For nearly a decade, communities around Fort Riley have been talking about the day the Big Red One was coming home.

That day, President Bush says, may come in 2006.

“That would be great news,” said Jeff Olson, a restaurant and cellular communications business owner in Junction City. “I see a huge impact.”

Bush announced Monday that as many as 70,000 soldiers and 100,000 family and support personnel would return to the United States beginning in 2006 as part of a troop realignment to move from a Cold War structure to one better suited in the fight against terrorism.

Later, a Pentagon official said two divisions making the move in 2006 would be the 1st Armored Division and the 1st Infantry Division — the famed Big Red One.

Massive realignment

White House officials billed Monday’s announcement, delivered to the annual meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Cincinnati, as the biggest troop realignment since the end of the Cold War. Bush said the return stateside of troops, relatives and civilian personnel would take 10 years.

The president said the move would improve life for military families and save money — while also making the military more agile.

From Europe to Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the U.S. military would rely more heavily on Special Forces and small contingents of “forward forces” to provide rapid response capability, while shifting heavier equipment and regular divisions back home.

The plan would involve closing hundreds of military facilities around the world, administration officials said — substantially trimming the U.S. presence in historically strategic places such as Germany and the Korean peninsula. Half of U.S. military installations in Europe, particularly smaller bases, would be closed.

Changes would not directly affect the roughly 150,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Economic boost

In Fort Riley and other military communities, the news was met with excitement as residents anticipated a big jolt to their struggling economies once the troops return.

Fort Riley is home to more than 11,000 soldiers, including one brigade of the 1st Infantry Division (about 3,000 soldiers). All told, the base adds about $866 million annually to the region’s economy.

Olson said he noticed increased business this spring when soldiers of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division returned from Iraq.

“The second thing they did was buy a cell phone,” Olson said. “And soldiers like to eat out.”

Bringing the Big Red One (the nickname is based on the unit’s patch, which depicts a green shield with a red No. 1 numeral in it) back to Kansas would reverse a 1995 decision, when two brigades from the division transferred to Germany, cutting Fort Riley’s strength by 40 percent. More than the post, the reductions meant a loss of business for neighboring communities.

Randy Tholstrup, owner of the Military Outlet, said he was beginning to look at what items he may have to stock if additional soldiers with new missions came to Fort Riley. Others in the community are asking questions about housing and traffic.

“It would be a good problem,” Tholstrup said.

At Fort Benning and Fort Stewart in Georgia, officials said it is too soon to know whether any of the returning soldiers would come to those bases.

But at Tattoo Tommy’s in Columbus, Ga., where many Fort Benning soldiers get their tattoos, Donie Schrecengost said he believes some of them will become his customers.

“They should come for Fort Benning, at least for a pit stop,” said the tattoo artist. “Their first stops will be new tattoos and new cars.”

At Ranger Joe’s in Columbus, soldiers stream in every day to purchase equipment, to get new stripes and patches sewn on their uniforms, or to get the close-cropped haircuts favored by the elite Army Rangers.

“We are always happy to see more troops,” said Janet Morris, chief operations officer. “It always means a bigger customer base. And of course, if this base grows, the less likely it would close.”