US Military Families In Germany: A Retroactive Look At Our False Sense Of Security

[@jasonfowler1986]

You guys remember things a lot differently than I do as a son of a Army Intel Officer with the 3rd Armored Division in Frankfurt who went to Atterberry Elementary from 1983-1986 while in the 2nd thru 4th grades . Do you guys remember the car bomb that went off in the back of the PX parking in between the NCO Club & the still fairly new only Burger King in Frankfurt back in 1985? That kinda changed things as fair as security. There was anti-terrorist Delta Force units at work in Germany and the rest of Europe that would make terrorist cells disappear back in the 80's without any flashy news coverage. All soldiers not just the M.P.'s were responsible for keeping their Kasernes safe. I lived in Gibbs housing area and we had 12 foot high concrete wall around are housing area that had razor wire on top of them. There were M.P. entrances at both the housing area and Kaserne entrances much like at Ft.Jackson and Benning where I lived stateside prior to moving to Frankfurt. There were 2 M.P.'s in a Jeep assigned to watch the children in the morning and afternoon load and unload onto the Mercedes Benz school busses taking them to school. At Atterberry Elementary a.k.a. D.o.D. school #2 there were wanted posters of terrorist on the walls as you entered the library and our teachers would stop their classes before entering the library and say if you see anyone who looked like that you should let us know immediately. We had weekly bomb threat drills and a lot of bomb threats but other kids told me that most of them had been called in at a pay phone by other military brats not wanting to go to classes that day. Gibbs and Atterberry was hard targets and AFN reported on numerous terrorist trying to run car bombs into military bases in Germany back in the 80s but they usually just ended up blowing up outside the M.P. Checkpoints. I guess y'all spent more time around Drake Edward's and it was more open especially around the football fields etc.but to the Germans it probably looked like a huge American Ghetto of government housing that scared them to death. My family did go to church at Bethel Baptist outside of Drake Edward's and you could walk from the church right into the housing area but any German that tried would have stuck out like a sore thumb. I think Otis that you might have just been a teenager more worried about the fat laces we wore in our tennis shoes back then, playing hoops, listening to rapppers like Slick Rick&Sparky D etc.,& playing hoops but all the Officers, N.C.O.'s, & or M.P..'s were much more aware of security issues than teenage dependents. But likewise the Soviets were so brutal to the Germans at the end of WWII that they much preferred the American presence over the alternative of U.S. forces leaving and the USSR coming in and taking over even though the German farmers didn't like the way American tanks would tear up the countryside during Reforger exercises. I remember there was a huge German park next to Gibbs housing area and one time when I was like in 3rd grade a drunk German guy threw a beer bottle at a black American girl & hit her in the head and then all the older military brats from Gibbs went over there and kick a lot of German ass and nothing like that ever happened again. My dad started bringing home released from top secret info to me when I was in second grade so I could learn how to analyze Intel so I was probably more aware of things than say some of the kids of NCO's that I played with but if we ventured off base on our bikes the M.P.'s knew us and let us ride right back in and a lot of the older kids would take the Strassenbonn next to Gibbs all over and buy stuff like samurai swords and ninja stars etc.and never have any trouble. I actually got my first Rambo style survival knife in Interlaken Switzerland when my family and other church members went to the annual European Southern Baptist Convention there. Also when I moved back stateside my dad was a Professor of Military Science at the University of South Carolina and ran the Army ROTC at Morris College a small black Baptist school in Sumter, S.C. My dad was also in charge of the weekend training of College Army ROTC cadets in the state of South Carolina. So I helped train Ranger Cadets at Ft.Jackson from 5th grade through 9th grade to help get them ready for Ranger Challenge summer camp at Ft.Bragg. I was a Lead Aggressor Enemy Combatant who attacked cadets with weapons loaded with blanks and I got my 1st M16 rifle in 5th grade, M60 in 6th grade, trained on grenade simulators and the L.A.W. in 7th grade, got my black beret in 8th grade, & was a pretty good light Infantry soldier by 9th grade back in 1991. I had planned on coming back and fighting East Germany and the USSR but that all came to and end before I was old enough. RANGERS!!!! "Lead The WAY!!!"

[@caramia1042]

Wow ! 5 years later i discover this KZbin video. I was in and out of the Abrams building in the 80s as a Courier delivering messages. I was in the 3AD. I remember the Meinhoff gang and our kaserne being locked down several times and we were no longer allowed to wear our uniforms outside the gate unless we lived off post and went straight home.

[@cathywithac1331]

72 years!!! I remember the Bieder Meinhoff gang bomb scares in the late 70s.

[@FrankfurtAlumniVideo]

As a result of a huge, 4-ton-blockbuster-bomb being discovered, safely defused, and then removed from the former Abrams Building Kaserne, in Frankfurt, Germany, we were motivated to produce this show. The huge bomb that had been on the property since 1944 or 1945, laid submerged and dangerous for 72 years, which was only about 150-meters from the former Frankfurt American High School. The task for the local German authorities to remove the bomb was enormous. Around 65,000 people who were within a radius of a little over one-mile-and-a-half, were evacuated on September 3, 2017, from 08:00 to around 20:00. The city and surrounding neighborhoods were full of at least 600 police officers in vans, cars, and even sometimes wheeled-like tank vehicles. All went well with the intricate operation, according to German mainstream media reports. However, this alarming and very sobering incident made us realize that many people, and especially U.S. military family members, have a dangerous 'false sense of security and safety.' And here, in this broadcast, we provide a plethora of reasons to support our opinion. So, that's what we're elaborating on and discussing during this episode on Frankfurt American Alumni Radio. Thank-you for joining us!