U.S. Unveils New Military Command : Armed forces: Move aims to boost efficiency of deploying troops overseas.

WASHINGTON —  In another move to reshape itself for the post-Cold War world, the U.S. military established a new high-level command Friday to train and deploy American troops for duty overseas, including possible peacekeeping missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and other trouble spots.

The new U.S. Atlantic Command, based in Norfolk, Va., will be responsible for training and deploying units from all four services and for deciding which to send overseas for any particular mission.

It effectively will serve as a one-stop combat center, providing field commanders with the planes, ships, tanks and troops that they need to carry out their assignments overseas and using joint Army-Navy-Air Force-Marine Corps “force packages” that can work together as a team.

The move was recommended last spring by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin L. Powell, partly as a streamlining measure. It is aimed ultimately at increasing the military’s ability to use U.S.-based troops overseas, now that bases throughout the world are being closed.

It also marks a major step in solidifying the concept of joint operations by the four branches of the military, ending the rivalries among them that plagued task force commanders as recently as Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who on Friday formally launched the new command in Norfolk, called its establishment “another sign of changing times” after the break-up of the Soviet Union and the shrinking of the U.S. military.

In wartime, U.S. commanders around the globe “are going to be more and more dependent on forces from the United States,” Aspin said in the inaugural ceremony. “Those (commanders) are going to want fully capable forces (that are) rapidly deployable as a team.”

Aspin said the new command will have the power to decide which units to use in making up the right armed force for any one job.

The new USACOM, as it will be known in military jargon, is being headed by Navy Adm. Paul David Miller, who had been one of the leading candidates to succeed Powell before the designation of Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili as new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Officials said USACOM will absorb elements of the Army’s old Forces Command, the Air Force’s Air Combat Command, the Marine Corps’ Forces Atlantic and the Navy’s Atlantic fleet, which had operated independently to help contain Soviet military might.

In launching the new command, Aspin noted that the United States is not likely to “answer every summons” to participate in peacemaking or peacekeeping operations.

But, he warned, “the fact remains that we are going to say ‘yes’ to a number of these missions,” including a task force of 600 U.S. soldiers and Marines that left for Haiti late Thursday.