The last security patrol around JHQ Rheindalen
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The last security patrol around JHQ Rheindalen
Spooky to see the place with no cars or people.
Tightgit
Strangely sad, four years as an Army brat living in Bracht and going to primary school in Bruggen (66 to 70), where a trip to the 'big naafi' in Rheindahlen was a real treat, it was watching the helicopters landing and departing from Wegburg Strip that infected me with the helicopter bug. Then another three years at 12 Flt AAC at Wildenrath from 77 to 80, where a trip to Pops and Eddies on a Friday or Saturday night was an 'education'. I still have my Pioneer Amplifier, Technics record deck and Wharfedale speakers bought from the JHQ Naafi! The beggars are stealing my youth!
Well, that's an hour and a half of my life I won't get back, or would have been if I had not cheated and skipped to near the end! Sad to see it all empty though. What will the Germans use it for - ready made town really.
Very spooky. Spent a year there in the early 90s. Not the happiest time of my life - how my career survived god only knows!
Wasn't the main drag a public road (albeit with military checkpoints) or did that all change after 9/11?
The best bit about JHQ - this place! Tried to replicate the food but like Brandy Sours it never tastes the same without the local ingredients/knowledge.
Wasn't the main drag a public road (albeit with military checkpoints) or did that all change after 9/11?
The best bit about JHQ - this place! Tried to replicate the food but like Brandy Sours it never tastes the same without the local ingredients/knowledge.
Local buses continued to drive through JHQ until it finally closed last autumn, it had been like a ghost town for along time before that with the NAAFI closing in August.
I went to have a look at the place about a month ago but all the access roads were closed off with builders fences.
Consideration is being given to using some of the single barracks as asylum seeker accommodation.
Another thing that is in the offing is holding a rock festival there, Rock am Ring at the Nurbergring has been held for the last time this year and the organizers think JHQ would be a suitable alternative venue.
I went to have a look at the place about a month ago but all the access roads were closed off with builders fences.
Consideration is being given to using some of the single barracks as asylum seeker accommodation.
Another thing that is in the offing is holding a rock festival there, Rock am Ring at the Nurbergring has been held for the last time this year and the organizers think JHQ would be a suitable alternative venue.
Although I was at JHQ from 1972 to 1975, I had great difficulty in recognising in the video places as I knew them forty-years ago in the 1970's.
JHQ and HQ 2nd TAF as photographed by me in 1974.
JHQ and HQ 2nd TAF as photographed by me in 1974.
We spent a total of eight years of our lives: very possibly the best, in Portadown Way.
As we watched the film, I could swear I heard a cello concerto in the background.
Nostalgia remains not what it used to be.
As we watched the film, I could swear I heard a cello concerto in the background.
Nostalgia remains not what it used to be.
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Ah, bittersweet. I had the worse posting of my career at Bruggen so particularly enjoyed working behind the bar at The Royal (anyone remember that?) in theearly 90s, and also starting a window cleaning round there which quadrupled my income!
Going there from Cyprus in the 80s.. well, visiting the NAAFI was the highlight - how easily we were pleased.. it was a supermarket what all was said and done. I bought two bikes from there, a VFR750 FT which I still have, and a Harley 883, which (thankfully) I don't.
Going there from Cyprus in the 80s.. well, visiting the NAAFI was the highlight - how easily we were pleased.. it was a supermarket what all was said and done. I bought two bikes from there, a VFR750 FT which I still have, and a Harley 883, which (thankfully) I don't.
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I really enjoyed Bruggen but that was as the Tornados were coming in and the Jags bowing out.... Never seen a more miserable bunch as those I knew who were posted into a Tornado Sqn.
Remember the JHQ, 52 hour disco's for Charity, several of us managed to complete a couple of them from opening to closing... God we were wrecked..
Remember the JHQ, 52 hour disco's for Charity, several of us managed to complete a couple of them from opening to closing... God we were wrecked..
