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re: You Vets that were stationed in Europe for an extended amount of time I have a question.
Posted on 4/6/26 at 6:43 pm to Centinel
Posted on 4/6/26 at 6:43 pm to Centinel
The Neckar during the summer was incredible. Same thing with the Rhein. We spent a ton of time catching sunrays and day drinking in the grass along the river. One of the cool perks about marrying a girl from Heidelberg was getting to know all the local spots & activities to get the authentic German experience.
Did you guys ever go to O'Reillys pub across the river? It was one of the first buildings to the right as soon as you crossed the bridge from downtown. Right where the stairs were so you could access the river. I loved that spot. A lot of the Americans would go to The Dubliner on the hauptstr. but O'Reillys was where it was at.
I was only able to catch a Eurocup while I was stationed out there, but I've been back post Army for a Worldcup and it's absolutely something every person should get to experience. I can still picture everyone walking through the city drinking with their countries flag tied around them like a cape
-- Peak experience
Did you guys ever go to O'Reillys pub across the river? It was one of the first buildings to the right as soon as you crossed the bridge from downtown. Right where the stairs were so you could access the river. I loved that spot. A lot of the Americans would go to The Dubliner on the hauptstr. but O'Reillys was where it was at.
I was only able to catch a Eurocup while I was stationed out there, but I've been back post Army for a Worldcup and it's absolutely something every person should get to experience. I can still picture everyone walking through the city drinking with their countries flag tied around them like a cape
-- Peak experience
1
Posted on 4/6/26 at 6:53 pm to RollingwiththeTide
Germany is packed full of beautiful women. Mostly Germans, but tons of other beautiful Western & Eastern European women. To add to that, being an American soldier over there was like hitting the lotto in that you got bonus points for being a foreigner, but specifically an American. Additional points for being in the Military. Every friend I had, to include myself, that got serious with a German girl out kicked their coverage and married girls that would have never looked twice at us stateside
If you were single & didn't out kick your coverage out there you did something seriously wrong. If you could make them laugh, it was game set match.
If you were single & didn't out kick your coverage out there you did something seriously wrong. If you could make them laugh, it was game set match.
Posted on 4/6/26 at 6:59 pm to TRUERockyTop
quote:
Did you guys ever go to O'Reillys pub across the river?
Yup. Was my favorite place to get a cider.
quote:
but I've been back post Army for a Worldcup and it's absolutely something every person should get to experience.
I watched the 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands on a huge screen they put up there in the Altstadt in one of the courtyard/plazas owned by the University. It was nuts because of all the Spanish and Dutch students there at the time.
Posted on 4/6/26 at 7:02 pm to TRUERockyTop
quote:
To add to that, being an American soldier over there was like hitting the lotto in that you got bonus points for being a foreigner, but specifically an American. Additional points for being in the Military.
It's why I exist.
Grandpa was stationed at Bad Tolz with 10th Group and scored Grandma. My aunt was born there. This post was edited on 4/6/26 at 7:03 pm
Posted on 4/6/26 at 7:02 pm to RollingwiththeTide
My wife and I have rentals homes in Amberg, Schniattenbach, Sulzbach-Rosenberg, and Nürnberg all within driving distance Graf, Vilseck, Hohenfels, and Katterbach. I won't say full scale collapse, but it will hurt. When I was in the Army the mayor from Würzburg flew to DC to beg them to not close the Army Kaserne. In Ansbach when we deployed it really hurts the local economy. The towns near military installations do get a good influx of money from soilders.
Posted on 4/6/26 at 7:05 pm to TRUERockyTop
Lol! I know hot women exist in every country in the world. Like I said I guess just because of the era I grew up in that all of Germany looked like the East German woman lol. Those East German chicks looked more manly than Arnold or Sly lol. They certainly are no Swedish Bikini Team.
Posted on 4/6/26 at 7:08 pm to RollingwiththeTide
quote:
How bad will it hurt the local economies surrounding these bases where U.S. troops are located if Trump either pulls out all together or drastically reduces the U.S. presence in say a country like Italy?
Based on the experience you folks had would you say it would really hurt the locals or really not be noticed and felt?
how hilarious and ironic would it be if this "preventative" war campaign led to isolationism
Posted on 4/6/26 at 7:33 pm to Centinel
quote:
Uh, we're talking large urban centers in Europe baw. Not Puerto Rico. A bit different scenario there.
Listen “baw” maybe try to get out of your county once in a while and you’ll see that the colapse of these two counties in PR can be applied in a European setting, on a bigger scale.
Last time I checked how many bases are surrounded by a large city in Europe?
Only 2 or 3
One in Germany-Patch Barracks inside Stuttgart
One in Italy-One in Naples
The rest are at the very least 1 hour away from any mayor cities in Europe!
Posted on 4/6/26 at 7:35 pm to LaMigra
Pull them. Reopen some closed bases in the US.
Posted on 4/6/26 at 10:35 pm to Centinel
quote:It probably hit smaller towns like Baumholder or Babenhausen harder, but when I was there for the Darmstadt closure, the only visible change was the alterations shop outside one of the gates shutting down. Even the guy next door, whose entire business was selling auto insurance to soldiers, is somehow still around almost 20 years later.
I doubt it would hurt much at all. We've closed large bases all over Germany the past 20 years with pretty much no impact to their economies.
Heidelberg, Schweinfurt, Wurzburg, Bamberg, Mannheim, etc.
A lot of people miss this, but U.S. forces in Germany weren’t historically concentrated on massive installations. They were spread across many dozens (maybe over 100) of small kasernes, some barely hosting a battalion or two, embedded in otherwise normal mid-sized cities.
Today it’s the opposite. Forces are consolidated, and a full withdrawal would hit places like K-Town, Ramstein (basically one ecosystem), or Grafenwöhr hard. But the footprint now is a fraction of what it was 30 years ago, so most of the real economic shock already happened during the drawdowns. What’s left would hurt locally, but it wouldn’t be the same kind of systemic impact people imagine.
Posted on 4/6/26 at 10:58 pm to northshorebamaman
This was a fun thread. Brought up a lot of names and places I hadn’t thought about in years. Whatever the current geopolitical reality is, it was an incredible place to be stationed.
My kids were born there and spent big parts of their childhood there, so it's special to me. And honestly, I feel for soldiers now who won’t get that same experience, especially the older version of it. Back when units were scattered and you were just a small piece of the local community, not a self-contained American bubble.
There wasn’t always a big PX or commissary to fall back on, so you ended up living on the local economy by default.
My kids were born there and spent big parts of their childhood there, so it's special to me. And honestly, I feel for soldiers now who won’t get that same experience, especially the older version of it. Back when units were scattered and you were just a small piece of the local community, not a self-contained American bubble.
There wasn’t always a big PX or commissary to fall back on, so you ended up living on the local economy by default.
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