Prior to 1952, the title "European Command (EUCOM)" referred to a single-service,
United States Army command. The senior U.S. Army administrative command in the European region had previously been designated
European Theater of Operations United States Army (ETOUSA) from 8 June 1942 – 1 July 1945; United States Forces European Theater (USFET) from 1 July 1945 – 15 March 1947; and then European Command (EUCOM) 15 March 1947 – 1 August 1952.
1950s The first unified command in the European area was established by the
Joint Chiefs of Staff on 1 August 1952. Designated the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM), it was established to provide "unified command and authority" over all U.S. forces in Europe. Prior to 1 August 1952, the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Army presence in Europe maintained separate commands that reported directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The respective titles of the service commands were: Commander-in-Chief,
U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE); Commander-in-Chief,
U.S. Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean; and Commander-in-Chief, U.S. European Command. In line with the creation of the joint-service European Command, the Army command in Europe has redesignated U.S. Army Europe on 1 August 1952. The unified command structure was born of the need to address changes wrought not only by America's rapid post-war demobilization but the end of the occupation of Germany in 1949. Questions arose over the U.S. commitment to the defense of Western Europe against the
Soviet Union (USSR). Providing for the common defense was a great concern, especially after the Berlin Crisis of 1948–49 when the Soviet Union blocked access to the divided city and the U.S. and
United Kingdom responded with an unprecedented airlift. In 1949 the allies established the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1952 the
area of responsibility included continental Europe, the United Kingdom, North Africa and Turkey. The AOR was subsequently expanded to include Southwest Asia as far east as Iran and as far south as Saudi Arabia. , Frankfurt, 1952 After the Korean War began, the perceived threat to Europe grew. In early 1951, NATO established
Allied Command Europe. General
Dwight D. Eisenhower was called from retirement to become the first
Supreme Allied Commander Europe. The United States sent massive reinforcements to Europe to deter the
Soviet Union. From 1950 to 1953 United States military personnel in Europe grew from 120,000 to over 400,000. United States Air Forces in Europe grew from three groups with 35,000 personnel to eleven wings with 136,000 personnel.
Sixth Fleet in the
Mediterranean doubled to more than 40 warships. United States Army, Europe, grew from one infantry division and three constabulary regiments to two corps with five divisions (including two mobilized National Guard divisions) and in November 1950 activated a new field army, Seventh Army, at Patch Barracks, Stuttgart. The Army activated the
10th Special Forces Group at
Fort Bragg in 1952 and deployed it to
Bad Tölz in November 1953 for unconventional warfare missions in the Soviet Bloc countries. To provide for national command within NATO and to help control this build-up of forces, Gen. Eisenhower proposed a separate command for all United States forces in Europe. Because the senior United States commander would continue as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Eisenhower recommended giving "a maximum of delegated authority" to a four-star deputy. Eisenhower returned to the United States just as the new command was established. The first United States Commander-in-Chief Europe (USCINCEUR) was General
Matthew Ridgway, former commander of Eighth Army and the Far East Command during the Korean War. His deputy was General
Thomas T. Handy, commander of United States Army, Europe. At this point the position of USCINCEUR was "dual hatted" with Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). Headquarters EUCOM initially shared the I.G. Farben Building in Frankfurt, Germany, with Headquarters United States Army, Europe. By 1953 over 400,000 U.S. troops were stationed in Europe. In 1954, the headquarters moved to
Camp des Loges, a French Army base west of
Paris and a short distance from SHAPE. There, EUCOM prepared plans for the defense of Western Europe within the
NATO framework against the Soviet Union and
Warsaw Pact. EUCOM used the Military Assistance Program to help its NATO partners build their military capabilities, including after 1955 the German
Bundeswehr. In 1955, EUCOM established a Support Operations Command Europe, soon renamed Support Operations Task Force Europe (later
Special Operations Command Europe) for special operations missions. In 1961, EUCOM began operating an airborne command post,
Operation Silk Purse.
