http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/03/army_europe_030209w/
USAREUR chief calls for stop to drawdown
Ham wants to keep 4 BCTs in Germany and Italy
By Jim Tice – Staff writer
Posted : Monday Mar 2, 2009 11:36:30 EST
The drawdown of Army forces in Germany would be halted under a plan proposed by U.S. Army Europe commander Gen. Carter F. Ham.
Ham, recently in Washington for consultation with senior Army and Defense Department officials, said he has recommended that USAREUR manning be frozen at its current level of 42,000 soldiers, rather than continue the phased drawdown to a 32,000-soldier force by 2012-13.
The additional soldiers would allow the Army´s largest and oldest overseas command to maintain a maneuver force of four brigade combat teams in Germany and Italy, rather than two.
Ham said USAREUR needs the larger force to meet the command´s operational commitments for Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and elsewhere, while simultaneously conducting an ambitious training and outreach program with allies, particularly the new member nations of NATO and nations seeking membership in the alliance.
The manning proposal is being evaluated by U.S. European Command but has not been formally presented to the Joint Chiefs of Staff or Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
While there is no timeline for a decision on the recommendation, “a decision sooner rather than later is better,” Ham said.
Should the manning proposal be approved, units most affected will be the Germany-based 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, at Baumholder; and the 172nd Infantry Brigade, with battalions in Schweinfurt and Grafenwoehr.
Unless the Army´s current basing plan is changed, these heavy brigades will relocate to Fort Bliss, Texas, in 2012-13.
That will leave the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment at Vilseck, Germany, and 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy.
Ham said the Army is still focused on having five hub communities in Europe: four in Germany – Kaiserslautern, Wiesbaden, Ansbach and Grafenwoehr – and one in Italy, at Vicenza.
That plan is based on the Army moving 1st Armored Division headquarters to Fort Bliss in 2010 as required by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission.
“This is the one remaining BRAC move we have in Europe,” Ham said of the 2005 mandate that has required the relocation of the 1st Infantry Division to Fort Riley, Kan., and the 1st Armored Division to Fort Bliss.
Ham said the biggest challenge remaining for the command´s transformation is the consolidation of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Italy.
That unit has some troops in Germany now, but it will consolidate at Vicenza upon the construction of new facilities.
Another major event for the Army in Europe is the conversion this year of USAREUR headquarters and V Corps headquarters into the command-and-control element of 7th Army.
Under the new alignment, 7th Army headquarters will be deployable and capable of serving as a joint task headquarters for land-centric operations conducted within the European Command area of responsibility.
The new headquarters will be located at Wiesbaden and will require the closure of most facilities in Heidelberg, where the Army has been headquartered since the end of World War II.
“This is a pretty significant undertaking for us, and we will have a certification exercise [for the new headquarters] in April and May,” Ham said.
Africa Command
An expansion at Vicenza will provide a home for all of the 173rd Airborne BCT, families and civilian employees at Caserma Ederle and Dal Molin airfield.
Up until December, Caserma Ederle was home to the Southern European Task Force, an organization that has transformed into U.S. Army Africa, the land component command of U.S. Africa Command.
Ham said that as currently configured, U.S. Army Africa does not have any troops, but will be task-organized with soldiers from other commands – primarily U.S. Army Europe – to meet mission requirements.
Ham said that given current conditions, it is not prudent to assign troops directly to U.S. Army Africa.
“If we took the logistics, intelligence and signal units that support AfriCom out of U.S. Army Europe and stood them up as separate entities, we would need another headquarters to provide command and control,” he said.
“And that´s probably not economical at this time to try that.”
The hubs
The basing strategy for the USAREUR transformation includes these hubs:
Wiesbaden: Future home to 7th Army, and intelligence, signal and other command-and-control organizations needed to conduct theater operations.
Kaiserslautern: This longtime logistics center will be home to the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, as well as Landstuhl hospital.
Grafenwoehr: Along with Vilseck and Hohenfels, this Bavarian community will be the Army´s largest troop post in Europe.
Current and projected units include the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment at Vilseck, the Joint Multinational Training Command at Hohenfels, and the 172rd Infantry Brigade at Grafenwoehr.
Ansbach: Also in Bavaria, this community will be home base for theater aviation resources.
Vicenza: Now home to portions of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, this northern Italy community will expand to accommodate the entire 3,800-soldier brigade and its supporting cast of families and civilian employees at Caserna Ederle and Dal Molin airfield.