The airfield was in an idealic location in a raised valley surrounded by rolling hills and mountains. It is located between Baumholder (thousands of GIs) and the Army Hospital Neubruecke (hundreds of GIs) at that time. I saw my first complete change of seasons there. I was raised on a small Island near San Francisco called Alameda. Alameda seldom had snow in fact the only way you knew it was winter, the leaves fell from the trees and it rained a little. The Airfield had one barrack building which had about 50 men.

Across the airfield is a river (stream) that runs parallel to it. It had some nice trout in it. We would picnic there on warm summer days.

At the end of the Airfield there were two guesthouses I visited regularly, one had the best food anywhere and a duckbill bowling alley downstairs. On Rosenmontag the last day before Lent they would throw wonderful parties. You could not buy a drink or food it just showed up. The ladies of the town would put a drink in your hand then drag you to the dance floor. Then just let you rest while the band took a break. The other guesthouse was smaller had great food, on Sunday the guesthouse closed at 10 PM. He would pull the plug on the jut box but you could stay as long as you had beer on the table. We would play cards or checkers turn the radio on low then dance with his wife or daughters sometimes to daybreak if we did not have to work.

Walking distance up the road was the Army Hospital at Neubruecke it had a great USO. People were in there from the time it opened tell closing most days. Guys and gals would come sit in for a few minutes or hours playing music from around America and the world. With two drum sets a dozen guitars, banjos, pianos, and saxophones people were always jumping in to play their rendition of a song.

I took a class to speak German at the Army Hospital in Neubruecke. I learned from the same type of book as the Spanish I had to take while in high school. My folks spoke Spanish at home. I would practice my bad German in all the guesthouses around Happy Valley. With the help of the owners and their clients my German became better then my Spanish.

Oh! The work. I was trained as a generator mechanic by the Army. The work was not hard but it was steady - I polished my skills swapping out engines, replacing fuel pumps, fuel injectors, standing guard, pulling kp, going on blue-streak runs. A blue-streak run is when the command needs a part NOW. We would hop in a jeep, truck, plane or chopper then go get the part like a BLUE-STREAK anywhere in Germany. Once on a blue streak run we were on a narrow cobblestone street going through a little town at dawn. Along the sidewalk walked four shadows of men dressed like the chimney sweeps with their brushes on their shoulders like in the movie Mary Poppins. Well running around Germany for work was fun. For ten bucks I would pull someone’s duty. Truth be known I would have paid them.

We played soccer against some of the Germans in towns around Happy Valley until we learned better. These men in their forties with beer guts would laugh as they ran past with a beer bottle in their hands as we stood bent over our lungs gasping for breath trying to pick our shoes after they had faked us out of them with a fancy dribble.

I was drafted on December 15 1965, eighteen days after my nineteenth Birthday. I had never been out of California, flown in an airplane, driven across Louisiana swamps, stationed in Washington DC, or taken a troop ship across the Atlantic Ocean. I became a Federal Stock Number in Olive Drab Green the Army rolled the dice or pulled my name out of a hat. I was tossed into a briar patch called “happy valley”, Hoppstädten Army Airfield (also known as Boehmer AAF).

I had a great time at the airfield then I was stationed to headquarters company Baumholder Thousands of GIs but that’s another story.

I rotated out of Germany on a early release program. I was home a week before my 21 st birthday. Thanksgiving!

I was a crew chief on the OH-13 and the CH34 achieving the rank of SP-5. I have always been fond of my time at “Happy Valley”.

In my beginnings at the airfield I was responsible for doing the “Happy Valley”certificates that were presented to those that were leaving the airfield until I was promoted to Crew chief on an OH-13.

I have been curious of those that were also stationed there and what /where had they gone. One of my two best friends during this time was Aaron Fletcher another CH34 crew chief (named one of my twin sons after) and Robert (Bob) Conley whom I shared off post housing (Hoppstaedten) with him and his wife Sheila and newborn.

I would like to know if any others have contacted this source. Thanks for posting.