I left my heart in Wiesbaden. And K-town.
Mine is in Mainz. I have been back 3 times since they shut down, and every time I go back, the city is sadder. What memories I have of a wonderful time there. The markets, the shopping, the festivals... My parents met my dad’s first tour over there.
Wiesbaden for me, too: 1978-81, Camp Pieri, 1/333d Field Artillery (LANCE). My first child was born in 1980 at the US Air Force Hospital in Wiesbaden and we lived in the Hainerberg Housing Area, near the commissary and the dependent school. My wife was a substitute teacher at the school and we bowled at a German bowling alley near the American Arms, the BOQ/transient quarters.
We went to Heidelberg several times in those years, always stopping at the castle.
And Wiesbaden was our hospital/big commissary base! I was too young but my friends’ older siblings high schooled across the river there.
Mainz is becoming more uh diverse with every passing year. We left a vacuum, for sure.
Spent 4 years at Zweibrucken. Man, if you couldn’t like Zwei then there was no place overseas you would like.