Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airfield

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Lucius D. Clay Kaserne
Wiesbaden Army Airfield (WAAF)
Wiesbaden-Erbenheim Airport 91.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code ETOU
IATA code HOW
Coordinates

50 ° 2 '59 "  N , 8 ° 19' 31"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 2 '59 "  N , 8 ° 19' 31"  E
Height above MSL 141 m (463  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 8 km from Wiesbaden-Mitte
Street A66 , B455, K634
train reduced
Local transport Bus route 28
Basic data
opening 1929
operator US Army
Terminals 1
Employees approx. over 14,000
Start-and runway
07/25 2153 m × 37 m asphalt

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The Lucius D. Clay Kaserne ( IATA code AS , ICAO code ETOU , English Wiesbaden Army Airfield ; formerly also Wiesbaden Air Base ) is a military airfield the US Army and a proud 100-year tradition. It is located around eight kilometers southeast of Wiesbaden city center in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim and around 30 kilometers west of Frankfurt Airport . The headquarters of the US Army Europe (USAREUR) and the US Army Garrison Wiesbaden as well as the transmitter AFN Wiesbaden are located at the Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airfield . The base is named after the US General Lucius D. Clay .

Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airfield

From 1910 the Wiesbaden horse racecourse was located on the site . Even before the First World War , aircraft took off and landed here. Among other things, the first stage of the Prinz Heinrich flight began here from May 9th to 17th, 1913.

With the Versailles Treaty , Wiesbaden was occupied as part of the Mainz bridgehead , and there was a flight ban. In 1925, the Middle Rhine Association for Aviation was founded in the Mainz-Wiesbaden area . The occupying powers allowed a small number of flying schools to be founded. The association operated flight training center 17 in Erbenheim with the approval of the German Aviation Association . The Erbenheim racetrack was converted into an airfield in 1928/1929. The airfield, which was officially named Wiesbaden-Mainz , was operated by Mittelrheinische Flughafen GmbH . Now there were regular passenger flights.

In 1936 the German Air Force took possession of the airfield. During the Second World War , bombing raids on London were carried out from here .

Wiesbaden Air Base / Wiesbaden Army Airfield

C-54 aircraft at Wiesbaden Air Base during the Berlin Airlift
The entrance to the Erbenheim airfield

history

After the US Army occupied the site in 1945, a large American military airfield was built here . Between 1948 and 1953, the European headquarters of the US Air Force was housed there.

During the Berlin Airlift in 1948/49, the " Raisin Bombers " also flew from here . Transport planes such as the Douglas C-54 brought up to 80 tons of cargo to Berlin-Tempelhof every day .

Between 1952 and 1955, Wiesbaden Air Base served in phases as an alternative location, first for the Lockheed RF-80 and later for the Fairchild C-119 , whose home base at the Toul-Rosières military airfield was still being expanded.

On July 4, 1956, a Lockheed U-2A launched in Wiesbaden flew over both Moscow and Leningrad for the first time as part of Operation Overflight .

In 1973 the headquarters of the US Air Forces in Europe were moved from Lindsey Air Station in Wiesbaden to Ramstein Air Base and the US Army was stationed in Erbenheim.

In the last decade of the Cold War, Wiesbaden would also have been a Forward Operating Location (FOL) for US A-10 ground attack aircraft of the 81st Tactical Fighter Wings (81st TFW) based on the British twin base RAF Bentwaters / RAF Woodbridge . Until the end of 1988 it would have been A-10 of the 511th Tactical Fighter Squadron (511th TFS) and from the beginning of 1989 the 92nd TFS, both from Bentwaters.

In 1998 the facility designated Wiesbaden Air Base was officially renamed Wiesbaden Army Airfield .

On July 1, 2010, a Beechcraft RC 12 military aircraft had an accident . The pilots made an emergency landing and the machine came to a halt in the cornfield next to the airfield. The pilots were slightly injured, the kerosene was pumped out and did not leak. The machine was recovered a few days later and towed to the airfield.

As of 2012, around 19 aircraft were stationed at the base. This included 6 jet aircraft and 13 propeller-driven machines. In 2011 there were around 8960 aircraft movements at the airfield. These include machines of the types:

as well as other machines of various types that make a stopover at the airfield.

