American in Soesterberg
The Americans conquered many hearts in Soesterberg. And often the love was mutual. Bob Sievers from the northwest of the United States was once stationed in ‘Camp New Amsterdam’ near Soesterberg. He has been living a few houses away from the monument for years now.
Shortly after his senior year at school, Sievers came to base as a young crew chief to inspect the planes before the fighter pilots took to the skies. In a still clearly audible American accent, he tells how he met his future wife at the time.
“She was a girl from Zeist and looked after the children of American families. When I went to a friend’s house one evening to play cards, I met her there. We got married and she worked at the base for a while before we went to America in 1969.”
“We came back to Soesterberg in 1986. The base’s task had meanwhile changed from air defense and intercepting Russian aircraft, to tactical deployment and air combat. I worked in ‘heavy maintenance’: changing tires, solving problems with the controls, repair and clean up damage if there had been an accident.”
Sievers left the service in 1990 and remained in Soesterberg, while his unit left four years later. The Cold War was over. The seventies feel no exaggerated nostalgia about that period. Life took its course and he became a Soesterberger a long time ago. His American background is mainly expressed in the fact that until recently he was involved in bowling intensively and talks about it with a glint in his eye.