Fort Riley ? After returning from Germany in August 2006, the 1st Infantry Division has a new headquarters to call its own.

On Friday, leaders of the famed Big Red One officially dedicated their new headquarters building on Custer Hill, rolling out the welcome mat to soldiers, families and a host of dignitaries.

It was the latest indication that the division, which called Kansas home for 40 years after World War II, was once again putting down firm roots on the prairie. The division flag spent a decade in Germany, something Kansas officials worked long and hard to reverse.

Maj. Gen. Robert Durbin said the new building was symbolic of the Army’s desire to have its oldest division stay at one of its oldest posts west of the Mississippi River.

“Here we are. It’s a great day in the history of the Big Red One and Fort Riley. It shows the permanence of our commitment here at Riley, of our Army to Fort Riley and our nation to our Army,” Durbin said.

The $40 million building is part of an energetic construction schedule over the past two years to make room for thousands of new soldiers and their families. Division staff previously worked out of a building farther to the south, sharing space with other garrison officers. In earlier years, the previous building served as one of Fort Riley’s hospitals.

Durbin said the new building, which has enough electronic wiring to stretch from Fort Riley to Topeka, would give the division the capability to link up with soldiers and units deployed around the world, as well as serve as an emergency operations center for Homeland Security or other agencies.

“This is the very best that we have,” said the general, who was a commander in Afghanistan before taking over the division this summer.

The building was put up in 16 months, faster than the normal government construction timeline. Durbin said normal bureaucratic challenges that slow construction projects were eliminated to complete the building on time and on budget.

“This is a great building, a testament that we can do that,” Durbin said.

Fort Riley officials are expecting the number of soldiers assigned to the post to be close to 19,000 when all the various units are reassigned from elsewhere in the United States. Currently, there are more than 15,000 soldiers assigned to Fort Riley, though more than 8,000 of them are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Around the post, construction has been continuing on new facilities for the soldiers and their units, including new barracks, maintenance facilities and upgrades to Marshall Army Airfield, used by an aviation brigade. Members of the unit and all of its helicopters are in Iraq, allowing crews to rebuild and expand the runway and other structures.