One of three housing units in the Baumholder property being returned to Germany sits vacant near the center of Birkenfeld. Local officials say the apartments have been vacant for two years and that they were not told of any change in status. (Terry Boyd / S&S)
BAUMHOLDER, Germany — As the American military presence in Germany changes, some U.S. housing units are returning to the host country sooner rather than later, while several operations have gotten reprieves in the latest round of facility closings.
In this round of an ongoing, 13-year assessment of American military bases across Europe, the Department of Defense is turning over all or parts of several housing areas including:
60 apartments in three large housing units for 1st Armored Division families in the Birkenfeld Family Housing Area, about 10 miles west of Baumholder in southwestern Germany. The Army will keep one apartment building with 18 apartments, but 16 units of bachelor officers living quarters also will be returned, said Millie Waters, a spokeswoman at U.S. Army Europe Headquarters in Heidelberg.202 units at the 1st Infantry Division’s Daley Village Family Housing Area at Bad Kissingen near Schweinfurt in south-central Germany. About 140 of those units are occupied, but will not be reassigned as current occupants leave, Waters said. Kissingen Elementary School at Daley Village will remain open, she added.Several operations previously scheduled to be handed back to Germans will remain open including:
The depot at Germersheim, near Speyer. Germersheim, once slated for partial return, is now needed to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Waters said.Commissaries at Strassburg and Neubrücke housing areas.The Germersheim depot, which employs 200 people including 100 Germans, is close to the Rhine River, the autobahn and rail facilities, Waters said.
Germersheim’s major operation is as a Defense Logistics Agency distribution hub for various military supplies from construction materials to medical supplies.
Germersheim is also one of three central distribution centers supplying commissaries in Europe, as well as a distribution hub for dry goods for Europe and the Middle East, according to Gerri Young, public affairs officer for Defense Commissary Agency-Europe.
The small Strassburg and Neubrücke commissaries, which serve housing areas near H.D. Smith Barracks in Baumholder, were on the DOD’s Personnel and Readiness Office list of 10 commissaries to close in Germany, Japan and South Korea. However, last May, Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, ordered that the commissaries remain open.
The original order to close “was a surprise to us,” Young said. DeCA officials “never had them on a list to close,” she said. “We still don’t.”
The only commissary in Europe slated to close is at Rhein-Main Air Base, which itself is scheduled to be handed over to the Germans by December 2005.
As long as there are still customers, “it’s our policy to be the last to leave,” Young said.
Why the DOD announcement has come at this time is unclear.
The announced housing handover is being coordinated with German officials, according to DOD and USAREUR news releases. However, German officials at Birkenfeld’s city hall told Stars and Stripes that the Army housing — in three separate apartment blocks — sat empty for two years.
Those officials added that Army officials have not informed them of any change in the buildings’ status.
Currently, there are two separate restructuring efforts going on in Europe — the Global Posture Review and an effort to close down housing and operations no longer needed.
In a news release announcing the return of German housing units, USAREUR and DOD officials stated the return is taking place under the 33rd round of closing unneeded U.S. bases in Europe. During the 25th round of base closures, for example, DOD closed Bad Kreuznach, the former headquarters of the 1st Armored Division, in 1999.
USAREUR and DOD officials declined to comment on whether Baumholder itself will close under the global review, or whether satellite housing areas and operations far from the main base will be closed in the next rounds of facility closings.
