bluntie
If you are still around, you nailed it...this place is pretty much a dump. It looks entirely temporary although it has been around since 1967, when the Frence bugged out of NATO's military structure and booted SHAPE out of its Paris locale. Story goes that SACEUR Lemnitzer had hoped that SHAPE could be located near to NATO Headquarters, as had been the case in Paris, but the Belgian authorities decided that SHAPE should be located at least 50 kilometres from Brussels, NATO’s new location, because SHAPE was "a major wartime military target" (very funny, as the best thing an enemy could do to this place is to leave it alone!)
The Belg also said that SHAPE had to be placed on land already owned by the government in order to "limit costs" and "construction time." (in other words, they wanted to boost a sagging local economy without having to invest any money). The Belgian government then "offered" Camp Casteau, a 200-hectare Belgian Army summer training camp near Mons, which was an area in serious need of additional economic investment (a truer statement has never been made!). To overcome SHAPE’s objections about the distance from Brussels, the Belgian government agreed to build a "high-speed motorway" connecting Mons and Brussels. (that would be the pothole-infested E19, constantly a single-laner as the Belg are always "working" on it!)
In September 1966, a massive seven-day-a-week building programme began, co-ordinated between the Belgian central and local authorities, the building consortium and SHAPE (more BS, as the Walloons do absolutely nothing on Sundays, and very little the other six days of the week!). Highest priority was given to building command and control facilities(?!?). SHAPE closed its facility at Rocquencourt near Paris on 30 March 1967, and the next day held a ceremony to mark the opening of the new headquarters at Casteau. Lemnitzer called the construction effort "a miracle of achievement" (it was a miracle there was actually anything that resembled a building where SHAPE was suppose to be) and "praised" the Belgian authorities and workmen for their efforts to ensure that SHAPE had a new headquarters in a remarkably short time. (what a load of crap, but it explains why the place looks so temporary!)
All I can say is...Ramstein is only 230 miles away!
Cheers! M2