Storied U.S. Barracks Closes With Little Fanfare (Campbell Barracks, Heidelberg, Germany)

The New York Times ^ | September 7, 2013 | Alison Smale

[2ndDivisionVet]

HEIDELBERG, Germany — For Germans and Americans who had long imagined a dramatic coda to the cold war, it came instead in a few solemn, quiet moments. After both national anthems were played, seven American and five German soldiers lowered their national colors, marched at the edge of a bedraggled parade ground and carefully folded the flags for the last time.

The ceremony on Friday afternoon, before about 300 onlookers, marked the closing of Campbell Barracks, which, as the headquarters of the United States Army in Europe, issued the orders for the millions of American soldiers — 15 million in Germany alone — who have served on the Continent since 1945. It was a day that most present, mostly an older crowd, had never imagined could come.

“We had no idea that Heidelberg will ever close,” said Regina Hingtgen, 62, who has worked with the Army for 41 years, and first honed her English when her parents billeted G.I.’s. The Army was the best employer, she said, affording her, among much else, a flexibility as a divorced single mother that “no German company would ever have done.”(continued)

[knarf]

So much of the world is happening around me ... it’s almost overwhelming.

[grimalkin]

Wow. I was born in Heidelberg. My Father served in the Army for 20 years. I never thought Campbell would close.

[himno hero]

....lack of American foresight, conversely, part of nObama anti west strategy.

[T-Bird45]

The article's reference to a new HQ on a hill in Wiesbaden has me wondering where that is since I spent three years there during my military service. The little kaserne where my unit was has long been turned into German housing but it was on an isolated hill overlooking the Rhine River valley. The large family housing area was on a hill (Hainerberg) but it never was anything more than housing, PX, and commissary.

[angcat]

I would say good because it saves us money but our money is being stolen by our elected officials.

[KAESNO2]

As a former Army brat in K-town, I am so saddened by these stories.

[acoulterfan]

I lived in Heidelberg outside the Army Base in Little America in 1956-57 (Holbeinring) when my father was stationed there (Navy Civil Engineer). I was in the 3rd and 4th grades in the American school. Remember the church bells on Sundays and the long Sunday Walks, the trolley cars, the people, YES the memories are priceless.

[acoulterfan]

MY, how it has changed!!!!!
http://www.buzze.de/armybaseclosure/MTV-Holbeinring.htm

[Nooseman]

Were you stationed at camp pieri too?

[Mary Lawlor]

My father was an aviator stationed at Stuttgart and later Heidelberg Army Air Field in the 1960s. Our family was with him in Germany for seven years. I've written about our experiences in a book that just came out, “Fighter Pilot's Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War.”

[OwenKellogg]

Welcome aboard!

[T-Bird45]

You got it in one guess. 1978-81, 1/333d Field Artillery (LANCE)

[Nooseman]

14th Maint co. armament shop. 85-88. Best duty station I had.

[Henry Hnyellar]

Why? The war has been over for almost 70 years.

[grimalkin]

I just didn’t think about it either way. Took it for granted, I suppose.

[KAESNO2]

You might be interested in this Facebook group ... https://www.facebook.com/groups/Heidelberghighschoolfriends/

I am in the KAHS Facebook group.

[Nooseman]

I know its been a long time,but there are some facebook clubs related to our service there.

[T-Bird45]

Thanks for that info. I’d read about those FB groups on a gun forum board just yesterday where the discussion was centered around the Germans using the former Patrick Henry Village housing area in Heidelberg for the refugees now arriving. It was beyond words for what it was being turned into but for now let’s just Third World has arrived in Germany and it’s not pretty.

Good to hear from you again!

[T-Bird45]

Here’s the link to the article I found on the gun forum yesterday. It has a link at the bottom for a 17-photo slide show that illustrates what I wrote previously.

http://www.govexec.com/federal-news/fedblog/2015/09/refugees-find-accommodation-armys-former-heidelberg-home/120275/?oref=govexec_today_nl