Totally great memories. I was stationed at the HOG from '83-'85 in the 619TCF at Schwelentrup (aka Schwelenam to some of us - lol). Great memories and one of the best assignments I had in my 20+ years.
Wow! Thanks for posting! How I found this video I will never know. My husband was stationed there in 1989 in the radar unit. He hurts his back working there and we were sent back to the states in 1990. He got medically discharged in 1991. It was beautiful there and although we were there for only a short time, we made lifelong friends.
Hallo Im was in the Air Station in 1997 from a Red Cross Emergency Weekend Training,a Training for the Evacuate the Village Großenwieden after a Gas Desaster the Codename of the Trainingoperation GEWAK GOSSENWIEDEN EVACUTET this staing in the Dewezet Newspaper .Have a Nice Day@@lmommsen
Keine Ahnung was der Hinweis der Schilder auf die Anschnallpflicht in der DDR soll. Die gab es doch im Westen auch für alle Autos mit eingebauten Gurten?
I have a co-worker here in Detroit who recently told me that this is what the border with Canada is like these days. He said it used to be really easy to get across but after 9/11 it's more like crossing the West/East German border was when he was there in the 80s
I live about 70 miles south of the "Gate which will never close", the border crossing on Interstate 5 between Seattle and Vancouver, BC, and the last time we where there, the Canadian's required you to fill out a web page letting them know in advance where you were going, and how long you would be there before you could enter. We were there on a whim, so they turned us around, in their polite, Canadian way. OUR guys (USA) on the other hand, were not so polite to us obvious United States citizens who had just gotten turned back. We should have told them we were Mexican citizens who just stole a car and loaded it with Fentenal, and we would have probably been waved on through, no other questions asked... Canada has since dropped that requirement, but I'm told it's still kind of a hassle to go there.
The East-West German border was pretty easy for us military folks, as long as we had our paperwork in order. After we cleared out processing facility, we had to pay a visit to our Russian "allies" at the crossing points, not the East Germans.
I bet that whole interchange smelled like a bunch of weed trimmers and chainsaws running, with all the Trabants and Wartburgs belching filthy 2-cycle smoke. A VW beetle must've been like a Cadillac in comparison.
0:06 Polish Fiat 126P and probably Porsche 924 - what a big hole was and still is dividing those cars. That's the perfect picture of east-west differences.
Thanks so much for the nice trip down memory lane. First military assignment was Hess from 82-84 with the 629th TCF out of Schwelentrup. Lived on 2nd floor of the middle barracks for the first year then moved to apartment near the Schaumburg castle. Best assignment of my military career. Hope to visit October '22
Bobs Big Boy was made by my father Bill Swan along with many other iconic fiberglass statues which are in Amazon book for only 14.99 it's called "The man behind the mufflerman ".
If you are referring to the part showing the bridge saying "Leaving the American Sector", this is the part of the Transit Corridor from West Berlin through East Germany back to West Germany. The traffic is most likely those people from West Germany headed home, and this is one of only two or three ways they were allowed to go.
What really struck me was how relaxed both the Vopos and their counterparts seemed to be; compared to even a few weeks earlier. It was obvious, looking back on it, that Germany was already starting to reunify......
