Return of troops to Hanau means beginning of the end for community

[unhappycamper]

Return of troops to Hanau means beginning of the end for community
By Kevin Dougherty, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, January 21, 2008

HANAU, Germany — Another welcome home ceremony is in the works for the Hanau military community.

Like so many soldiers before them, members of the 127th Military Police Company will soon glimpse dozens of homemade signs, each welcoming one troop or another back to the fold. Then their buses will roll to a stop near a reception area teeming with well-wishers. Speeches will run short; hugs and kisses will last long. And many of the kids in the gym will long remember this blissful reunion.

But there will be something else at play, something that won’t yield an encore or a second run of any kind.

“This is it,” said Wolfgang Niebling, longtime spokesman for the U.S. military community in Hanau. “This will be the last show for Hanau.”

Once the 100 soldiers return from Iraq this week, the community’s focus will shift to shutting the place down for good. It’s a remarkable development considering the depth and duration of the U.S. Army presence in and around the city of Hanau.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51797

[Lasher]

1. What's the hurry, it's only been sixty years.

Think of all the money we've spent there and what good it could have done here.