First French Army occupied the Echterdingen Flugplatz (originally constructed between 1936-38) in April 1945. American troops replaced the French Army in the early summer and put the airfield back into operation.

When Headquarters U.S. Constabulary moved into Kurmaerker Kaserne (now Patch Barracks) in 1946, their small flight section operated from Echterdingen Airfield with L-5 liaison planes.

In 1950, Headquaters, Seventh Army replaced the US Constabulary and their flight section replaced the disbanded Constabulary's at the airfield.

In 1951, Headquaters, VII Corps arrived in Europe as part of the build up of US armed forces during the Korean War and moved into Hellenen Kaserne (now Kelley Barracks). VII Corps aviation units joined the Seventh Army section at Echterdingen.

German civil air operations started up again at Echterdingen in the fall of 1948. In the spring of the next year the Flughafengesellschaft (FSG), the corporation that owns and operates the airport, arranged to share the U.S. Army apron and other facilities on the north side of the runway.

During the winter of 1953 thru 1954, the Army units moved across the runway into buildings on the south side, some of which dated from 1936 while others had been recently built. This left the north side free for German commercial and private flying. It was on the basis of this arrangement that the separation of military and civil aviation at Echterdingen has continued.

The U.S. Army and the U.S. High Commissioner, who represented German civil interests under the occupation, signed an agreement in 1954 which formally stated the terms of the agreement. This agreement was changed slightly after the occupation ended and the Federal Republic of Germany established in May, 1955.

Since 1 July 1963, the German-American relationship has been governed by the NATO Status of Forces Agreement and later supplementary agreements. The last supplementary agreement, signed in 1969 covered in detail the American rights to use the facilities and the compensation to be paid for their use.

Military flight operations changed markedly in the spring of 1967 when the flight section of Headquaters, U.S. European Command arrived from Paris, France (FRELOC).

Although the airfield became an Air Force command, about three-fourth of the military air traffic continued to be from the Army. USAREUR aviation units at the field included 29th Transportation Company (Direct Support), 25th Aviation Company, and the flight sections of Headquaters, VII Corps Artillery; Headquaters, 2nd Support Command; and Headquaters, 34th Signal Batallion. The military facilities were also used by Air Force and Army transient aircraft, particularly those carrying passengers to the major headquaters around Stuttgart. Military Airlift Command has also operated at Echterdingen, landing troops and equipment from the United States there during the annual REFORGER exercises.

The ANT-18 simulators we had were made in the 1930s and the students hated them. I believe that is one reason it took so long for the Army to realize the true benefits of simulation. The Generals making the decisions had probably gone through Flight School as young Officers and remembered their experiences with the ANT-18. The student climbed into the cockpit, closed the door, pulled the canopy closed and got instant claustrophobia. If the student allowed the airspeed to drop to the point of a stall, the simulator went into a spin (the cockpit turned round and round very quickly). When a person cannot see outside the cockpit in such a situation, he can become very ill. I have seen students so sick that they could not walk.

When I arrived at the school, it was fixed wing training only and by the time I left we were training mostly rotary wing flight. The ANT-18 was, of course, never intended for such purpose. After I returned to Fort Rucker, Alabama, we modified the ANT-18 by installing a collective (which was nothing but a rod with a bicycle handlebar grip) and other minor modifications. We never had a true rotary wing simulator until about 1970 which was the 2B24 (UH-1 simulator). It was an instrument trainer only (no visuals). The first out the window visuals were the Chinook and the Cobra, which used a huge terrain board and a camera probe to produce the video. Each board had several 1000 watt light to prevent shadows and to illuminate objects. This system was eventually replaced with Computer Generated Imagery. The Brass now realizes the value of Simulation but it took far, far too long.

I retired from the Army in 1973 and was employed by Civil Service in 1975 and I retired from Civil Service in 2000 at which time I was instructing Apache pilots. I was a Flight Simulator Instructor a total of forty years. I cannot state it for a fact but I believe I was in that occupation longer than anyone else.

Looking at the aerial photo of the Army compount (above), I recognize the main parts of the civilian airfield. "A" must be the barracks. "B" could have been where the link trainers were. "C" & "D" were maintenance buildings for the few motor vehicles we had and some light aircraft maintenance was done. There were some parts and if the aircraft could be made ready to fly without taking it all the way back to the Military side, it was done. You can see the school flight line with a few aircraft parked inside the fence.

I zoomed your picture of the school (above) to 400%: The two story part of the building ("B") in question was the class rooms and the link trainer room. You can see the parking lot, which was not paved, it was gravel. You can also see the fence posts which supported a barbed wire fence around the parking lot. One of the link trainer instructors went out to town one night and got very drunk and as he was returning to the parking lot, he took out several feet of that fence with his 1954 Chevy. Those post were made of cement so you can imagine what the car looked like.

