Germany: In 'K-Town,' American bases are a pillar of local economy

Major installations in Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria in particular are hugely important to local workers, businesses

KAISERSLAUTERN. World affairs take on a distinctly local perspective from “K-Town,“ as this southwestern German city has been known by at least two generations of U.S. soldiers and their families.

Polls might show that about 80 percent of Germans support Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's opposition to a war against Iraq, but last month Kaiserslautern businessmen chipped in to present Brigadier General Erwin F. Lessel III of the U.S. Air Force with a poster bearing the message, “Stop anti-American policies!“

With 40,000 soldiers and their dependents living in or near the city, including the giant Ramstein air base nearby, Kaiserslautern hosts the biggest U.S. military community outside the United States. And while many friendships have been formed over the past half-century, and quite a few marriages, the primary emotion being felt these days is fear of the potential economic catastrophe facing the city if the Pentagon review of U.S. bases in foreign countries results in base closures in Germany.

“The American city,“ as Kaiserslautern proudly bills itself, is hooked on U.S. dollars. According to a study by the universities in Trier and Kaiserslautern, the Ramstein air base - home to the U.S. Air Force's 86th Airlift Wing, Lessel's command and one of the backbones of the U.S. military's logistical effort - and the fighter jet base farther north in Rhineland-Palatinate, near Bitburg - together pumped EUR1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) into the state economy in 2001.

The study said the U.S. military presence was directly and indirectly responsible for 27,000 civilian jobs in one of western Germany's economically weakest areas.

As if to underline the economic link, the presentation to Lessel was made after he had unveiled plans for a EUR159 million shopping and recreation center, which would certainly be under threat if the Americans pulled up stakes.

Still, most people here are betting that will not happen, despite the current difficulties in U.S.-German relations and an evolving U.S. military strategy that could result in smaller Army units closer to NATO's eastern frontier. While there is much speculation that the Americans are preparing to stop investment, the evidence seems to point in the other direction, at least for the air bases: Plans are still afoot to upgrade and lengthen the main runway at Ramstein to 3.4 kilometers (2.1 miles), though the funding is coming from German taxpayers, NATO and Frankfurt Airport as part of a EUR372 million deal under which the U.S. Air Force will give up its facilities at Rhine-Main Air Base, which shares runways with the airport.

Some EUR130 million in capital improvements are also planned at Spangdahlem, the air base near Bitburg. But even if a total U.S. pullout does not materialize, officials in the Rhineland-Palatinate government still worry about less dramatic decisions being made in Washington. Should the Pentagon decide to put its soldiers on shorter rotation, for example, they would no longer bring their families with them to Germany, putting a major dent in expenditures for everything from restaurants to clothes in what soldiers call “the local economy.“

The decision from Washington on the future of U.S. forces abroad is also being awaited with some anxiety in a number of smaller communities in northern and northwestern Bavaria, where the bulk of the 27,000 American servicemen and servicewomen serving in that state are based.

The service personnel based at the giant training base of Grafenwöhr, “home“ to some 6,000 soldiers, say they have not let the current strains in the German-U.S. relationship upset what they say are good relations with Germans, thousands of whom depend on jobs at the bases or in businesses dealing with the American military community. As for the local people, “We don't get involved in the big political questions,“ said the mayor of Grafenwöhr town, Helmut Wächter.

But big politics does sometimes touch down in small towns. Since last month's security conference in Munich, when American officials made it plain that Germany was not the only European option for their bases, local officials near the Grafenwöhr base and another large U.S. air base in Bavaria, at Hohenfels, have expressed concern that the U.S. Defense Department could cancel some $950 million in capital projects planned for the two facilities. Included is a $300 million residential complex for soldiers and their families.

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Dang, I'm fresh out of tissues thanks to the cold I just got over, so someone should stop these guys, they're breaking my heart...oh the pain...

Eastern Europeans will gain what Germans are about to lose.

Those sour Krauts are the wurst!!

Spangdahlem Hospital and PX expansion, as well as all work in Germany has been halted by direct order of, none other than Rumsfeld himself. Reason: Until we have determined our situation (Bases) in Europe, we won't spend any more money. At least a prudent thing to do.

Sorry, too little too late.

Your government threatened not to let us use your air space to get in and out of our bases. That threat alone is reason to move the bases. We American tax payers don't spend billions for bases that can be deemed useless on German whims.

Ah yes. K-town. I visited there a couple of times, as well as to the airshow at Ramstein in the late 70's before it was permanently canceled.

I spent more time than I can count enjoying the scenic training locations and ranges of Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels. Great fun during 7 years with the 3rd Armored in Germany.

I worked in Germany in the early 90's and then worked with Germans here. I have a hard time condemning them for their leadership now, when they were at least somewhat understanding of how we got stuck with clintoon. They didn't like that, and the Germans I still know much prefer Bush.
If we want to stick all of them with the Schroeder image, then we have to all be stuck with the clintoon image. I don't think so.

Stationed two years in Hoechst, between Frankfurt and Kaiserslautern, in the mid-1980's. The Deutche were usually gracious but grumbled even then about our military presence when the Red Horde was ever-ready to come pounding down the Fulda Gap.
It was in Kaiserslautern where an Air Force guy was murdered for his ID card. The Red Army Faction then used it to plant a bomb on Rhine-Meine Air Base, killing a few airmen and wounding dozens more.

Spent 2 years in K=Town with the 57th Engineers. My oldest son was born in Vogelwei Hospital that serves Ramstine Air Base in 1966. Things were still nice back then.

I was telling my wife earlier that Iraq is going to become a giant military base for the US removing much of what we base in Germany. I think we'll base somewhere between 80,000 and 150,000 troops there for the next 20 years at a minimum. We'll use them in an offensive against Syria and Iran if needed.

Having Syria or a strong relationship with Turkey we'll be able to move troops from the Mediterranean Sea into the Persian Gulf or vice versa in hours without having to worry about an anti-aircraft attack.

I remember the bombing of the Rhein Main O'club. My oldest daughter was born at the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt in the early 80s.

Yes, the Germans in the Frankfurt area were not as friendly as those up on the border or down in Barvaria. Oh well, many of the old kasernes are closed now, and more will close in the coming years. I've heard that some of the Army combat units remaining in the Frankfurt area will move to Barvaria to be near the training areas over the next couple of years.

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