U.S. may close half of its bases in Europe

Read our four-part series about base closings in Utah, "In Utah's Defense"

WASHINGTON — The planned withdrawal of tens of thousands of U.S. troops from Europe would reduce by nearly one-half the number of bases maintained by the Army in Europe, a senior Defense Department official said Monday.

Ray DuBois, the acting undersecretary of the Army, told a Pentagon news conference that savings gained from abandoning those bases will be reinvested in new facilities for soldiers at U.S. bases.

DuBois said the Army has calculated exactly which brigades and other units are to move back to the United States, "by quarter, by fiscal year," and has proposed to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld which U.S. bases they would be moved to. DuBois declined to disclose more details, saying Rumsfeld was "still chewing over" some of the recommendations.

DuBois said Rumsfeld would publicly announce his full set of recommendations on closing and realigning U.S. bases on Friday at 8:30 a.m. MDT. The recommendations will be submitted to an independent commission that will hold hearings, starting with Rumsfeld's testimony next Monday.

The commission has until Sept. 8 to submit its final report to President Bush. It is the first base closing and realignment commission since 1995; that process was so politically charged that for several years afterward Congress refused Pentagon efforts to initiate another round of closures.

The Pentagon has said it is wasting taxpayer money by maintaining about 20 percent to 25 percent more base capacity than it needed, although Rumsfeld last week said the surplus may actually be only half that amount. His comments suggested the base closings will not be as severe as once feared in communities that rely heavily on the economic benefit of local bases.

The Pentagon has under way two basing studies that are separate but related. One is Rumsfeld's soon-to-be-released recommendations on closing and consolidating domestic bases. The other is his plan for repositioning U.S. forces abroad — a plan that calls for abandoning some bases, establishing less-permanent basing arrangements in different countries, and bringing home 70,000 troops and their families from long-established bases in Asia and Europe.

The two plans are related because of the need to accommodate those 70,000 troops and their families at the same time the Pentagon is eliminating some domestic bases and realigning others.