That my old base, I ws there in the early 60's. We were the 5 th Battalion, 77th Art. back then. Babenhausen was a great little town and so to nearby Darmstadt and Ashaffenburg (sp). I revisited there a few years ago and much has changed as it again changes.
I lived about 15 k from there from '85-'88 and we shopped there. They had an old guy that had a cart outside the exchange that made fried rice. We rode our bikes over and ate lunch at his cart on weekends. It brings back some great memories.
I can remember 5/77 cannoncockers arriving at the railhead [at Darmstadt, I believe] in early 1967 to pick up their new M109 155 SP guns. I'm not certain whether they were the first 109s the unit had, of if it was an ordnance upgrade of existing units, but those guys were as happy as kids with a belated Christmas present.
There were some German artillerymen crosstraining with them on the M109 back then, who I later saw go through the Table Eight tank gunnery excercises using their SP guns direct fire against tank targets. *Close enough* does not just apply to horseshoes, hand grenades and German barmaids.