A big mistake from part of Russland..Now the Nazis are closed back again to the Russian Federation Borders... They never learn now we're inches away from a Thermo- Nuclear disaster since 1945 the Federal Republic of Germany it's has been runned by the Gehlen Organization the very same people who financed the Nazis during the 1920's- 30's 'till now... This time it won't be a Berlin Wall, Just thermo-Nuclear ashes...🇩🇪🇺🇸🔫🇩🇪🇺🇸💀🔫
Was in grades 4 through 7 in Hessisch Oldendorf from like '88-'91. Shout outs to Ms. Bishop, her son Nick, and Ms. Gonzalez, and the german teacher with the leather pants. Some names that I've held onto throughout the years....Hamadi Scruggs and the loud rap music that used to make my father mad, Stephen Whiteman and his C64 we used to play Maniac Mansion and Zack McKracken on, April Porter, Mark and his big brother Chris that lived in the very base housing unit shown in this video at the time the video was taken, if I remember right their father was the boy scout leader, red headed Ryan, heavy metal Aaron and the rest of the "we're gonna play war everyday" crew that headquartered in Ryan's shed in front of his house lol. Leo and Josh, who also probably hung out with Aaron's big brother. Josh's father was a SP with my father and they went to Ramstein just like we did. At some point while I was in high school, Josh had an altercation with a german national and, according to the story, put two knives into the german guy's ribs. Crate and his little brother with all their baseball cards. Their father was the coach of my little league baseball team that played in the field next to the bowling alley. Tyson with whom i spent the night and watched 'It' for the first time. If you ever read this, Tyson, you'll remember me..."i got my Simpson's tape and my SImpson's backup tape!" There was a Nicole or Nadine that was April Porter's best friend and a blonde girl named Christina who was my first girlfriend and her mother was a good friend of my mother's for years afterwards. They both worked at the Commissary there. There was a Lamuelle who kneed me in the stomach because i couldn't say his name right, he hung out with Hamadi and a guy named Jason. I remember we had a talent show and they did a rendition of 'Let me Clear my Throat.' Hamadi lived on the far end of the base housing building shown in the video while my family lived next door to him. There was a Will and his sister Penny that I remember from class. Really big guy named David I used to play Top Gun on NES at his house and a few times we snuck onto his mom's computer and tried to play Leisure Suit Larry. There was another Aaron, I think, who had a twin sister....Stephanie, i think her name was, both of whom were in my class. While I can't remember his name, there was a phillipino guy who was on my little league team. He had a wooden bat that i absolutely loved and broke during an at bat against a kid named...Dale, i think, I just remember him and his little brother could throw very fast for their ages. In the video, you can see a field with a lot of bushes on the left RIGHT before you see the base housing building. There was a group of us who always played war in that field, or were hiding GI Joe's all over it. Just after the base housing building and leading up to the base gate is another field of bushes on the left, they were really thick and some of us had crawled through the underbrush of them and cut a tunnel we could crawl through that led almost all the way from the start of the bushes to the gate. We used to leave the school during lunch and go to this little german store and spend all our money on gummi cherries, smurfs, and candy necklaces. One of our teachers, Ms. Bishop, had a son Nick who I was friends with. Used to stay at their house some weekends and play Kings Quest all night. Lots of good memories from those days. DODGEBALL!!!! SO MUCH DODGEBALL LOL. GAMES AND GAMES OF FOUR SQUARE. DOES ANYBODY OUT THERE REMEMBER SUICIDE HILL? I WENT INTO THE CREEK/DITCH SLEDDING DOWN THAT SHIT. lollololol. Had to walk back home soaking wet in the freezing cold. I remember on the last day of school in 6th grade someone poured dish soap in the aquarium and killed all the fish. Anyone else remember the day Stephen Whiteman got his name on the chalk board and then proceeded to get like 30 check marks after it? A big group of us went to a international boy scout camping trip and totally embarrassed every adult involved with the event. When asked, on stage, what the hundreds of scouts would be served for meals if the Americans organized the next years event, one of us literally said peanuts and water lol. Every country's scout pack was supposed to perform some sort of skit and a group of us just kinda went in front of everybody and said "this is what it's like on a new york street corner" and immediatly started (play)fighting each other. There was a hike and Hamadi Scruggs lost his asthma inhaler and everybody went into a panic. At night we snuck around in the dark pulling stakes out of the ground. Mark and Chris who I mentioned earlier had a sleep over around the time....Pet Cemetery...came out. Myself, Stephen Whiteman, and Chris snuck out in the middle of the night, got scared for no reason when we saw an SP drive by and started running. Ended up getting busted and riding back to the slumber party in the squad car. Sucked for me because my father, Richard, was an SP there at the time so no way I was getting away with that. Richard, Rodney, Boyd, my father and his friends on the security police force. Sheriff Asshole and Deputy Assholes were the nicknames for my father, myself, and my little brother. Lock-ins at the rec center. I remember Josh and Leo skating on my Corey Obrien in front of the rec center during one lock in. Some of us snuck out that night but I don't remember what we did or where we went. LEO I SAW THAT YOU"VE POSTED ON HERE, I JUST REMEMBERED THAT YELLOW HALF PIPE, I HOPE YOU SEE THIS AT SOME POINT AND REMEMBER THAT GOD AWFUL PLYWOOD HALF PIPE YOU GUYS BUILT AND LEFT TO ROT BY THE BASKETBALL COURT!! During the last year of school that took place in the old school building we were allowed to dress up for halloween. I'm the guy that showed up dressed as the Ultimate Warrior WWF guy. Myself and Hamadi used to have epic spit ball fights in class. Hamadi had put an entire sheet of paper in his cheek like chewing tobacco one day and just let it soak for however long. Vaguely remember seeing him pull it out of his mouth and throwing it at me with what i remember being an awkward sidearm throw. He always threw that way. He missed and the gooey gob of woodpulpspit exploded all over the chalk board and stuck to it. I remember thinking it looked like when you throw a snowball at a brick wall. Anyway, I'm on hard quarantine, been drinking and rambling on here as i watch UFC 251. I'm going to check this thread every once in a while, if ANYBODY out there was in our class, remembers anybody I've mentioned or others I haven't, I would love it if you left a story or two of your own. Have good lives, people!
