U.S. 7th Army Fades Away In Europe

After spending over half a century years in Europe, the headquarters of the U.S. 7th Army headquarters is reorganizing as a deployable unit (meaning it can be ordered to another part of the world to supervise major military operations.)

The 7th Army headquarters ceased to be very mobile as it commanded a growing force of European based U.S. combat units in the 1950s. But this force went from two corps and over six divisions (18 combat brigades) during the Cold War, to the current four brigades (which are also subject to duty in distant combat zones, like Iraq or Afghanistan).

During the Cold War, there were over 300,000 U.S. troops in Western Europe, now it's about 40,000, and headed for 33,000 in five years. And if there's a crises somewhere else on the planet, there won't even be an army headquarters there to command what's left of American forces.