Eight years ago, Army Staff Sgt. Ken Young, now with the 502nd Engineer Company, helped move and erect the weighty flagpole from Downs Barracks in Fulda, Germany, to its present spot at Pioneer Casern in Hanau. But with the military community in Hanau closing later this year, the future of the Cold War relic is up in the air. (Kevin Dougherty / Stars and Stripes)
HANAU, Germany — Despite a lofty lineage, the fate of the old Fulda flagpole is up in the air.
The weighty white pole with a wide girth and a storied past has towered over Pioneer Casern in Hanau since April 2000. But with the military community due to close later this year, folks aren’t sure what will become of the Cold War relic that once stood in front of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment headquarters in Fulda.
“Metal gets you a lot of money these days,” said Petra Stadtmüller, an Army planner in Hanau.
Stadtmüller wasn’t flagging this pole for that fate, she was merely stating a financial fact as Hanau officials ponder what to do with material and memorabilia.
Some stuff will get scrapped. Other items will go to other installations. Already, the Grafenwöhr community, specifically the 709th Military Police Battalion, has a section of the old border fence, or Iron Curtain, as it was symbolically known.
“Nobody wants to be the person to heave” items of interest, said Robert Schloesser, a retired Army colonel who is overseeing Hanau’s closure.
But it would literally take a giant to toss the Fulda flagpole.
“It’s a big mother,” Schloesser said.
Staff Sgt. Ken Young is a bridge engineer who played a major role in helping to relocate the 104-foot flagpole eight years ago. He said the object weighs 13,870 pounds, and that doesn’t include the 4,000-pound sleeve below ground. Since 5 feet of it is buried, the pole rises to 99 feet, from grass to Old Glory.
“If it had been 3 feet higher, Fliegerhorst was going to make me put an anti-collision light on it,” said Young, referring to the 4th Aviation Brigade and its former casern.
No one is sure how long the flagpole stood at Downs Barracks in Fulda, though it likely went up as the Cold War was winding down. Young, who is currently with the 502nd Engineer Company, recalls being told it was erected “sometime around 1989,” which is the year the Berlin Wall fell. But it also could be quite a bit older.
Young would like the flagpole to go to his old unit, the 130th Engineer Brigade, which brought it down from Fulda. No longer in Hanau, the brigade is due to stand up in Hawaii sometime later this year.
And yet his 9-year-old son surely has other ideas. Whenever the Young family drives by Pioneer Casern, little Kevin can’t help but look up and admire his dad’s handiwork.
“My son knows it’s my flagpole,” Young said.
