The Denver Post September 24, 2004
Fort Carson gaining troops As the U.S. consolidates worldwide forces, 3,700 based in South Korea will join the Mountain Post.
By Bruce Finley
Denver Post Staff Writer
A massive repositioning designed to make the U.S. military nimble enough to confront new threats began Thursday as Army chiefs announced that 3,700 troops based in South Korea will move to Fort Carson.
The relocation will bring the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry - three battalions now in Iraq - to Fort Carson, south of Colorado Springs.
Army officials said that the bulk of the 2nd Infantry troops won't arrive until next summer but that family members and a few troops will arrive soon. A rear detachment is preparing to help families resettle.
The move is officially temporary, pending a military analysis due next year to determine permanent arrangements.
Fort Carson was selected to host the 3,700 troops and their families "because they've got good community support and they've been modernized," said U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo. "We've been working hard to upgrade the hospital and housing and loading docks so they could meet their rapid- deployment needs, which is going to be required as part of the new, more-mobile force."
While 3,700 are scheduled to move in, some 7,000 troops now at Fort Carson, many of whom have already served in Iraq, have received orders to go to Iraq starting next month.
The 2nd Infantry's move is among the first in the global military repositioning President Bush revealed in August. Bush said that over the next decade as many as 70,000 U.S. armed service members posted abroad - mostly in Germany and South Korea - will move to bases in the U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday explained the shifts to members of Congress in Washington, while Fort Carson officials braced for incoming families.
"We have not housed all of our soldiers that we have here. Some live off, some live on post," base spokeswoman Kim Tisor said. "We are looking at how much housing we have."
Rumsfeld told Senate leaders that 35 percent of U.S. bases abroad will be closed and that new, smaller bases will be set up to serve as launch pads for military action by rotating units.
He and military commanders said their goal is to make U.S. forces, strained by deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, more accessible and efficient, in lieu of expanding the size of the military.
Before deploying from South Korea to Iraq, the 2nd Infantry soldiers "had been told that the road home was through Baghdad," said military analyst John Pike, director of the Washington think tank GlobalSecurity.org.
"This is the first of a number of re-stationings that will be taking place over the next decade," Pike said.
Military officials "have finally concluded that 15 years after the Berlin Wall came down, it's OK to bring the troops home from Germany," he said.
"Bringing the troops home from South Korea is more difficult to understand. We're in a confrontation with North Korea now over their nuclear program."
The Defense Department characterized the repositioning as a move that enhances the ability to respond quickly to unpredictable world events.
"Despite changes that may occur, the United States is not changing its commitment to friends and allies around the world," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dan Hetlage, a Defense Department spokesman. "Rather, we are implementing ways to strengthen our capabilities and positioning globally to better carry out our worldwide commitments - taking into account both new technologies and the new security environment."
Bush officials cast the plan as a crucial adjustment away from Cold War-era heavy-warfare scenarios.
U.S. troops in Germany and South Korea now are considered less useful as U.S. leaders try to marshal force against terrorists.
© Copyright 2004, The Denver Post
