THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGING. CPT Patii's YBIL (Younger Brother in Law, aka Helo Boy) sends this story.

In A Massive Shift, U.S. Plans To Reduce Troops In Germany (Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2003, Pg. 1)

The Pentagon plans to significantly shrink the U.S. force of 70,000 troops in Germany, a military stronghold for half a century, and put far more American forces in Africa and the Caucasus region. The move-part of the most radical redeployment of American forces since the end of the Cold War-is driven by the increasing importance that the United States is placing on protecting key oil reserves in Africa and the Caucasus region near the Caspian Sea, as well as addressing concerns about combating terrorism.

We touched on this subject earlier here with this story

A group of Army wives took some serious jabs Monday at the Bush administration’s notions for restructuring U.S. military bases in Europe.
These weren’t just any wives. Those speaking out included Holly Petraeus, wife of the 101st Airborne Division’s commander Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, and the wives of several field-grade officers.

They testified at Fort Campbell, Ky., at a field hearing of the Senate Committee on Children and Families to talk about problems military families face during deployments.

A proposed shift of bases from locations in Germany, where families accompany service members, to new sites in Eastern Europe where families wouldn’t come along, popped up in the hearing when the women spoke about the family stress sparked by the ever-increasing pace of deployments.

Petraeus said the top concern in the minds of many at Fort Campbell is that a downsized military is being called on for too many deployments.

Moving to unaccompanied unit rotations in Germany instead of accompanied tours “will be perceived as just one more deployment added to the load that they already bear,” she said.

Meanwhile, Secretary Rumsfeld has made an unusual move, potentially recalling a retired officer to active duty to take on the job as US Army Chief of Staff. Rumor around the Army is that Rumsfeld is so hard to work for that nobody wants the job. The other idea is that Rumsfeld's transformation ideas are so, well, out there that none of the 4 stars want to be associated with what they perceive to be the gutting of the greatest Army on Earth. And note the interesting tid bit about body language costing a 3 Star General a shot at it.

Leaking the news of Rumsfeld's choice for the position, which becomes vacant with Wednesday's retirement of Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, was viewed as a "trial balloon." The secretary wants to see who shoots and who salutes a rather controversial move.

If Schoomaker is formally nominated, he would be the first general summoned back on active duty to serve in a top job since President John F. Kennedy called back Gen. Maxwell Taylor from retirement in 1962 to become chairman of the joint chiefs.

Rumsfeld has been feuding for a long time with Army leadership, and he passed over nine active-duty four-star generals.

The rest of that story is here.

And one more take on the story...

The extraordinary break with convention is the latest episode in a series of confrontations between Mr Rumsfeld and the US army leadership.

Gen Tommy Franks, commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Gen John Keane, the army vice-chief, both opted to retire rather than take the top job in their service.

Recently Mr Rumsfeld sacked Thomas White, the army secretary, and publicly berated Gen Eric Shinseki, the retiring chief of staff, for suggesting on the eve of war that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed in post-conflict Iraq.

Read it all here.