Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 27, 1992 TAG: 9203270290
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From the Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In an announcement long dreaded by communities fearing the economic impact of such reductions, Cheney and Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the cutbacks would bring the reserves into balance with an active-duty force that has been dramatically reduced and reshaped by the end of the Cold War.
However, the Pentagon's plan to eliminate a Virginia National Guard unit whose members won medals for Persian Gulf War duty left their company commander feeling frustrated Thursday.
"I've got a company of veterans that won nine Bronze Stars and they can't understand why we were cut and units that basically stayed at home and watched the war on CNN weren't," said Lt. James Parrish, commander of the 1033rd Medium Truck Company of Gate City.
"At least we'll have the satisfaction that we did our wartime job," Parrish said. "It's frustrating, though. Maybe Congress can stop this."
The 1033rd was one of four Virginia Guard units, three Army Reserve units and seven Naval Reserve units in Virginia that were targeted for reductions or elimination in a cost-saving move.
Cheney and Powell said that 80 percent of the affected units had been designed to reinforce active-duty troops in the event of a full-scale ground war in Europe against the Soviet army.
"That army is not coming," Powell said at a midday Pentagon news conference. "The Red Army is gone. The likelihood of a global war, and especially a major war in Europe, has disappeared before our eyes. Therefore it is prudent to reduce the active Army . . . and it is irresponsible not to bring the reserves down" as well.
If approved by Congress - which is an unlikely prospect given the strong political support the Guard and reserves enjoy on Capitol Hill - 140,000 troops would be cut in the next two years. By the end of 1997, savings would amount to $20 billion.
The plan stirred anger, despair and charges of political motivation in Congress, where members weighed the effect of job losses in an already ailing economy.
Cheney hotly denied that politics had dictated the department's choice of units to disband. At the same time, he expressed little sympathy for lawmakers who have asked for deep cuts in defense spending but are unwilling to see them made so close to home.
by CNB