1960s During the
1961 Berlin Crisis, on 25 August 1961, the Department of Defense announced 148,000 reserve personnel would be called on 1 October for twelve months of active duty service. 27,000 of these would be from
Air Force Reserve and
Air National Guard flying squadrons and support units to augment the Air Force, and 112,000 were
U.S. Army Reserve. Many Army Reservists were sent to Europe to bring ground combat units up to full strength. Civil war broke out in
Lebanon in 1958 due to mounting religious and political conflicts (see "
1958 Lebanon crisis"). EUCOM conducted a major contingency operation, Operation Blue Bat, in response to Lebanon's request to restore stability within the government. In 1966, following disagreements by the French with certain NATO military policies, President
Charles de Gaulle stated that all forces within France's borders would have to come under French control by April 1969. Soon afterward, France announced that SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters must leave French territory by April 1967. The following year, SHAPE moved to
Mons, Belgium, while Headquarters EUCOM moved to
Patch Barracks in
Stuttgart, Germany. Headquarters Seventh Army moved to
Heidelberg, where it merged with Headquarters United States Army, Europe. At Patch Barracks, EUCOM renovated the buildings, built a new operations center, and modernized communications infrastructure. EUCOM continued to prepare for the defense of Europe and began a series of annual
REFORGER (Return of Forces to Germany) exercises in 1967. Cold War crises continued, including the 1968
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. But, because of the
Vietnam War, the number of the American forces in Europe slowly declined. Troop strength in Europe fell to 265,000 by 1970.
1970s During the 1970s, force protection concerns in Europe increased as terrorist groups, such as the
Red Army Faction and the
Red Brigades, targeted American facilities and personnel with bombings, kidnapping and assassinations.
Palestinian terrorist organizations conducted terror operations in Europe, such as the
kidnapping of Israeli athletes during the
1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. EUCOM and its components continued to provide military assistance throughout Europe, as well as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, noncombatant evacuation, support to peacekeeping operations, and other non-traditional missions in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. For example, after the
Congo became independent in 1960, EUCOM joined in several multinational operations in that country, including peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, and noncombatant evacuation in 1960, November 1964 (
Operation Dragon Rouge), the 1967
second Stanleyville mutiny and again in 1978 (during
Shaba II). In the Middle East, EUCOM provided military assistance to Israel and noncombatant evacuation of American citizens in 1967, 1973, and 1982–1984. In the late 1970s, the Soviet Union deployed
SS-20 intermediate-range ballistic missiles into Eastern Europe and in 1979 invaded
Afghanistan. NATO responded with a "two-track" decision to step up negotiations while deploying American intermediate-range
Pershing II missiles and
Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCM) to counter Soviet actions.
1980s During the 1980s, American forces in Europe increased to over 350,000. EUCOM established Fleet Marine Force Europe (later
MARFOREUR) in 1980. The 1983
Unified Command Plan transferred responsibility for the Middle East from EUCOM to a new combatant command,
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), but EUCOM retained responsibility for
Israel,
Lebanon and
Syria. At the same time, EUCOM was formally assigned responsibility for Africa south of the
Sahara. Thus the area of responsibility became Europe (including the United Kingdom and
Ireland), the Mediterranean Sea (including the islands), and the Mediterranean littoral (excluding Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti). The
Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, together with
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen.
Colin L. Powell, who served from 1989 to 1993, further strengthened the role of combatant commanders. Goldwater-Nichols also established United States Special Operations Command, which led to the activation of a new sub-unified command, Special Operations Command, Europe. During the 1980s, negotiations continued with the Soviet Union on strategic and theater-level arms limitation. In 1987, the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) called an end to the deployment of SS-20s, Pershing IIs and GLCMs. In 1990, NATO and Warsaw Pact members signed a treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE). In 1989, the
Soviet Union and other Soviet Bloc countries in Eastern Europe collapsed and the
Cold War came to an end. The citizens from both East and West Berlin began tearing down the
Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989.
