He lunched with airmen, checked out the Strykers and got his picture taken with newborn babies and their moms at Madigan Army Medical Center.

He also spoke to reporters for 71/2 minutes, during which he didn’t shed much light on what he thinks about the things that are happening at the big Puget Sound-area military installations.

But he pronounced the visit Monday and Tuesday as “very useful.”

“The conversations with (noncommissioned officers) and their wives are always instructive for me, and I’m always impressed with their dedication and commitment,” Gates said.

It was the first local visit by a defense secretary since Donald Rumsfeld came to Fort Lewis in April 2002.

Gates and his wife, Becky, own a home at Big Lake near Mount Vernon, where they spent the Independence Day weekend. Aides said he scheduled the local visit on his way back to the Pentagon.

On Tuesday morning, Gates and his senior military adviser, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who is soon to become the Army vice chief of staff, talked with Stryker crews during the only public portion of the visit.

Gates climbed in and out of the trucks and listened as soldiers told him about their features.

Sgt. Eric Shuty showed him the latest version of the eight-wheeled armored vehicle, the Mobile Gun System, fitted with a 105 mm cannon. Shuty is just back from Iraq, where he served nearly 15 months with the first crews to use the MGS in combat, as part of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

“There are only so many people who have real, functional downrange experience with the truck,” Shuty said. “And as one of them, I was glad to come out here and tell him it’s a good vehicle. Buy more.”

Staff Sgts. James Young and Joshua Fairchild showed him the latest version of Land Warrior, the Army’s wearable computer and communications system for infantrymen. A battalion just back from Iraq proved the system capable enough that the Army is now outfitting a whole Fort Lewis brigade with it.

Fairchild said it was great to talk to the man at the top.

“I’ve talked to generals before but never anybody that high up – it’s definitely a new experience,” he said.

When Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, came through Fort Lewis last month, he told an audience of soldiers that he needed at least three more brigades to deal with rising violence in Afghanistan. That prompted soldiers in the two Stryker brigades that are getting ready for deployments to wonder if maybe they’d be sent there instead of Iraq.

But Gates on Tuesday said, “Nothing like that has been brought to me at this point. Whether it happens in the future, I don’t know.”

Asked if the movement over the weekend of the Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to support operations in Afghanistan represented an escalation of U.S. effort there, Gates said he “wouldn’t characterize it that way. …

“I think it’s just part of our commitment to make sure we have resources available to be successful in Afghanistan over the long haul.”

As for Iraq, where the Fort Lewis-based 4th Brigade Stryker soldiers just left after nearly 15 months in combat, the secretary said U.S. commanders are well on their way toward handing over security responsibility to Iraqi forces.

But he declined to set a timetable.

“However long that takes really will depend on the situation on the ground, but things are going very well at this point,” Gates said.

He declined comment specifically on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s call for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from his country.

Gates likewise did not offer his take on a question about whether he could live with a short-term agreement to keep U.S. forces there past the end of this year, rather than pressing ahead with what have apparently become contentious talks with Iraqi leaders over a long-term pact.

“Ambassador Crocker is in charge of those negotiations,” Gates said, referring to Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, “and I am principally concerned with having an agreement that will allow our forces to continue to do their job and to support the Iraqi government.”

Michael Gilbert: 253-597-8921

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