01_HP (Page 1) - Herald-Post

6 NEWS
Thursday, April 10, 2008 HP
transforming
DARMSTADT
AAFES Food Court
The AAFES Food Court will have new hours starting April
8: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-2 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday and
holidays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Education Center
The Darmstadt Education Center is now closed on Fridays.
TheEducation Center is open Monday-Thursday, 7:30
a.m.-4:30 p.m. Customers can still call DSN 373-8700, civ.
0621-730-2053 for emergency counseling services.
On April 30, the Darmstadt Education Center will reduce
its services and cease offering Military/Army Personnel
Testing or Civilian/Defense Activity for Non-Traditional
Education Support tests. For information on alternative
testing centers, contact the Darmstadt Education Center
at DSN 348-6116, civ. 06151-69-6116.
Storage Containers
If you have an MWR rented storage container at
Griesheim, contact Outdoor Recreation.The deadline
to have all personal belongings removed from rented storage
containers located on Griesheim has been extended
to June 1. DSN 348-1550.
Veterans’ Memorial Museum
TheGriesheimVeterans’Museum will close April 30.
Thrift Store
The DarmstadtThrift Store is no longer accepting consignments
or donations and will close May 1.
Outdoor Recreation
DFMWR’s Outdoor Recreation is now closed onTuesdays.
New hours:Wednesday-Friday, 12-6 p.m. Outdoor
Recreation will close May 1.
Library
The last day to check out books was April 1. May 1 will be
the last day for DVD checkout, to allow time for closure
May 31. DSN 348-1740.
Wood Shop
The Multi-Craft Center’sWood Shop will close May 15.
New FAQ Links
Questions and answers related to the USAGWiesbaden/
Darmstadt transformation for the 66th Military Intelligence
Group and DefenseThreat Reduction Agency are
now available online at www.usaghessen.eur.army.mil/
MovetoWies/DarmstadtQAFeb2708.htm.This link can
also be found under“Transformation News”at www.
darmstadt.army.mil/closure.html.
ACSChanges
Army Community Services has adjusted its course
offerings. Customers seeking information on relocation
assistance, foreign-born spouse support and community
information can call DSN 348-6440 for individual assistance
and class schedules in neighboring communities.
Pack Storage Spaces
Darmstadt military community residents are reminded to
clean out and pack up their basements, attics and other
storage areas when preparing to depart.
More Information
For more transformation information visit www.
darmstadt.army.mil/closure.html, watch your Command
Information Channel, and listen to the AFN Darmstadt
Update everyWednesday on 98.7,“The Eagle”at 8:15 a.m.
To submit a question regarding closure, e-mail USAGDST-
PAO@cmtymail.26asg.army.mil.
For the sake of history
Darmstadt says farewell to museum, historical society
By Amy Buenning Sturm
USAG DARMSTADT PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Approximately 63 years after
U.S. forces arrived in
Darmstadt, the Griesheim
Veteran’s Memorial Museum held
its final exhibition for Germans and
Americans on the U.S. installation
March 30.
As exhibit visitors trekked from
one room into another, a veritable
smorgasbord of American and German
military history came to life
through newspaper clippings, vehicles,
painstakingly posed dioramas,
historical equipment and a documentary,
all assembled by volunteers.
Run byGeorge Robinson, Darmstadt’s
child and youth services
sports and fitness director, the museum
is the feather in the cap of the
Hessen-American Military Historical
Society, an organization active
in the Darmstadt area for the last 18
years.
Originally founded as the Rhine
Neckar History Society by Robinson
in January 1990, the organization
has adapted its mission and focus
alongside Army transformation in
Europe.
Members began their involvement
in the Darmstadt community
by performing Civil War historical
re-enactments at local community
events. Then, in 1995, the club organized
an exhibition to help the city
of Darmstadt celebrate the 50th anniversary
of the arrival of American
forces.
The success of the exhibit and
subsequent re-enactments prompted
the Darmstadt garrison to help
secure the historical society and
Robinson’s growing personal historical
collection, a more permanent
home to promote German-
American friendship.
In July 2001, the Rhine Neckar
Historical society “permanently” located
its collection at Babenhausen
Kaserne, where local community
organizations, school children and
the German public were able to
view the artifacts as a way of understanding
military history. On the big
opening day, Robinson remembers,
more than 300 people came through
the museum to view the exhibits on
Civil War uniforms, World War I
and II equipment, and the history of
local U.S. Army installations, dating
back to their original German Army
use in the 1930s.
A few months later, however,
the events of Sept. 11 precipitated
new security measures that limited
public access to the collection. Still,
Amy Buenning Sturm
Mecki Snippen, of Stars and Stripes, and Larry Ford, Darmstadt’s Retiree Council president,
examine a U.S. military steel helmet on exhibit at the closing of the Griesheim
Veteran’s Memorial Museum March 30. Approximately 50 visitors came through the
volunteer-run museum on its final exhibition day to learn about and share memories
of military history.
Robinson and his 40-member group
persevered, and opened again to the
public in November 2003.
For three years, the group continued
to operate at Babenhausen until
in 2006 the closure of the Kaserne
prompted yet another change for
the dedicated historians and their
museum.
Lt. Col. David Astin, the U.S.
Army Garrison Darmstadt commander,
in fitting with the group’s
motto, to, “preserve history for history,”
granted permission for the
renamed Hessian-American Military
Historical Society to relocate to
Griesheim Kaserne. Over the course
of their final year, the group dedicated
itself to educating scouts, students
and German citizens on local
military history and expanding and
preserving its collection.
The museum now contains an
entire room dedicated to the signal
Soldiers who once lived and worked
in Darmstadt. Monika Hill and her
family, including 1-year-old son
Dominic, came to the museum’s
closing ceremony as a family outing
and was surprised to feel a connection
to the artifacts.
“I love history. But, with us all actually
being (in Germany) you feel
more of a connection with the museum
and actual events,” she said.
Dominic was the youngest visitor of
about 50 community members who
journeyed through the museum to
say farewell.
Visitors were treated to a preview
of a documentary the historical society
is now working on, with the
goal of preserving Darmstadt’s military
history in a medium beyond
the walls of Griesheim Hangar.
As visitors meandered through
the exhibits, many like Mecki Snippen
shared their own memories of
Darmstadt in the early years after
World War II. “We [the children]
used to line the streets,” Snippen
recalls, “and call out ‘cheving goom’
to the American Soldiers, with the
German pronunciation.”
Robinson explained that it is the
memories like Snippen’s, of local
interactions with Soldiers that the
museum has tried so hard to capture.
“There are not a lot of weapons in
our museum,” he said. “We try not
to concentrate so much on combat,
but on the Soldier, the things
around the Soldier, the letter home,
the cigarettes, etc.”
Robinson’s primary associate, the
late Deiter Clobes, dedicated the
later years of his life to the museum
and its efforts to preserve German-
American friendship because of a
simple chocolate bar given to him
by aSoldier in 1945. Robinson and
Clobes’ efforts were recognized Sunday
by Astin, who praised them for
keeping the friendship between Germans
and Americans alive through
their organization, and declared
Robinson himself, “a community
treasure.”
While Robinson doesn’t know
yet where he and his collection will
journey to next, he is grateful his
time in Darmstadt and the memories
he has made and has been able
to preserve. “I’ve called Darmstadt
pretty much my home all of my
adult life, since 1976 ... Wherever
I end up, somewhere, somehow,
someplace, there will be something
that keeps the memory of my time,
and the Germans and Americans in
Darmstadt going.”