I drove semi trucks for AAFES back then. We'd cross checkpoints Alpha and Bravo 4 times a day and swap trailers in that rest area at the east/west border on the Alpha side. Thanks for sharing this!
I'm wondering Why weren't you using Herleshausen Wartha border crossing since it's shorter to reach Ramstein Air Base and Wiesbaden Barracks. Rudolfstein A9 Grafenwöhr
This is soooo nice that you posted these. I wish I could save the videos to my computer somehow. I was stationed there from 1990 - 1991, just shortly after this was made! Thank you so much!
Großartig, dass du diese historische Aufnahme mit uns teilst! Da werden Kindheitserinnerungen wach. Um zu sehen, was sich innerhalb von 30 Jahren verändert hat, habe ich dieses Remake online gestellt: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x8xIljDmyr4.html
Ich war 1997 in der Kaserne im Rahmen der Katastrophenschutz Übung GREVAK (Großenwieden Evakuierung). Ich war erstaunt wie Groß die Gebäude waren und das gesamte Gelände.
I love this video. We were stationed there til 86 or 87 I think - so I was too young to remember. I’ve seen home videos and pictures but only from inside and outside our home on base. Thank you so much for sharing!
Merhaba. 1984 Senesine kadar ailece oradaydık. Rahmetli Babam Hannover'de çalışırdı. Hayal meyal hatırlayabiliyorum. 34 Sene sonra oraları tekrar görmek için geleceğim. Çok heyecanlıyım. Video kaydı için teşekkür ederim... Hallo. Wir waren bis 1984 dort. Mein verstorbener Vater arbeitete in Hannover. Ich kann mir einen Traum vorstellen. Nach 34 Jahren komme ich wieder, um sie wiederzusehen. Ich bin so aufgeregt. Vielen Dank, dass Sie das Video aufgenommen haben ...
I was stationed at Hessich-Oldendorf AB back in May 1976, when it was transferred from the Dutch Air Force to the U.S. Air Force. My wife, 3 children, and I were the third family to arrive in Hessich-Oldendorf. At the time, base housing was being renovated so until that was finished we had to reside in temporary lodging. If my memory serves me, that place was called the Forental farm house. My wife was the first American to work at the commissary and I was assigned to the Air Base Group headquarters. We saw Hessich-Oldendorf AB grow from almost nothing. I started the first AAFES movie theater as a part-time job, we went to the chow hall and the Chapel in the same building. One of our frequent things to do was get pizza at the KMT kaserne. Also, we went tot the British movies in Hameln and Rintel. We we welcome with open arms by the town folks since we were one of the few Americans there at the time. We loved it there and I wished I had extended my tour...again...and again. Memories that are 40 years old, but still treasured.
Thank you so much for the video. We were there from 76-82 and were called the Pioneers because my parents, along with several others, opened the base. It was quite honestly the best time of my life. Growing up in Hess was amazing. Thanks again for the memories.
