Deborah Cole

And it's also been in use as part of the U.S.-Israeli led war in Iran.

And whereas some European partners have refused to allow the U.S.

to use their airspace as part of that campaign, German airspace and Rammstein have been very important as part of this latest war as well.

Well, I mean, you know, from the U.S.

perspective, there is a lot of history there.

But also the Germans, you know, some of the people I talked to talked about sort of our Americans.

And almost everyone I spoke to among the Germans had either worked for the Americans or been married to an American or had children.

I mean, there are business ties that go back decades.

I mean, these are communities that are completely interwoven.

It is a community that is very much German-American.

And so for me as an American going to visit, it's sort of like this, it's like a, you know, kind of Truman show.

It's a world within a world where I feel like for half a second, if I kind of squint that I'm somewhere in a, you know, Midwestern town.

So when we were there last Thursday, we got lucky that the carnival, the spring carnival was happening.

And, you know, just as we pulled into town, we saw these rides for kids with Uncle Sam.

You see the Stars and Stripes everywhere.

Every shop sort of, you know, everything's advertised in English and in German, for those of you who remember that.

uh wayne's world we went to shell wings um chicken party time excellent yeah yeah yeah i i knew i had found the right place to find americans and germans and um and so you know it's it's a community that has very much opened its arms to to its americans and tried to make them as feel as home as possible

So one of the people I spoke to who is particularly interesting, his name is Karl, and he was born in Poland, but he's lived in Germany since he was 12.

And so he, as the manager of this Schwing's location I visited, said that it would be absolutely devastating.

He said that a lot of people are drawn to this, you know, fairly small town, Landstuhl, because they want the American feeling.