Washington ? The federal base-closing commission voted Wednesday in favor of the Pentagon’s plan to return the Army’s 1st Infantry Division to Fort Riley, Kan., providing thousands of new jobs in Kansas.

The unanimous vote by the nine-member panel is the last major hurdle before final approval of changes that would add about 2,400 military and 440 civilian jobs to the post.

The commission also voted unanimously Wednesday to realign the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Wichita, costing the city an estimated 78 jobs.

Known as “the Big Red One,” the 1st Infantry Division was based at Fort Riley for about 40 years before its headquarters moved to Germany in 1995.

The decisions by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission came on the first of three days of scheduled votes on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s recommendations to close, shrink or expand 837 bases across the country and save $49 billion over 20 years.

The proposals affecting Fort Riley and other Kansas installations were not considered controversial and commissioners approved them without discussion as part of a package affecting dozens of other sites around the country.

Maj. Christian Kubik, a Fort Riley spokesman, said the base already had been planning for an influx of new soldiers, and he credited the state’s lobbying efforts for helping land more troops.

An unidentified soldier walks past a 1st Infantry Division monument Wednesday in front of headquarters at Fort Riley. The Base Realignment Commission approved the Pentagon's plan to return the headquarters of the

“It is more than a Fort Riley effort,” Kubik said. “It is a community effort and it is a Kansas effort.”

Overall, Kansas stands to gain more than 3,500 jobs by 2011 if the commission approves all the recommendations proposed by the Pentagon three months ago. The projected influx of $248 million in salaries is the fourth-largest increase in the nation, according to the Pentagon.

“We had no reason to believe that the BRAC commission would want to change the recommendations realizing the significant military value of Ft. Riley,” Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said Wednesday. “With this vote, we are one step closer to bringing the Big Red One home.”

On Thursday, the commission is expected to approve plans to move more than 200 personnel to Fort Leavenworth and add more than 700 personnel to McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita and Forbes Field in Topeka.

The only other loss for the state under the Pentagon plan was a vote approving closure of the Kansas Army Ammunition Plant near Parsons, a move that would drop 167 personnel.

The BRAC vote caps years of lobbying and planning by Kansas officials hoping to spare the state’s four major bases, which pump more than $2 billion into the Kansas economy.

Repositioning of the 1st Infantry Division is part of the Pentagon’s decision to return soldiers from Europe and Korea to the continental United States. Fort Riley is also slated to receive a new 6th Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division and an attack aviation battalion from Fort Campbell, Ky.

Once completed, the move will bring Fort Riley’s population to 18,000 soldiers, not counting families.

Commissioners have until Sept. 8 to submit their list to President Bush, who can send the list back for revisions. Bush must either approve or disapprove the list by Sept. 23.

Bush must submit a BRAC commission list to Congress by Nov. 7, which must either accept or reject the list in its entirety.

If Congress fails to pass a motion of disapproval of the list within 45 days, the list becomes law.