Christmas in Europe, December, 1966 US Army; from Staff Film Report 67-2

more at http://quickfound.net/

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives or Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Europe

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) is an Army Service Component Command (ASCC) /Theater Army responsible for directing United States Army operations throughout the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility (AOR). During the Cold War, it supervised ground formations primarily focused upon the Warsaw Pact to the east as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) Central Army Group (CENTAG) . Since 1989, it has greatly reduced its size, dispatched U.S. forces to Southwest Asia, Kosovo, the War on Terrorism and increased security cooperation with other NATO land forces.

In 2020, the Army announced that U.S. Army Africa will consolidate with U.S. Army Europe to form a new command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF). The two commands were consolidated on November 20, 2020...

on 15 November 1947, U.S. Ground and Service Forces, Europe, was renamed Headquarters, United States Army Europe (HQ USAREUR)...

...The Berlin Blockade began 24 June 1948 when the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied control. Even though Allied forces in the city were outnumbered 50–1, General Lucius D. Clay, in charge of the US Occupation Zone in Germany, gave the order for the Berlin Airlift. Headquartered out of Wiesbaden Army Airfield, the Allies supplied almost 9,000 tons per day of supplies to the beleaguered city until the blockade was lifted on 12 May 1949.

From 1948 to 1950, the Cold War began to warm, and the outbreak of hostilities in Korea heightened East-West tensions in Europe. Seventh Army was reactivated at Stuttgart in late November 1950...

A new joint United States European Command (USEUCOM) was established in Frankfurt, Germany on 1 August 1952...

Although the Korean War – open East–West conflict – had ended, political tensions remained high in Europe... 3,000 East German refugees flowed daily into Berlin.

Suddenly on the night of 12 August 1961, the Soviets closed the border crossing points and began to construct the Berlin Wall, isolating the three western sectors of the city both from East Germany and the Soviet sector, or East Berlin. In response, the United States deployed an additional armored cavalry regiment to Europe, along with additional support units. USAREUR strength reached a post-World War II high of 277,342 in June 1962 as the crisis deepened. That 1946–1991 Cold War maximum USAREUR troop record gradually reduced over time. The command dispatched a reinforced infantry battle group to Berlin to strengthen the existing garrison. The nuclear armed USAREUR did not go to DEFCON 3 during 22 Oct to 20 November 1962 Cuban Crisis due to political reasons. All other US Forces worldwide were at DEFCON 3 per JFK's 22 October speech and direction to the Pentagon; SAC went to DEFCON 2.

The crisis cooled in Berlin from 1962 to 1963...

On 1 December 1966, the separate Seventh Army headquarters was eliminated, and HQ USAREUR became Headquarters and Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army. At the same time, France withdrew from the military structure of NATO, and U.S. forces were withdrawn from France. The communications zone headquarters moved from Orleans, France, to Worms, Germany, (and later to Kaiserslautern, where as 21st Theater Support Command it remains today). USEUCOM moved to Stuttgart...