Lucius D. Clay Kaserne (german: Flugplatz Wiesbaden-Erbenheim) , commonly known as Clay Kaserne, is an installation of the United States Army in Hesse, Germany. The ''

kaserne ''Kaserne'' is a loanword taken from the German word ' (plural: '), which means "barracks". It is the typical term used when naming the garrison location for American and Canadian forces stationed in Germany. American forces were also sometimes h ...

'' is located within Wiesbaden-Erbenheim. Named for General Lucius D. Clay, it is the home of the Army's 2d Theater Signal Brigade,

66th Military Intelligence Brigade The 66th Military Intelligence Brigade ("Six-Six-M-I" and 66th MIB) is a United States Army brigade, subordinate to United States Army Intelligence and Security Command and based at Wiesbaden Army Airfield, Wiesbaden, Germany. After years of hist ...

and is the headquarters of the

U.S. Army Europe United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) is an Army Service Component Command (ASCC) / Theater Army responsible for directing United States Army operations throughout the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRIC ...

(USAREUR). The USAREUR oversees the

7th Army Training Command The 7th Army Training Command (7th ATC) is a United States Army training organization located at Tower Barracks, Germany. 7th ATC comes under the command of the U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR). 7th ATC is the United States Army's largest overseas ...

, 10th Army Air & Missile Defense Command and

21st Theater Sustainment Command The 21st Theater Sustainment Command (21st TSC) provides theater sustainment throughout EUCOM and AFRICOM Areas of Responsibility in support of USAREUR and 7th Army. On order, deploys to support theater opening, distribution, and Reception, S ...

. Clay Kaserne also maintains an airfield.

History

Origins

The land on which present-day Clay Kaserne now stands was originally built in 1910 as a race track for horses. In 1929, the race track was converted into a regional

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

. The '' Luftwaffe'' took over operations in 1936. One unit stationed at the airfield was ''Jagdgruppe'' 50, a fighter group of

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War a ...

World War II

On August 17, 1943, ''Jagdgruppe'' 50 intercepted American bombers taking part in the ill-fated Regensburg Strike targeting the Messerschmitt factory in Regensburg and the ball bearing plants in Schweinfurt.

Alfred Grislawski Alfred Grislawski (2 November 191919 September 2003) was a German Luftwaffe fighter ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves during World War II. He was credited with 133 victories claimed in over 800 combat mi ...

, a German

fighter ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

,Fellgiebel took part. The field was captured when the 80th U.S. Infantry Division took Wiesbaden on 28 March 1945. Subsequently, the United States Army Air Forces gave the base the temporary designation "Y-80."

Cold War

Wiesbaden Air Base during Berlin Airlift 1949

Beginning in September, 1945, the

European Air Transport Service The 51st Troop Carrier Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. The wing was formed during World War II and was the first troop carrier wing in the Army Air Forces (AAF) organized for deployment overseas. During the war, it served in ...

(EATS) operated passenger and cargo service from Wiesbaden daily to London, Munich,

Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state con ...

, Vienna and Berlin. From Berlin an EATS plane made weekly flights to Warsaw, Poland. Flights originated from Vienna for

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 m ...

, Sofia, and

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

. In the Mediterranean area EATS flights connected Udine, Pisa, Rome, and Naples. The EATS originally was composed of left-over wartime troop carrier squadrons, glider and fighter pilots, B-17 "Flying Fortress" crewmen and other available personnel. In addition to regular flights which service the Army of Occupation, EATS also operated special flights such as providing transportation for diplomatic officials, evacuating sick or wounded, performing mercy flights, aiding Graves Registration in returning the remains of American soldiers and rushing supplies to needy areas. In 1948 the installation served as a hub supporting the

Berlin Airlift The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, ro ...

with around-the-clock flights to

Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport (german: Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof) was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, lea ...

. Airmen from Wiesbaden distinguished themselves in support of "Operation Vittles". C-47 "Skytrain"s and

C-54 The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian ...