Selection of deployed units

The units that were stationed here between 1945 and 1993 included:

  • 363d Reconnaissance Group (May to August 1945)
  • 51st Troop Carrier Group (September 1945 to August 1948)
  • 317th Troop Carrier Group (September 30 to December 15, 1948)
  • 7150th Air Force Composite Wing (December 15, 1948 - October 1, 1949)
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing | 60th Troop Carrier Wing (October 1, 1949 to June 2, 1951)
  • 7110th Support Wing (June 2, 1951 to December 1, 1957)
  • 7030th Support Wing (December 1, 1957 to November 15, 1959)
  • 7100th Support Wing (November 15, 1959 to April 15, 1985)
  • 7100th Air Base Group (April 15, 1985 to June 1, 1993)

Since the end of the 1990s, the headquarters of the 1st Panzer Division and other support units have been in the barracks . The headquarters of the 1st Panzer Division was relocated to the USA in the summer of 2011 to make room for the headquarters of US Army Europe and its units from Mannheim and Heidelberg.

Since 2012 , the 1-214 General Support Aviation Battalion (GSAB) previously stationed in Mannheim , with its originally exclusively UH-60s, has been based here as a flying unit . It reports to the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade in Ansbach . As a result of a reorganization and a drastic reduction in the number of US Army helicopters permanently stationed in Europe in 2015, the battalion now consists of only three companies, UH-60 and CH-47. The “Commando” UH-60 of the A company are also stationed in Wiesbaden, the “Medevac” UH-60 of the C company in Hohenfels and the CH-47 of the H company are in Ansbach.

The site is also used today by the 66th Brigade of the US military intelligence service . The main task of the soldiers is to support military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan .

The transmitter AFN Wiesbaden , formerly AFN Hessen , moved here in 2004 after the withdrawal of US troops from Frankfurt am Main , where it started operations as AFN Frankfurt in 1945 .

US Army Europe Headquarters (USAREUR)

The base in 2011. In the background, construction of the new housing estate.

Around 20,000 soldiers and relatives are stationed at the Wiesbaden base. You live in the Wiesbaden settlements of Hainerberg , Crestview and Aukamm . In addition to the airfield, there are currently military services in Wiesbaden in the Amelia Earhart Complex named after Amelia Earhart (the hotel of the same name on Konrad-Adenauer-Ring is to be closed). The US Army Corps Of Engineers Europe resides there . There is also the Mainz-Kastel Storage Station (to be closed, includes the European Technical Center ; European communications hub of the National Security Agency ) in Mainz-Kastel and the American Arms Office Tower .

While the US airfield in Mainz-Finthen and the Rhein-Main Air Base at Frankfurt Airport were handed over to civil aviation, the Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airfield and the surrounding area will continue to be converted for military use by the United States.

At the beginning of 2010, the US Army announced plans that the headquarters of the US land forces USAREUR would be relocated from Heidelberg to Wiesbaden by September 2012 . For the necessary new construction and renovation measures, including new residential areas, 550 million dollars were invested by 2012.

Wiesbaden-Erbenheim will thus become one of only four US Joint Main Operating Bases in Europe alongside Grafenwöhr ( Grafenwöhr airfield ), Kaiserslautern and Vicenza ( 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team ).

Housing units (row houses, semi-detached houses and detached single-family houses), playgrounds, sports facilities and communal areas for around 88 million euros were planned and completed by around May 2012 on 41 hectares of land that was previously used for agriculture. In 2013, the construction of 326 new residential units for the soldiers and their family members who will also be stationed in the barracks in the future began. There are also plans to build a shopping center.

In a grand solemn ceremony on June 14, 2012, the new command center General John M. Shalikashvili Mission Command Center (also: “Shali Center”, “Shali MCC”) was christened and inaugurated, the US Army in Europe with around 30,000 US soldiers is commanded from here. The headquarters was named in honor of General John Shalikashvili , who was born in Warsaw and was the first person born outside the United States to take over the command of the United General Staff of the US Forces .

Lucius D. Clay barracks

In another ceremony, the base was renamed General Lucius D. Clay Kaserne after the American general and military governor of the American zone of occupation in Germany (1947-1949), Lucius D. Clay . The also inaugurated Newman Village settlement was named after Colonel James R. Newman , the governor of the military administration of Greater Hesse after the Second World War.

Also on June 14, 2012 it was announced that two more construction projects in the area of ​​the barracks would begin in autumn 2013 - an information processing center ( or gray center ) and the consolidated intelligence center , which is also to be used by the NSA . The total cost of the two units is said to be over $ 130 million, according to official statements. The construction tender ran from December 2010, was completed and archived in April 2011.

On September 6, 2013, the Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg were closed by the US Army. and thus the move of the headquarters to the Wiesbaden Clay Kaserne was made official. At full strength, around 19,000 members of the army (as of 2012) should be stationed in the new barracks. According to official information, the new USAREUR headquarters will save around USD 112 million in operating costs per year from 2015 onwards due to the more than 40 closed US facilities in Heidelberg, Mannheim and Darmstadt.

