Sessions says troop shift helps Redstone

A Bush administration plan to pull about 70,000 troops out of Europe and Asia over the next decade could have the effect of blunting an expected severe round of base closures next year.

A benefit from the plan to Huntsville could mean work or troop units are moved to Redstone Arsenal or, at the very least, military work performed here would be preserved, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, said Wednesday.

Sessions, who serves on the Armed Forces Committee, hailed the Bush plan "as a very needed step to reduce the burden our military has with security and other deployments."

He said it's too early to tell what effect the plan would have on Redstone or other bases in Alabama, "but I think it will be of benefit to this state ultimately. At the very least, there will be cost savings and not a need for a massive round of military base closings in the United States."

The shift also could have the benefit of relieving burdened National Guard and Reserve units, Sessions said. "At the very least, they wouldn't have to perform some of the security missions they are engaged in now," he said.

North Alabama has more than 500 National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers deployed to Iraq.

The Pentagon has been working out a plan over the past three years to close or realign numerous major bases in the United States, but transferring numerous troop units out of Europe and Asia would mean a boon to some American bases, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday in Huntsville.

"The happy side effect of (the troop plan) permits us to have a better utilization of what we have at home," Rumsfeld said.

Redstone is home to more than 20 major military organizations, including the Army Aviation and Missile Command, Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Program Executive Office for Aviation and the Program Executive Office for Tactical Missiles. There have been concerns that a major reorganization could move a major command or office out of Huntsville.

Rumsfeld and Pentagon leaders in the past two years have claimed the need for a major review, or Base Realignment and Closure Commission, that would realign or close portions of military units based in the United States. Military leaders have said the review should be larger than the last four combined, which between 1988 and 1993 realigned or closed almost 100 bases and units.

"I don't see why we are going to go through a massive domestic (review) when we still need to have a review of foreign bases," Sessions said.

Rumsfeld said some nations don't want U.S. troops within their borders, and this plan should alleviate those ill feelings.

"Our troops should not be where they are not wanted. ... It's not good for them or their families," he said. "Naturally, the most hospitable is our own country."

In the past decade, Japan has increasingly called for the removal of U.S. military from Okinawa because of major crimes committed by U.S. servicemen stationed there.

Following the 1953 cease-fire that brought the Korean War to an end, the U.S. has kept about 40,000 troops in South Korea. Sessions thinks it's time to start bringing some of those units home.

"We have been committed to South Korea for more than 50 years now," Sessions said. "We have almost 40,000 troops there and South Korea has 500,000. ... I think that pulling some of our troops back doesn't lessen our commitment to South Korea."

Sessions was part of a review team that traveled to several military bases in Europe this year. That trip convinced him America's military could be better positioned.

"I went to 12 installations in Europe over four days and saw enough that makes me feel this proposal is very much needed," Sessions said. "It was needed years ago. We shouldn't be sending troops overseas to fight a Cold War-era fight when they are needed here or perhaps in other nations."

Rumsfeld said another benefit would be that U.S. units would be free to come and go as needed. During the 2003 Iraq war, American units were denied the use of railways and ports by Germany and Turkey. Rumsfeld said that problem could be eliminated by placing the troops stateside or in other nations.

Because American troops have been abroad in major units since the end of World War II, Rumsfeld said the Pentagon would take time to adjust to the plan.

"I estimate it will take about a generation for many in the military" to get used to the plan, he said. "Outside of the military, it will probably take much longer."