1990s As a sign of reduced tensions, in 1991 EUCOM took its airborne command post off alert. Meanwhile, in 1991, EUCOM and its components provided forces -primarily
VII Corps- to
CENTCOM for
Operation Desert Storm. EUCOM supports programs in former Soviet Bloc countries such as the Joint Contract Team Program, NATO
Partnership for Peace and the
National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program. It was also active in operations in the Balkans, including Bosnia, Macedonia and
Kosovo. During this time, EUCOM's assigned forces were lowered below 120,000. of
European alliances, partners, and competitors, denoted by their national flags, in EUCOM's Area of Responsibility. The alliances and agreements include the following supranational bodies:
PESCO,
Schengen Area,
EU, and
NATO. Since 1990, EUCOM has hosted or co-hosted the annual
International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference, the only one of its kind in the world, working to foster cooperation among religious leaders and understanding of religion as both a force for war and a force for peace. In 1999, changes to the command's area of responsibility were announced, after amendments to the
Unified Command Plan. The
United States Atlantic Command areas that had included the waters off Europe and the west coast of Africa were to be transferred to European Command. U.S. European Command already had responsibility for all U.S. land and air military planning in Europe and most of Africa. The change gave EUCOM the responsibility for maritime planning in the same general area of operations.
2000s The changes were made effective on 1 October 2000. The Atlantic Command areas that presently include the waters off Europe and the west coast of Africa were also transferred to European Command. Immediately after
the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, D.C., on 11 September 2001, NATO invoked Article V of the treaty and deployed NATO early warning aircraft to help monitor the skies over North America. EUCOM provided major forces for subsequent operations in Afghanistan and stepped up its efforts to protect United States interests in Europe and Africa. Subsequent terrorist attacks in the EUCOM theater in
Casablanca, Madrid, London and
Algiers prompted EUCOM to launch Operation Enduring Freedom Trans-Sahara in 2007 while continuing to provide rotational forces to Afghanistan and Iraq. The 2002
Unified Command Plan transferred responsibility for
Lebanon and
Syria to CENTCOM, but EUCOM retained responsibility for
Israel, and assumed responsibility for
Russia (formerly held by the Joint Staff) and for an increased portion of the North Atlantic, to include
Iceland and the Portuguese
Azores (formerly held by the
U.S. Joint Forces Command). The
Iceland Defense Force formed part of EUCOM from 2002 until 2006 when it was disestablished.
Joint Task Force East provided from forces rotating from the continental United States through bases in Bulgaria and Romania, was initially intended to be provided by a rotating US-based brigade. Two bases at
Constanţa, Romania was developed, apparently with the main facility at
Mihail Kogălniceanu Airfield. Initially, however,
Joint Task Force East was to have been provided by a rotational 2nd Cavalry Regiment Stryker squadron. The Task Force was originally planned to be called the Eastern Europe Task Force. However, since the stresses of the Iraq and Afghan deployments, the army provision of the Joint Task Force East has been replaced by a Marine force known as the
Black Sea Rotational Force. In 2003, the headquarters reorganized to establish the EUCOM Plans and Operations Center (EPOC). From 2006 to 2008, EUCOM helped stand-up a new geographic unified combatant command,
United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), which moved to nearby
Kelley Barracks and took over responsibility for Department of Defense activities in Africa on 1 October 2008.
2020s At the end of the
first Trump presidency, 12,000 American troops were ordered out of Germany shifting to Belgium and Italy and returning to the United States. Secretary of Defense
Mark Esper expected the plan to cost billions. The plan was never put into effect and was later canceled by President Biden. On January 15, 2021, EUCOM transferred coordination of military activities for Israel to CENTCOM. In 2025,
Ansa reported that President Trump wanted to reduce the troop presence in Europe by about 20,000 and wanted financial contributions from European countries for the remaining soldiers. In June 2025, the area of responsibility of
Greenland was shifted from EUCOM to
USNORTHCOM. ==Timeline==