It was 1980, I was 10 years old. My family and I were living on Landstuhl Army Post in West Germany. My father was stationed at Kapaun Air Station in Vogelweh, otherwise known as K-Town. About a 7 mile drive to work for him. I'm not sure why we lived on Landstuhl Army Post when there was military housing in Vogelweh. But I believe the housing at Landstuhl is what was available for us at the time of his assignment. This would be his second tour of duty in Germany. He loved it there. I would grow to love it as well.
Landstuhl Army Post was built in 1951. It remains to this day the home of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. The largest hospital serving military personnel abroad, with an extensive trauma care center. The Army Post sits atop a large hill surrounded by wooded valleys. The hospital was strategically located in West Germany to support both U.S and NATO Forces.
The hospital was huge as I recall. My friends and I would often visit the snack-bar or shopette within the hospital. We would roam the hallways which seemed to go on forever. Army MEDEVAC helicopters would regularly fly in and around the Army Post. These were UH-1 Huey helicopters that were used in Vietnam through the 1980's. It was always exciting for us to be close by and able to watch the helicopters land at the hospital heli-pad. We were often close to enough to have our hair wind blown by the chopper. The hospital and the wooded valley surrounding the Post was our playground. I can write a blog dedicated to the valley alone.
The housing units were essentially large apartment buildings, as they are on many military installations. Typically three stories high with three separate stairwells. A total of 18 apartment units. Now, if your parent was a ranking officer, you might live in a single family house. Landstuhl was a smaller installation so there was only a few single family homes as I recollect. Commanding officers and their families generally lived there. We lived in regular housing.
These housing units were original to the 1950's. They had radiant heating systems and no air conditioning. The heating system was coal fired. The apartment building had a basement, which contained storage units, laundry facilities, and a coal room with the boiler system. The basements were fun to run around and play in. A long hallway in the basement connected all three stairwells. I remember the parents would get together and create haunted houses in the basements at halloween.
German civilian personnel operated and maintained the boiler systems. This included loading coal into the boilers during the winter months. As a 10 year old, the "coal man", as we referred to him, was spooky and creepy to us. I think because he worked in the dark basement boiler room, and was always dirty with coal soot. Not a welcoming appearance. None-the-less, a hard worker providing for himself and maybe a family.
The heating was very efficient within the apartment. Each room had a radiator. The temperature of the radiator could be controlled by a knob on the radiator itself. It didn't take much turn of the knob for adequate heat. I'm not sure we ever had the radiators on in the bedrooms, unless it was extremely cold out, which was rare.
Although the coal man was scary, we were still adventurous and mischievous 10 year olds. When we had accumulating snowfalls, there were times we would throw snowballs at the coal man through the basement coal chute opening. Of-course we would run off quickly having a great old time. There was a day I believe the coal man was ready for us, or was determined to take action if it happened again.
On that day, we again launched snowballs and took off. Not getting real far away thinking we were in the clear, we turned to a voice yelling at us. It was the coal man! We ran as fast as we could down the street. The coal man began chasing us. He caught us. We were gasping for air, and he didn't seem phased by the 100 yard sprint he just made. He was furious and scolded us in german and his best possible english. He even grabbed and pinched one of my friends on the chest. We were scared out of our shorts to say the least. We never threw snowballs at the coal man again, but rather became friendly with him over time. A great early lesson in energy and humility!
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