Wednesday, September 24, 2003

SHUTTING DOWN SITES IN THE NETHERLANDS

Old soldiers who read this will recall the Combat Equipment Group Europe (CEGE) sites that once dotted Germany and the Netherlands. We closed the German sites years ago...and now fall those in the land of the tulips.

The U.S. Army Materiel Command will shut down operations at two bases in the Netherlands early next year, Defense Department officials announced late last week.

Combat equipment storage sites at Brunssum and Almelo will cease operations by Feb. 29, according to a DOD news release.

The sites are used to store Army pre-positioned stocks. Built in 1983, the facilities once held a brigade’s worth of weapons, vehicles and equipment in case U.S. troops needed gear to defend Cold War allies.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and because of greater threats surfacing in other parts of the world, the Army began to relocate the mothballed armament in places closer to hot spots.

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