"Skymasters" of the 60th Troop Carrier Group flew missions daily to Tempelhof in the beleaguered city of Berlin. During one day's operations more than 80 tons of food and supplies were airlifted from Wiesbaden. The streets on Wiesbaden Air Base were named after servicemen who gave their lives during the Airlift. On 4 July 1956 a U-2A stationed in Wiesbaden flew over both Moscow and

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

as part of Operation Overflight, missions to spy on Soviet Armed Forces bases. This was the first flight by a U-2 over the Soviet Union. It was flown by United States Air Force pilot Hervey Stockman, and the aircraft is now in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. In 1973, the headquarters of the

U.S. Air Forces in Europe The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(USAFE) was relocated to Ramstein Air Base near Kaiserslautern. The Air Force moved most personnel out of Wiesbaden in 1975 as part of Operation Creek Swap, in which most Army facilities in Kaiserslautern were turned over to the Air Force, in exchange for the facilities at Wiesbaden. The 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, was stationed at Wiesbaden in 1976 as part of "Brigade 76" until it was replaced by the 3d Corps Support Command and

12th Aviation Brigade The 12th Combat Aviation Brigade is a Combat Aviation Brigade of the United States Army. It was first organized as the 12th Aviation Group at Fort Benning, Georgia, on 18 June 1965. Vietnam The unit deployed to Vietnam in August 1965 to comma ...

in the mid-1980s. In the mid-1980s, the base served as a landing point for the F-117 "Nighthawk" "Stealth Fighter". Although not officially acknowledged by the Air Force until 1988, the F-117 became operational in 1983. The Wiesbaden Air Base would "go dark", turning off all airfield and perimeter lights, whenever "stealth" flights were landing or taking off. From 1975 to 1993, the air base was a joint Army/Air Force community. U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF)/U.S. Air Forces in Europe units (USAFE) assigned to Wiesbaden Air Base or

Lindsey Air Station The Europaviertel (European quarter) in Wiesbaden is a former barracks area named ''Gersdorff Kaserne'' at the edge of the city center of the Hessian state capital, approximately 2 kilometers southwest of the Marktkirche. Barracks (1868–1945) ...

from 1945 to 1993 included: *

363d Reconnaissance Group 363rd or 363d may refer to: * 363d Expeditionary Operations Group, inactive United States Air Force unit * 363d Bombardment Squadron or 19th Antisubmarine Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit * 363d Fighter Squadron or 164th Airlift Squa ...

May – August 1945 * 51st Troop Carrier Group September 1945 – August 1948 * 317th Troop Carrier Group 30 September – 15 December 1948 * 7150th Air Force Composite Wing 15 December 1948– 1 October 1949 * 60th Troop Carrier Wing 1 October 1949 – 2 June 1951 * 18th Weather Squadron Headquarters 1949 – 1957 * 7110th Support Wing 2 June 1951 – 1 December 1957 * 7030th Support Wing 1 December 1957 – 15 November 1959 * 7100th Support Wing 15 November 1959 – 15 April 1985 * 7100th Air Base Group 15 April 1985 – 1 June 1993 * 1602d Air Transport Wing, 1 Jun 1948-30 May 1964 ( MATS)

Installation at Garlstedt, near Bremen, from 1978

Lucius D. Clay Kaserne was a new military facility built near the village of Garlstedt just north of the city of

. The facilities cost nearly $140 million to construct, half of which was paid for by the Federal Republic of Germany. The 2nd Armored Division (Forward) stationed there had approximately 3,500 soldiers and another approximately 2,500 family dependents and civilian employees. The West German government constructed family housing in the nearby city of Osterholz-Scharmbeck. In addition to troop barracks, motor pools, an indoor firing range, repair and logistics facilities, and a local training area, facilities at Garlstedt included a troop medical clinic, post exchange, library, movie theater, and a combined officer/non-commissioned officer/enlisted club. The division's soldiers and family members received radio and TV broadcasts from The

American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...

