January 24, 2009:
Finally, 64 years after the end of World War II, the U.S. Navy is leaving Great Britain. The last U.S. Navy facility in Britain, the Joint Maritime Facility, at the St. Mawgan Royal Air Force base, is shutting down and sending its 300 American sailors home.
The U.S. Navy, like the rest of the American military, has been reducing its presence in Europe. The headquarters of the U.S. Navy in Europe moved from Britain to Naples in 1995, and now there are only 5,000 U.S. Navy personnel in all of Europe. During the Cold War, there were over 300,000 U.S. troops in Western Europe, now it's about 40,000, and headed for 33,000 in four years.