In the town of Baumholder, in the Birkenfeld district, Germany

 "I'd learned a lot in the Army. I knew that above all things in the world I had to become so big, so strong that people and their hatred could never touch me."

-- Sammy Davis, Jr.
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(in the most American town in Germany) Baumholder, in the Birkenfeld district of Rhineland-Palatinate, in the Westrich (a historic region that encompasses areas in Germany and France). Baumholder lies between the Hunsrück to the north and the North Palatine Uplands to the south, on a height that marks the latter's northern boundary. In this area, still known as the Westrich, Baumholder lies some 10 km (~6mi.) south of Idar-Oberstein. The countryside around Baumholder is marked by meadows, fields, and woodlands (broadleaf and mixed). A great part of the Baumholder Troop Drilling Ground abutting the town serves as a refuge for many rare plant and animal species.

+ World War II brought the military to Baumholder. The German government appropriated 29,158 acres and resettled about 842 families from 14 villages to clear the land for use -- by the Third Reich.

+ That's right, more than 80 years ago the farmland around the tiny village of Baumholder, Germany, was turned into a German Army training base. Today, Baumholder is one of the U.S. Army’s most important installations in Europe.

+ The United States Army Garrison (USAG) Baumholder, affectionately known as "the Rock" is set in the wooded hills of the Western Palatinate in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz. Today, Baumholder is well known as the location of one of the biggest American garrisons in Germany, which sprang up beginning in the 1950s on the lands of the Baumholder Troop Drilling Ground (Truppenübungsplatz Baumholder), which abuts the town. Ever since that time, the 13,000 or so United States military personnel and their families have characterized the town's image scenically, economically, and even socially.

+ The Americans maintain two facilities, Smith Barracks and Wetzel Barracks, in which around 12,000 people live. There is also Baumholder Army Airfield. The Americans have 12 of their own churches here, as well as cinemas and a hospital. (Many of the town's shops accept U.S. dollars in payment, and are largely dependent on American currency.)

+ To this day, the U.S. forces and the German Bundeswehr are the biggest employers of the town's German population. On more than 35 ranges designed for infantry, tank troops, and artillery, Bundeswehr soldiers can be found training alongside Americans and soldiers from other NATO countries. Since 2002, the US Army has been gradually moving its tanks to troop drilling grounds in the Upper Palatinate. Some of the US troops stationed in town were regularly deployed in the Iraq War, and for the most part, returned afterwards to Baumholder.

+In October 2012, the 170th Infantry Brigade was deactivated, ending a decades-long legacy of combat units stationed at Baumholder's Smith Barracks (though it has since been again designated an enduring military base).