(AFN) – Europe via the AFN Bremerhaven affiliate station located in the nearby port city of Bremerhaven. The brigade was officially designated as 2nd Armored Division (Forward) during ceremonies at Grafenwöhr, FRG on 25 July 1978. The Garlstedt facilities were officially turned over to the United States by the German government in October. At that time the Garlstedt kaserne (camp) was named after General Lucius D. Clay, the American military commander during the

Allied occupation of Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Fra ...

after World War II. His son, a retired U.S. Army major general, attended the ceremony. The brigadier general in charge of 2nd Armored Division (Forward) had a unique command. In addition to command of the heavy brigade, he also functioned as the Commander,

III Corps 3rd Corps, Third Corps, III Corps, or 3rd Army Corps may refer to: France * 3rd Army Corps (France) * III Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * III Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of t ...

(Forward), headquartered in Maastricht, Netherlands, and as commander of all US Army forces in Northern Germany, including the military communities of Garlstedt and Bremerhaven. In the event of the deployment of III Corps and/or the 2nd Armored Division from the United States, the division commander would revert to his job as assistant division commander for operations of 2nd Armored Division. This contingency was practised during REFORGER exercises in 1980 and 1987. As a result of this varied and demanding job, command of the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) was considered a plum assignment for armor branch brigadier generals, on par with perhaps only the

Berlin Brigade The Berlin Brigade was a US Army brigade-sized garrison based in West Berlin during the Cold War. After the end of World War II, under the conditions of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements, the Allied forces occupied West Berlin. This occupation las ...

for high visibility and potential for advancement to higher rank. The brigade initially deployed to Germany with the M60 Patton tank and the M113 armored personnel carrier. 4–3rd Field Artillery had the M109 155 mm self-propelled howitzer. In 1984, 2–66th AR transitioned to the M1 Abrams main battle tank. In 1985, 3–41st IN and 4–41st IN transitioned to the

M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle The M2 Bradley, or Bradley IFV, is an American infantry fighting vehicle that is a member of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle family. It is manufactured by BAE Systems Land & Armaments, which was formerly United Defense. The Bradley is designed for ...

. The C/2-1 Cavalry was replaced by an air cavalry troop, the D/2-1 Cavalry, armed with AH-1S Cobra attack helicopters. The brigade's initial subordinate combat units consisted of the 3rd Battalion of the 41st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion of the 50th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion,

66th Armored Regiment The 66th Armor Regiment is the oldest armored unit in the United States Army, tracing its lineage to the 301st Tank Battalion which served with distinction soon after it was formed in the First World War; the 301st trained at Camp Meade, Mary ...

(Iron Knights), 1st Battalion, 14th Field Artillery Regiment, and C Troop, 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment. In October 1983, as part of the army's regimental alignment program, 2–50 Infantry was redesignated as 4–41 Infantry and 1–14 Field Artillery as 4–3 Field Artillery. Other brigade subordinate units eventually included the 498th Support Battalion, D Company, 17th Engineer Battalion, and the 588th Military Intelligence Company. The brigade also had a military police platoon and an aviation detachment. In 1986, under the army's COHORT unit manning and retention plan, 3–41st Infantry returned to

Fort Hood Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, Texas. Named after Confederate General John Bell Hood, it is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about from each, within the U.S. state of Texas. The post is the headquarters ...

, Texas, and was replaced by 1–41st Infantry. In 1987, 4–41st Infantry returned to Fort Hood and was replaced by 3–66th Armor (Burt's Knights, named for Captain James M. Burt who was awarded the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor ...

as a company commander in the 66th Armored Regiment in the

Battle of Aachen The Battle of Aachen was a combat action of World War II, fought by American and German forces in and around Aachen, Germany, between 2–21 October 1944. The city had been incorporated into the Siegfried Line, the main defensive network on ...

during World War II). Now an armor-heavy brigade, 2nd Armored Division (Forward) fielded 116 M-1A1 Abrams tanks and nearly 70 M2/3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The division participated in numerous major NATO training exercises, including "Trutzige Sachsen" (1985), "Crossed Swords" (1986) and the "Return of Forces to Germany" (REFORGER) (1980 and 1987). Division subordinate units used the NATO gunnery and maneuver ranges at the

Bergen-Hohne Training Area Bergen-Hohne Training Area (German: ''NATO-Truppenübungsplatz Bergen'' or ''Schießplatz Bergen-Hohne'') is a NATO military training area in the southern part of the Lüneburg Heath, in the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It cove ...