The base was led by Colonel David Carstens from January 12th, 2012 to July 9th, 2014, his successor was Colonel Mary Martin. The 48-year-old African American is from Madison County, Georgia and previously worked at the Pentagon. Martin headed the garrison in Wiesbaden for two years. Donald M. Campbell was in charge of the US Army Europe until November 5, 2014 . Colonel Todd J. Fish was introduced as the new commander of the U.S. garrison on April 22, 2016. In July 2018, Colonel Noah C. Cloud took over the garrison.

Incidents

  • On May 19, 1961, a United States Air Force (43-15277) DC-3 / SC-47A crashed shortly after taking off from Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airfield. Both crew members were killed.

See also

Web links

Commons : Flugplatz Wiesbaden-Erbenheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Old Eagle" makes his dream come true; Wiesbadener Kurier from May 20, 2009 ( Memento from May 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ A logistical masterpiece: Wiesbaden and the airport play the central role in supplying Berlin.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Wiesbadener Tagblatt. dated June 18, 2010, accessed December 1, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.wiesbadener-tagblatt.de  
  3. ^ Aero Fliegerzeitschrift , accessed on September 30, 2012.
  4. ^ Clay Kaserne - Information on flight operations ( Memento from February 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on September 30, 2012.
  5. ↑ Curb the engine test immediately. ( Memento from March 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wiesbadener-Kurier.
  6. ^ Rhein Zeitung Online - Wiesbaden says goodbye to US armored division in Texas, May 14, 2011
  7. ↑ Wiesbaden community reaches out to welcome 1-214th Aviation Regiment Family, US Army News, March 30, 2012
  8. ↑ USAG Ansbach: 12th CAB ( English ) In: ansbach.army.mil . United States Air Force. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  9. ^ Official website of the brigade ( Memento of May 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 17, 2012.
  10. ^ Official site of AFN Wiesbaden
  11. ↑ Official site of the site ( Memento of the original from March 20, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 1, 2018. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wiesbaden.army.mil
  12. ↑ Closure of two US Army locations in Wiesbaden - state capital Wiesbaden. Retrieved July 21, 2017 .
  13. ^ Michael Grabenströer: Heidelberg must give way: commands from Wiesbaden . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . January 20, 2010. Archived from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  14. ↑ op-online.de
  15. ↑ Der Tagesspiegel ( tagesspiegel.de ).
  16. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ( faz.net ).
  17. ↑ Press release from JUFO Architects ( jufo-architekten.de ).
  18. ^ Michael Grabenströmer: US Army in Wiesbaden: Topping-out ceremony for the headquarters . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . March 11, 2011. Archived from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  19. ↑ Press release ( online ( Memento of the original from December 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.strabag.de
  20. ↑ a b c Mark Patton: The US military community Wiesbaden presents completed construction projects (PDF; 139 kB) June 25, 2012. Archived from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved on July 20, 2013.
  21. ^ A b US Army in Wiesbaden: New European headquarters for US Army . In: FR.de (Frankfurter Rundschau) . June 14, 2012. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  22. ↑ US Army Europe names new Mission Command Center ( English ) In: eur.army.mil . US Army Europe. June 8, 2012. Archived from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  23. ↑ Program Wiesbaden ceremonies 14June12.pdf ( English , PDF; 996 kB) In: eur.army.mil . US Army Europe. June 8, 2012. Archived from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  24. ^ Jacob Corbin: Transformation managed: Directorate closes after 8 years of hard work. US Army, August 12, 2015, accessed July 10, 2016 .
  25. ↑ a b c Karl Weisel: Wiesbaden: Your home in Germany - USAREUR celebrates transformation milestones ( English ) In: wiesbaden.army.mil . US Army Garrison Wiesbaden Public Affairs Office. 2012-021. Archived from the original on July 16, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  26. ↑ Interview with Edward Snowden in SPIEGEL: NSA and BND are working together . In: Spiegel Online . July 7, 2013. Archived from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  27. ↑ Y - Additional Questions and Answers for Construction of a Consolidated Intelligence Center (CIC) at Wiesbaden Army Airfield (WAAF), Germany - W912GB-11-R-0022 (Archived) ( English ) Federal Business Opportunities. December 3, 2010. Archived from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  28. ↑ Official website of the US Army Europe ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 9 September 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eur.army.mil
  29. ↑ The Changing of the Guard
  30. ^ Colonel Todd Fish.
  31. ^ Garrison welcomes new commander | Herald Union . In: Herald Union . July 18, 2018 ( herald-union.com [accessed August 26, 2018]).
  32. ↑ accident report DC-3 42-23356 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 26 of 2019.
  33. ↑ accident report DC-3 43-15277 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 26 of 2019.