Detected an abandoned American military complex...

[Bavaria Mike]

I received permission to detect an abandoned American military complex last week from the buildings and grounds department where I live part time here in Germany. Picked up the key Friday and had all weekend to detect. It was in operation from the early 1960s through the late 90s. The complex is on an airfield and there is a huge airplane hangar beside the complex, that will be next to detect. I’m not sure what kind of unit was here but probably some kind of Air Cavalry. Unfortunately, the grass and weeds around the site is knee to waist high, made detecting rough. Here is the site layout, a garage.

A troop barracks where soldiers lived.

A office building.

Behind the complex is a Baseball field. I did not detect here much as I can go there anytime and hopefully the grass will get mowed sometime.

This was nice, insert key and unlock gate. I was really excited till I realized how high the grass was.

The finds were not great but I managed a small hand full of American clad and a few rusty German Pfennig coins. I was lucky to find a 1956 Wheat cent, amazing what a penny can do for the attitude when you are not finding much. I detected the site for about 8 hours over the weekend.

A few more coins.

Two rusty German coins, a key and a button.

Found these a few weeks ago but have not posted. An American Sharpshooter marksmanship badge and an old buckle.

Reverse of the badge. HH, Mike

 

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[Laird]

nice finds mate like the sharpshooters badge well done looks like an interesting site

 

[Kilika]

Wow! Cool site. And great pic's. Very nice post, looking forward to the updates.

 

[CarolinaDigs]

I love the pictures and wow > great digs !!!

 

[treasurekidd]

Look promising Mike. Nice haul, love the sharpshooter badge!!

 

[Boobydoo]

Nice day out there Mike, congrats on all the cool finds.
Thanks for sharing! It's really cool to see what treasures there are out there to be found in other parts of the world.

Smiles!
BDoo

 

[Tsalagi]

WoW those are some great digs

looks like that place is promising

HH

 

[GrantWA]

Search around and find the unit size exercise field, it will have a set of overhead bars, some post they ran around, and an inverted crawl track,and a running track. Check That Inverted Crawl Track!

I searched the one at Ft Ord CA and found over 100 coins, some rings, and 3 sets of keys. One of which had the key to an arms room on it! Another good spot that I found on base. Many of the infantry tested on an inverted crawl under barbed wire. I found the latest one at Ft Ord, and got a bunch of silver from it. I could not find where they used to do the crawl under wire with live fire at the end of basic training there, I suspect that area would have had enough for me to retire on I am wondering if Ft Lewis had that training on the N Fort also, they had Basic training there for years too.

 

[Prober]

Awesome place to hunt...I think I'd bring a weedwacker with me to knock down some of that grass.
I'll bet you find some coins by the barracks. Good luck.

 

[Ridley]

That location looks like fun!

Congratulations on getting permission.




Ridley

 

[nealb]

Nice finds and congrats on getting permission to hunt there. Look forward to seeing future posts from this "post"

HH
Neal

 

[Raoul]

Mike looks like a top site to detect,i know what you mean about the grass being to tall to detect. I have come across a few good sites to detect but it was impossible because the grass and shrubs were to overgrown,i am always on the lookout if a bushfire has been through the area.
At least you have found a few coins ,so you know it will be worthwhile to detect when the grass dies down.

good luck. Raoul

 

[tinpan]

Hi Mike, graet pics and finds and thanks for sharing

tinpan

 

[dave-enc]

hopefully the grass will get mowed real soon looks like a killer site, wtg on the marksman badge
hh
dave+bobbie

 

[LuisTH]

Very nice finds.

 

[88irocarmy]

Awesome site,
Hope it gives up some good stuff.
If you need help let me know, luckily the rains here have soften the ground so digging is much easier.
HH

 

[Mirage]

Well, you never know until you hunt. I bet you liked finding that good old familiar US currency?

 

[Ant]

Nice site and finds.

The US Army has 3 levels of Weapons Qualification Badges, Marksman, Sharpshooter and Expert.

You found a Sharpshooter badge. The Marksman's badge doesn't have those circles on it. The Marksman's badge, lowest level, looks like an plan old ironcross or German snider, I think that's what they call it. The Expert badge is the same but it has the circles and a reef around it.

 

[Recruiter]

Great place to hunt. Almost any place there should turn up a good prize. Around the barracks should be good place, you know there was always something being tossed from the windows .

HH

 

[paul1410]

Super post and pics, Mike! And some neat finds, too!

That site looks really inviting! Don't know that I would wait for someone to come and cut the grass though. You may have quite a wait. The weed wacker idea sounded good though.

Keep us posted on this site.

Thanks for sharing.