota was shocked to hear that it could lose its second-biggest employer, the venerable Ellsworth Air Force Base, after community leaders spent 10 years and $2 million to preserve it and its 3,852 workers.

During the Cold War, Ellsworth played a major role in the effort to defeat the former Soviet Union by maintaining nuclear warheads in the ground and in the air. Today its only mission is hosting roughly half the nation’s B-1B fleet of the long-range bombers, and the military said it would rather move the bombers to the Texas base where the rest of the fleet is housed.

The proposed list of bases now goes to a federal commission, which must report by Sept. 8, and then on to Congress and President Bush.

While the Pentagon plan calls for a net loss of 29,005 military and civilian jobs at domestic installations, some places stand to gain as positions at closed bases shift to posts that survive.