Personal Narrative: My Experience With The American Arms Hotel

The quarters still weren’t ready when we arrived so we spent a week in the American Arms Hotel. We had two rooms, and there were plenty of stores and restaurants in the area. And the Army was paying for most of the meals, so the transition was tolerable. The kids liked it, but it was small, and I was grateful it was only a week. We received the call our quarters were available for inspection. We were lucky to receive a four bedroom apartment on the first floor. There was a basement for storage and laundry, so even the first floor was close to being equivalent to the second floor. I was a senior Major, so I was eligible to get on the waiting list for a duplex. They were lovely houses, and we hoped we would get one. We got our DoD driver’s licenses, arranged for quartermaster furniture and standard utilities including a phone. It was terribly expensive to use the phone; even local calls cost significant money, and overseas calls were about $6 a minute, which is the equivalent of over $17 in 2015 dollars. That limited our calls to the parents severely, but, fortunately, both Mom and Blanche visited. The apartments had balconies, and ours was nicely
The headquarters was the first building on the left, and the enlisted barracks was the next. We began inspecting our assigned aviation battalions, spread throughout North Germany East of Frankfort. They were in better shape than those we had to turn around at Fort Bragg, so life was rather benign. We would have to prepare for a planned major exercise in Hildesheim in a year and a half, but that was too far out to be on our radar. I decided to continue my master’s degree, one course at a time, and I played indoor tennis and racquetball a couple times a week. Every weekend I played golf at Rheinblick Golf Course- rain or shine. We experienced the spectacular food and wine a couple times a week with friends. What a great