European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 29, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday november 29, 1991 the stars and stripes c Page 9aging Hospital contracts fatal illness loss of patients dooms bad Cannstatt facility by Joseph Owen Stuttgart Bureau Stuttgart Germany a a the 5th general Hospital will not close a an official july 9, 1990, bulletin trumpeted to workers at the army Hospital in Stuttgart a bad Cannstatt District. Its hard to imagine a document becoming obsolete faster than that one did unless you count a Baghdad travel guide. Only 491 Days after that cheerful message from col. Jack a Slayton then Deputy commander for administration the Pentagon announced that the Hospital would indeed shut Down next june. An outpatient clinic on the grounds will close in september. The Hospital parts of which Are More than a Century old had fought a Battle against physical decay for decades. But it was a declining patient population that sentenced it to become the first army Hospital in postwar Germany to close. The 153-bed Hospital had an average daily admission rate of 15.6 patients in fiscal 1990. That dropped to 11 in 1991. Hospital workers accepted the decision with resignation. A a in a just going to continue to depend on the lord to get a new Job a said Mary Norris 37, a medical clerk from Augusta ga., who also underwent surgery twice at the Hospital. A a in a relieved we have a Date that its closing a said staff sgt. Janice . Knight non commissioned officer in charge of re enlistment. A it makes it easier to plan what you re going to  Knight 31, a Trinidad and Tobago native who now Calls Somerset n.j.,, has been assigned to 5th general Hospital since 1986. Her husband sgt. 1st class Reginald Knight works in administration at the 10th dental det on the same installation. They Are scheduled to leave Stuttgart in six months and they done to know where the army will Send them. Knight Supley Rositha Silcy 41, a 24-year German employee expects the closure to be the Saddest moment for her and Many others. A after 24 years you re attached to an employer and you re attached to the people you be known who come and go a said Sipley who works in the civilian personnel Liaison office. A a in be had people in my office cry. But they would do the same thing if they worked for Daimler Benz and Daimler Benz went  the last Day will be especially hard for nutrition services employee Ilse Sutter 65. A native of Breslau now in Poland utter was a German air Force worker in world War ii. Her first exposure to americans occurred As a prisoner of War in France in 1945. Upon returning Home she found her parents were dead and the communists were taking Over. She fled. Sutter arrived in Stuttgart in 1947 in a Railroad freight car still wearing her air Force helpers uniform. During the first nine months she worked at the Hospital her Only pay was meals and a bed. A the first 10 or 12 years those were very very hard years a Sutter said recalling 60-hour workweeks 10 . Curfews and omnipresent military discipline. But she added a everyone was Happy to have work with the americans because on the outside there was  since then the Hospital Community has been in effect her family. A a in be experienced nothing but Good things in spite of the difficulty of the first 10 years a she said. Working at the Hospital has its share of disadvantages. Travel to other army posts involves a tedious drive through City traffic. A Bowling Alley closed years ago and the former outdoor swimming Pool is just an ugly Concrete pit with weeds sprouting haphazardly from the Many cracks in its Pale Blue floor. The army never found the Money to fix it. A a we re isolated Here a Knight said. A if you want to take a break you have to leave our Little  but that isolation makes most people get to know one another better said or. Maj William j. Burman 35, an internal Medicine specialist from Laramie Wyo. And the absence of on site consultants forces the staff to learn to handle most medical problems he said. For germans the work atmosphere is an attraction a fall these years i think everybody has enjoyed working Here with this a it might sound corny a american Way of life a Sipley said. The work Force in the summer of 1990 consisted of 569 soldiers 241 . Civilians and 121 local employees said 1st it. Angela Tropf the Hospital adjutant. By july this year those numbers had dropped to 531, 192 and 111, respectively and have fallen since. Burman said closing rumours began to circulate last Spring. A we All expected it. Its not a Surprise a he said. A it just became a question of  expectations die with demise of clinic by Joseph Owen Stuttgart Bureau Stuttgart Germany a the Pentagon a nov. 12 announcement that the army Hospital at bad Cannstatt will close in 1992 follows years of hints that the facility if anything would expand. Opened in 1881 and enlarged Many times the Hospital Complex endured the destruction of five buildings bombed by the allies in world War ii. The French occupied it briefly after the War then yielded it to . Forces in August-945. Unlike some German hospitals the army took Over bad Cannstatt had not belonged to the nazi government. The City of Stuttgart owned it and the army rented it. In 1961, the army gave up the Eastern part which is a civilian Hospital. The City sold the . Portion to the German Federal government in 1960. From 1983 to 1989, the army paid More than 40 million Marks $25.8 million today for a new heating system electrical and water lines Asbestos removal insulation renovation of 10 buildings and construction of two More said Gerhard Schroff a safety management worker partially responsible for those projects. As a result it also stopped paying rent. Now the City Hopes to take Over the renovated facility and expand its Hospital. The army had planned to build a new 44-bed Extension but a defense department moratorium on new construction ended those Hopes. So the army paid for renovations instead. A i done to consider it reasonable a said Schroff a 40-year employee reflecting on the futility of upgrading a Post later targeted for closure. The army knew in 1987 that the hospitals patient Load would decrease. The signing of the intermediate Range nuclear forces treaty that year led to the withdrawal of Pershing ii missiles and 56th Field arty come units in nearby Heilbronn and Schwabish a mind a Gerhard Schroff a safety management worker stands outside the Entrance to the Hospital compound in bad Cannstatt. 3as Joseph own process that ended last Spring. Still there was no indication that the army would vacate bad Cannstatt until the persian Gulf War ended. A july 1990 message from col. Jack r. Slayton then Deputy commander for administration glowed with the Promise of $7 million for More improvements. The current Hospital commander or. Col Philip j. Keating thought he was taking Over a going concern last year. A when i arrived i had no idea the Hospital was going to close a said Keating 54, a naturalized american born in Liverpool England. A there was no thought in july of 1990 a at least none Down at my level a that Vii corps was going  but Vii corps deployed to saudi Arabia that fall and when its units returned some stayed in Germany barely Long enough to pack their bags and return to the United states. Now the to Szpila does no to have enough patients to justify its existence Keating said. A a we re talking about a quantum reduction a he said. A already our workload is 50 percent and shrinking week by week appreciably compared with pre do sort