About 4,700 active-duty federal ground troops sent by U.S. President George W. Bush on Sept. 3 to the Gulf Coast region devastated by Hurricane Katrina will be pulling out in the coming days, the Pentagon said on Friday, according to Reuters. About 2,700 soldiers from the Army's 1st Cavalry Division at Food Hood, Texas, 1,000 Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, California, and 1,000 Marines from 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, will leave the region in the coming days, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The troops were among 7,200 ordered into the region by Bush. About 2,500 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will remain for an unspecified period of time, Whitman said. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday the Pentagon would begin withdrawing forces whose missions had been completed and were no longer needed. Whitman said the number of part-time National Guard troops under the command of state governors and federal troops under the command of the Pentagon in the region currently stood at about 61,000, down by about 10,000 from the peak earlier in the week. National Guard troops were the majority, at about 45,000. There were 17 Navy ships involved in the relief effort, four down from the peak, and five more had been authorized to leave the region, Whitman said. There were about 260 military helicopters, down about 100 from the peak. --SP 2341 Local Time 2041 GMT
