________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
Stuttgart military community we didn't use the term "subcommunity" because many of our
subcommunities were bigger than some other communities, so we just used the term
"community commander."
The support structure a community commander had would also vary considerably. Some of
them had full service: full facility engineer and housing offices, logistics functions, public
affairs functions, and all the rest. Others did not. In Stuttgart there was only a single facility
engineer for the whole greater community of six subcommunities, so I didn't have a separate
facility engineer that worked directly for me.
There was another major function--that was the interaction with the German populace, and
the German mayors, the Burgermeisters, and county commissioners, the Landrats. That
varied by community too. Some commanders would deal with a single county or a single
town. Although I didn't have any facility engineer, I had numerous political contacts across
the northern edge of Stuttgart. General Ott left to me all dealings with my Lnder Landrat
and also with the Burgermeisters and city councils and staffs in Ludwigsburg and
Kornwestheim, and about five other smaller communities where my different military
kasernes were located. I had some fourteen separate small installations that were located in
and among these various towns.
Q:
About how many people were in the Ludwigsburg Kornwestheim community? Dependents
and soldiers?
A:
There were eight battalions of about 4,100 soldiers. There were about 6,500 dependents--
some 1,340 plus families. Pattonville was a very large housing area that served all of the
greater Stuttgart military community, not just those in the north. So, you see the cross lines of
this held. I had soldiers living in Pattonville that worked south of the town in Headquarters,
VII Corps, or Headquarters, European Command, or for the Second Support Command or the
1st Infantry Division (Forward). We also, of course, housed the soldiers and families who
worked in the various battalions in my community. Those soldiers had responsibilities with
me to help take care of the families. Yet, I would go to Robinson Barracks, another
subcommunity, for facility engineer support, and we took direction from VII Corps.
The schools all varied too. The senior high school for all of Stuttgart was in my community.
Students bused from all over to come to that senior high school. So, I was the person in the
greater Stuttgart community directly responsible for supporting the senior high school. I also
had a middle school and a couple of grade schools. We also ran the youth programs--the
youth soccer, basketball, football, et cetera. We had a library.
There was a small snack shop. We didn't have many services there. Most of our people went
to the big post exchange in Robinson Barracks. We ran buses back and forth. The major
hospital was in Bad Constadt, which was 20 to 25 minutes away, and we'd also run buses
over there. U.S. forces living in so many different parts in a huge military community like
Stuttgart have just all kinds of interrelationships and problem areas and things that need to be
worked out.
217
Previous Page
