Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
If there are no dependants, property, etc in Europe, then there's a definate chance the individual soldier will want to leave and go "home" no matter how bad it actually is there.
If on the other hand they've built some sort of a life in Europe, well, that's probably something of a case by case situation.
For those units which have been stationed in Germany for a long period of time, such as the 11th ACR which was stationed there since the early to mid 1970's, the likelyhood of the bulk of it's personnel staying should be much higher than in say a unit which was only shipped over during the war.
Some of the personnel of the 11th ACR could well be US citizens but never laid eyes on the country - parent(s) were soliders in German in the 70's and 80's and they've grown up in and around the military bases. It's theoretically possible that two or three generations of the one family could be serving in such a unit at the same time.
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That would be the case if the US Army in Germany was run differently, but it wasn't. Let me explain...
Most US troops in Germany were assigned more or less randomly to units on two-year rotations. Every soldier assigned to Europe in peacetime received orders to an adjutant general battalion at the Frankfurt airport. Once there they would look to see what unit needed a soldier of the appropriate rank and specialty as the reporting soldier and then send the soldier on to that unit, whether it was located in Germany, Italy, the UK or Greece. (Since we don't use a regimental system like the UK, any soldier can go to any unit that needs his particular skills)
When a soldier arrived at his unit he was assigned government housing. If he was single, he would live in the barracks. If he /she was married, they would be assigned housing in one of the "kassernes", US Army posts that resembled (in a slightly twisted way) American small towns, with American fast food (Burger King for many years held the sole contract for name-brand fast food on US Army bases worldwide), a PX, schools run by the US Army with American civilian teachers (most of which were spouses of soldiers), libraries and American cable TV in every home. In many ways the families were quite separate from Germany - they had a little bit of America in Germany that they mostly lived in, albiet one where every weekend they could go on a fabulous, low-cost European vacation. In fact, the Army operated a number of recreational facilities in Europe, including a resort in the Alps, that provided American meals, English-speaking staff and accommodations and activities familiar to Americans. When a soldier's two-three year tour was over, he would be reassigned to another unit, almost always back in the U.S. - there were clear standards for required periods of service overseas. Very few soldiers "lived on the economy" - rented housing, and even fewer bought any property. The most permanent property most soldiers had in Europe was their car and household goods.
In addition, the promotion system prevented soldiers from staying overseas for very long periods of time. When a soldier transitioned from lower enlisted (privates and specialists) to being a NCO it was quite common that he would be assigned to a new unit, in order to prevent problems of authority/respect with his former peers who were now lower ranking. In addition, the requirement to attend long-term schools for promotion to more senior rank in both the officer and NCO corps (schools like BNCOC (for promotion to Staff Sergeant), ANCOC (promotion to Sergeant 1st Class), Command & Staff College (Lt Col., I believe) and the Officer Advanced Course (Major)) meant that a soldier was frequently assigned back to the US if he had any hope of being promoted - and under the "up or out" policies failure to get promoted (for example, to sergeant in 8 years or staff sergeant in 16 years) meant that the soldier would be put out of the army.
Additionally, each soldier was required to maintain a "family care plan" that detailed how his dependents were to be cared for when he was deployed or the balloon went up. It had things like having important papers and traveling supplies ready at all times, locations for evacuation transport (buses would evacuate dependents from the kassernes to the airbases that reinforcing troops were arriving on; the 747s that were carrying troops to POMCUS sites would carry families back), contact information for family and friends in the states, and arrangements for where families would go when they returned to the U.S.
Sure, some soldiers tried to stay overseas for longer times, but they were relatively rare. I worked for a sergeant that loved Korea, he ended up being stationed there for 9 of his 22 years in the Army, but they were split into 6 stints, and he was never at the same post (and that was in a single division). Soldiers did interact with the locals, and there were a good number of German and Korean wives around, but by no means near 10%. As far as soldiers who had dependents who had never been to the U.S., VERY unlikely. There were some soldiers who, upon retirement, chose to live in Germany with their German spouses (and often start a second career working on one of the US Army bases), but overall I think the likelihood of significant numbers of pre-war troops deciding to remain in a post-war Germany due to ties to the community derived before the war is pretty low.