for gunnery and maneuver training and each year the division as a whole deployed south to Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels 4(both in Bavaria) training areas for annual crew and unit gunnery and maneuver qualification. The division had a formal partnership with Panzergrenadierbrigade 32, a Federal Republic of Germany Bundeswehr mechanized infantry brigade headquartered in nearby Schwanewede. The division also had informal relationships with Dutch, Belgian, and British NORTHAG forces, often conducting joint training activities at Bergen Hohne. After the Gulf War the division went through a series of inactivations and redesignations. Due to the restructuring of the U.S. Army after the end of the Cold War, the 2nd Armoured division was ordered off the active duty rolls, ending more than 50 years of continuous service. SGT Michael L. Anderson was the last member of the 2nd Armored Division. He was a 74F who was in charge of cutting orders for all remaining members of 2nd Armored Division HQ. On 1 September 1991, he cut the final orders for himself and his commanding officer. Over the summer and fall of 1992, the 2nd Armored Division was inactivated. Lucius D. Clay Kaserne was turned back over to the German government and was later to become home of the German Army Logistics and Supply School (Logistikschule der Bundeswehr) as well as the seat of General der Nachschubtruppe. Lucius D. Clay's name was later reused for the Wiesbaden Army Airfield.

21st century

Until summer 2011, WAAF was home to the headquarters of 1st Armored Division and a number of subordinate units. As American forces draw down in Europe, 2017 plans called for Wiesbaden to remain one of six geographic hubs for U.S. forces in Europe. After the closure of US facilities in Frankfurt, Germany, the headquarters of American Forces Network (AFN) was moved from its old AFN Frankfurt location to Mannheim. AFN opened a small regional studio, AFN Hessen, on WAAF to serve the American troops in and around Wiesbaden. It is now home to the 2nd Military Intelligence Battalion of the

, flying the

RC-12 Guardrail The Beechcraft RC-12 Guardrail is an airborne signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection platform based on the Beechcraft King Air and Super King Air. While the US military and specifically the United States Army have numerous personnel transport ...

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

aircraft. On June 14, 2012, WAAF was renamed "Lucius D. Clay Kaserne" after General Lucius D. Clay. Clay was the former U.S. military governor of the Germany and architect of the rebuilding of Germany after World War II that led to the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...

. Clay instituted

Operation Vittles The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, roa ...

from WAAF in 1948, retiring only after the Soviets lifted their blockade of Berlin. Prior to this renaming, "Lucius D. Clay Kaserne" was the name of a U.S. Army facility in then-West Germany, near the community of Garlstedt in Osterholz-Scharmbeck. The installation still named Clay Kaserne had been the home of the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) and is now the home of the

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

's logistics school.

Lindsey Air Station

Lindsey Air Station, an installation on the opposite side of Wiesbaden from the air base, was established as an Army Air Force installation on 13 November 1946, having previously been a

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwa ...

facility named ''Gersdorff Kaserne''. Lindsey Air Station achieved its greatest prominence between December 1953 and 14 March 1973 when it was the host base for Headquarters, USAFE. After the transfer of Wiesbaden Air Base to the Army in 1976, Lindsey Air Station provided support for various Air Force units in the Wiesbaden area until it was returned in 1993 to the Federal Republic of Germany and renamed

Europaviertel The Europaviertel (''European quarter'') is a housing and business quarter development in the Gallus district of Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous cit ...

. The buildings at Lindsey Air Station now house certain offices of the German Federal Investigation Bureau '' Bundeskriminalamt'' (BKA), the State Police of Hesse, new private housing and a

folk high school Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule; ...

(VHS). The sports field and gym are now the home of the

Wiesbaden Phantoms The Wiesbaden Phantoms are an American football team from Wiesbaden, Germany. The team experienced its greatest success in 2010, earning promotion to the German Football League. History The club was formed in 1984, originally as a department of ...

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucius D. Clay Kaserne 1910 establishments in Germany Wiesbaden Wiesbaden Wiesbaden Barracks of the United States Army in Germany Buildings and structures in Wiesbaden Wiesbaden Wiesbaden United States Army posts Wiesbaden