ATLANTA — In the last public chance for officials to argue their cases before the Base Realignment and Closure commission, congressmen from Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee took issue with the Pentagon’s recommendations.

The Department of Defense announced in May that four bases in Georgia, plus some missions in Alabama and an Air National Guard unit in Nashville, Tenn., should be closed or moved to save money.

The plan was “based on flawed cost estimates,” argued Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss. A Tennessee congressman, Rep. Jim Cooper, called his state’s cuts “a serious mistake.”

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said, “For the life of me, I don’t understand” a recommendation to shave Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base.

Georgia is slated to lose four bases — Fort McPherson and Fort Gillem near Atlanta, a Naval Air Station in Marietta and a Navy Supply Corps School in Athens.

The Marine Reserves Training Center on Shorter Avenue in Rome would also be closed.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., argued that the Naval Air Station, which employs 1,400 should be left open. The NAS is located at Dobbins Air Force Base but is a separate facility.

“This is an incredibly cost-effective base,” Gingrey said. Military value is high. Like the golden rule of real estate, reserve installations rely on location, location, location — and should this land be forfeited, the Navy will never be able to get it back.