Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994                   TAG: 9404140357
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LEXINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

DOWNSIZING DOESN'T FAZE ARMY CHIEF

Gen. Gordon Sullivan said the next generation of Army lieutenants attending an ROTC award seminar ``should feel very positive. With downsizing, there are more promotion opportunities there.''

Glen Drysdale, the top Reserve Officer Training Corps cadet at Michigan Tech, asked Sullivan, who was in the ROTC 35 years ago, to sign his order giving him permission to attend the conference at Virginia Military Institute.

``It's an honor to meet one of the guys who made the Army what it is now,'' Drysdale said at a reception before Sullivan's speech.

Asked whether he was concerned about the reduction in armed forces and another round of base closings, Drysdale said, ``It's going to make the Army more competitive and weed out bad officers. It's going to be better, a higher quality Army.''

Sullivan said in prepared remarks that the Army is facing tremendous change now that the Cold War has ended.

``We have returned two-thirds of our forces from Germany and over a half-million tons of ammunition stockpiled for a war that we never had to fight,'' Sullivan said. ``We are changing from a forward-deployed Army to a force-projection Army.''

Sullivan also said the Army's missions are becoming more diverse, from peacekeeping in Somalia to disaster relief in Florida.

But he said, ``The most profound change that we face today is not geopolitical, but technological. We are living in an age of unprecedented technological change.''

Information can be transferred around the world in seconds and is becoming the ``currency of battle command,'' he said.

The technology already lets the commanders know where supplies and repair parts are anywhere in the world, in real time, and pinpoint the movements of small battalions. ``This is power,'' Sullivan said.

Before long, a commander will be linked with each of his weapons systems and will know the location of each vehicle and, eventually, each soldier. Tactical units will be able to synchronize all the elements of combat power with devastating effectiveness.

``Tactical units organized and trained to exploit information technology will be more agile, more versatile and more deadly,'' he said.

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.