Topeka ? U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback and U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun said Tuesday they were well-received by military officials in Germany while lobbying for returning an Army division headquarters to Fort Riley.

Brownback and Ryun used their trip to two military bases Tuesday to discuss proposals to reduce American troop strength in Europe. Last year, Army and Pentagon officials said they were considering a plan to move two divisions from Europe back to the United States.

Their itinerary included a meeting with Marine Gen. James L. Jones, the commander of U.S. forces in Europe. Brownback and Ryun were scheduled to return Tuesday evening to the United States.

In a telephone interview from Germany, Brownback called his and Ryun’s discussions with military officials “excellent.” Ryun deemed the trip “a profitable one.”

“We gathered it’s highly likely that the two division headquarters will be coming out of Europe sometime around the first of next year,” Brownback said. “An official decision has not been made. All indicators are it’s moving that way.”

The headquarters of the Army’s famed 1st Infantry Division — known as the Big Red One — transferred from Fort Riley to Germany in 1996, leaving only a brigade and cutting the post’s strength by 40 percent.

With more than 14,000 soldiers, the 1st Infantry Division is the oldest continuously serving division in the Army. Its headquarters is the Leighton Barracks, Wuerzburg, Germany.

Fort Riley has about 10,000 soldiers, and the military spent $689 million at the post under the federal government’s 2002 budget.

“Why we’re here is to tell them what a good place Fort Riley is,” Brownback said of discussions with military officials in Europe.

Brownback and Ryun are not the only members of Kansas’ congressional delegation working to bring a division headquarters to Fort Riley. Sen. Pat Roberts has had discussions with military officials since last year.

Also, since 1997, Congress has approved $405 million worth of construction projects for the post. The fort established a combined arms training center, which prepares troops for urban combat.

Brownback said attracting a division headquarters would boost the state’s economy. And in Topeka on Tuesday, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said, “We’d welcome the Big Red One back.”

“Certainly, anything we can do to support that effort, we’ll do,” she said during a news conference. “There are a couple of levels of, sort of, D.C. conversations that have to be held before the state would be involved.”