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| Europe |
| Civilian employees on the move as Army closes facilities in Europe |
| 2013-04-02 |
| And Britain is also pulling out. The Army is dramatically shrinking its footprint in Europe, moving as many as 10,000 soldiers and up to 25,000 dependents back to the U.S. and shuttering billions of dollars in facilities as part of a major overhaul of forces. And those moves are affecting hundreds of civilian employees who support those installations. “It’s been stressful for soldiers and civilians over the last several years,” said U.S. Army Europe Command spokesman Bruce Anderson. By 2015, the Army will have about 30,000 soldiers stationed at seven major installations in Europe — down from a post-Cold War high of more than 250,000 soldiers spread across 41 major garrisons. As the Army’s oldest and largest overseas command, U.S. Army Europe has been home to nearly 12 million soldiers and families over 68 years. By 2015, the seven main garrisons remaining will be: Wiesbaden, Grafenwoehr, Ansbach, Stuttgart, Kaiserslautern, all in Germany; Vicenza, Italy; and Benelux, a union of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, headquartered in Brussels. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #5 Post-Cold War, 9-11 Germany is now Russia's economic BFF = strategic partner in NATO-EU - IMO Berlin will likely find a way to combine remaining US, UK Milfors wid those of Mama Russia. Instead of inter-NATO, EU "Joint Bases" will cometh "Combined Bases" vee Russia's military??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-04-02 19:51 |
| #4 I hoke K-Town includes Ramstein-Landstuhl. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-04-02 17:09 |
| #3 "remaining will be: Wiesbaden, Grafenwoehr, Ansbach, Stuttgart, Kaiserslautern" What - no Frankfurt am Main? Say it ain't so! |
| Posted by: Barbara 2013-04-02 15:15 |
| #2 Definitely will impact the local economies. When we left Germany in 1995, concurrent with what I believe was the first round of base closings, the rent our landlord could command for a nice house in a village near Frankfurt went down by 25%. They subsequently sold it, which suggests to me that rents fell further still, to the point where they could not afford to continue payments on what was meant to be their retirement investment. But really, what do we need there besides staging for the Middle East and Africa, and consultation? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2013-04-02 14:51 |
| #1 I'd have no problem with closing all US Army bases in Europe. We can keep some intel groups there to work with our Euro friends. Keep an air base or two, keep some naval basing rights. Otherwise let Europe defend Europe. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2013-04-02 14:04 |