We had some very good instructors but some of the support people were real cases. We had a midnight bed check and one night I was CQ and I was checking to see that everyone was present and one man, George (I forget the last name) was not. As I continued to check George came staggering down the hall. I told him that he should get into bed as I was making bed check. He asked me what time it was and I told him 12:05 and he said “daytime or night time?” and he was serious. I suppose we are just going to have to accept that the barracks was three stories or at least the part we can see in the photo was. Maybe only a part of it was. 

There was another unit located to the right of this photo which had nothing to do with the school but I have forgotten what it was. It has been 55 years.

I don’t remember that large hanger. I don’t believe it was there when I was there. The barracks, in which we were housed, had been the barracks for German Air Force personnel during WWII. I had very little interaction with the military side of the airfield. Mostly the mess hall.

The article by Sp.5 Kimble is correct in saying the Barracks were three story with the Link Training center, day room, CO and First Sgt. offices on the first floor and the enlisted barracks on the second and third floor, there was also a kitchen located on the first floor which was never used while I was there except for coffee. Except for the 2nd and 3rd floor end rooms facing the runway which were 4 or 5 man rooms all the rest were 2 man.

There was a movie theater in one of the Hangers on the Military side of the Airfield. There was also a PX, Barbershop, small restaurant and EM / NCO club on the military side. We had our own Motor Pool which included a ¾-ton, a 2½-ton, some model of small pickup, and a large Bus. We would use the bus to attend church services at Patch or Kelly Barracks and a monthly trip to Robinson Barracks for shopping at the large PX. The bus was also used to go to Kelly Barracks for the Bowling League which we participated in. Our shirts showed on the back a man standing on a cloud wearing a propeller ball cap riding a pogo stick with a bowling ball at the end. It reads “Cloud Hoppers VAIHINGEN, GERMANY.” I still have the shirt and two very nice trophy we won. The trophy reads “Thursday Night League, Stuttgart Germ. 58-59, 3rd Place and the Plaque reads “ GUT-HOLZ Participation, Thurs. Nite League, Vaihingen – Germany 1958”

When I arrived there we were paid in Military Script which had to be exchanged on base for Marks. Without any notice the Script was all called in and all transactions were done in American Dollars. A number of off base German Civilian establishments were left holding script and were out of luck trying to exchange it, since it was against Military regulations to use script off base. At the start of my service on pay day you were never sure how much your pay would be as there were no pay vouchers and if you had been over paid maybe for a couple of periods, when caught, this over payment would be deducted at the next pay period which would make it considerably less. My records may be incomplete but they show Pay Vouchers began in Feb of 1959. The rate of exchange at that time $ 1.00 to four (4) German Marks.

To my knowledge during my stay there were never any aircraft accidents associated to SUSAATC. That is a remarkable record considering the number of hours flown by the Instrument Training Pilots.

The Link Trainer was used in the schooling for the pilot instrument training. At the completion of their schooling they were required to fly so many consecutive hours under instrument conditions which were flights from Stuttgart to Copenhagen overnight then Hamburg overnight and return to Stuttgart. Other destinations were London Gatwick, Paris Le Barge, Barcelona, Cannes, Cologne and Amsterdam. Other Instructor pilots were, Capt. Freeman Stewart, Capt. Raymond Forehand, Capt. Howard Groth. These certification flights went on continuously every 8 weeks during my tour. My service was a very rewarding experience and one I will never forget.

Off post the primary destination was the Krone Gasthaus in Echterdingen. I returned in 1970 for a visit and was very disappointed with the changes that had been made at the airfield and the local building architecture but the Gasthaus was still owned and operated by the same family, Heir Seidel, whom I had a very enjoyable reunion visit.

One short funny story if there is time. One day Sp. 4 Palmer & I were in the parachute room which had a main entry and a side door to the Flight Op room. Palmer had just come in from a short flight with Capt. Blunck. One of the guys in the Flight Op room stuck his head in and said, “Palmer, Capt. Blunck wants you to get his parachute out of the plane.” Palmer not realizing Capt. Blunck was still next door responded “ tell Capt. Blunk to get his own *%#@ chute.” Just then Capt. Blunk walked briskly past the main entrance door. A minute later the phone rang, I answered it and said, “ Parachute Room Sp. David speaking”. The reply, “David this is Capt. Blunck, would you please tell Sp. Palmer I would like to see him in my office.” Capt. Blunk returned to the USA on the Geiger and sought me out while aboard ship to help make my trip home a little more bearable. He told me on a number of occasions, that experience with Sp. 5 Palmer was one of the highlights of his tour at SUSAATC. And Palmer later said that Capt. Blunck really wasn’t that tough on him.

I went thru Basic Training at Ft. Knox KY, Aircraft Maintenance School at Ft. Eustis VA, and traveled to Europe on the US NS Darby and returned to the US on the USNS Geiger.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
After doing some research I found that our Maintenance Hangar on the Military side of the Airfield was Hangar #3230 as shown on the site map, Stuttgart Army Airfield, Echterdingen, 1960s (Installation Information from 1960’s)

The information on buildings and facilities is very accurate as I remember. The movie theater hanger I think was Hangar #3217.

Our heavy maintenance support group 29th Trans Co I think was housed in hangar #3240.