Defense Secretary Robert Gates will speak at the University of Washington’s commencement at Husky Stadium on June 13.

Gates is no stranger to academia: He was Texas A&M University's president before taking the military's top job in December 2007. That followed a meteoric rise in the Central Intelligence Agency, where he became the only person to start in an entry-level job and reach the post of director.

Gates also has (deservedly) received much of the credit for using quiet strength to bring about necessary changes in the military after the war in Iraq began falling apart.

It's worth asking: If he'll be an hour away from Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base, might he make a detour?

Full press release after the jump:

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The drawdown of American troops from Iraq is no simple task. Six years of war mean countless tons of equipment remains scattered at bases throughout the country, most of which must be trucked out of the country along bomb-riddled roads.

It’s an effort Col. Cynthia Fox of the 593rd Sustainment Brigade called "possibly the largest retrograde operation the Army has seen in years" during a speech at unit’s colors-casing ceremony Wednesday on the parade grounds of North Fort Lewis. The brigade will soon deploy about 450 soldiers to Kuwait to support the logistics of fighting the war.

But that includes oversight of getting the equipment supporting about 100,000 soldiers out of Iraq, much of it on trucks that can be loaded onto container ships in Kuwait. The 593rd will serve a year overseas; the White House plans to reduce troop levels to about 50,000 by August 2010.

"There are many years of military equipment still in theater," said Brig. Gen. Jeff Mathis, the I Corps rear commander. "And once retrograde operations are in full swing, missions will drastically increase. Soldiers and leaders of the 593rd: You are the rock upon which all this rests."

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