European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 25, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday sunday december 25/26,1993 the stars and stripes Page 3clock ticks Down for Baden Selling Encanado to turn base Over at end of by Joseph Owen Heidelberg Bureau Canadian forces base Baden Solling in Germany until Friday Canadian air Force capt. Kevin g. Horgan is the King of a Large but deserted realm. This air base on the outskirts of Baden Baden once was alive with the Thunder of Cf-18 Hornet fighter jets cheers of fans at the local hockey Arena and throngs of bustling shoppers a including visiting americans. Now Horgan presides Over an Airfield that is a silent empty Concrete Plain. The base buildings Are vacant except when a few con tractors poke around to make sure things Are in order. Street gutters once impeccably clean Are choked with twigs and Pine Needles that recent storms dislodged from the overhanging Trees. A visitor who tunes the radio dial to 96.8 pm the former Canadian forces network broadcasting frequency hears Only dead air. Martin four forces members lowered the Canadian Flag for the last time on monday. In a Low profile ceremony they presented German government officials with a wooden key symbolizing the forces withdrawal from the base in accordance with a 1991 Canadian government decision. Canadas Only other base in Europe Canadian forces Basel or also in Germany is scheduled to close in late 1994. After the ceremony almost everybody departed. Horgan 30, a native of Saint John new Brunswick became the last remaining Active duty forces member assigned to the base. A i guess its a sad event for the Canadian military to leave Here but the world has changed around us and we have to change with it a he said. An Engineer who served More than four years Here Horgan plans to turn All the real keys Over to German officials at noon  German government Hopes to convert the site into an Airport for vacation charter flights but no private firms have committed themselves to such a project. Horgan will stay around for a while in Case unexpected Transfer problems crop up. Then he and his wife Christine a German who worked orb ask As a translator will leave Jan. 17 for his new assignment at Canadian forces base cold Lake in Alberta. Driving around the base Horgan pointed out sheets of plywood covering the holes where stained Glass Chapel windows once had been. Most of the windows were sent to Canada As official mementos. Packers also removed tile Squadron crests from a floor in the officers dining Hall and shipped them to cold Lake for reassembly there Hrcan said. French army engineers built the base in 1952 and 1953, then turned it Over to its nato partner Canada. A succession of fighter squadrons worked at the base flying f-86 sabres Calm fighter and Cf-104 Star s4s. Joseph Owen Canadian air Force capt. Kevin g. Horgan stands with the deserted Badin sol Lingen base in the background. Realignment of Canadian troops in  first Cf-18 hornets arrived in 1985, replacing inc cfrl04s. The last of those hornets left for Canada in january. There were plans to erect barricades on the runway after that but the base commander concerned that an emergency might arise ordered it left Clear. As it turned out a . Air Force f-16 Jet developed engine trouble in july and made an emergency Landing there. _ the canadians also removed older aircraft that had been mounted As monuments on giant pedestals along the base approach Road and then shipped them to museums. A i was in charge of taking them Down and dismantling them and also the two in Lahr a said retired air Force sgt. Raymond a. Martin 42, of Stratford Ontario now one of 11 civilians performing Security duty at the from Gate Martin shattered a Finger on his right hand during the removal of a t-33 Jet Trainer. The injury which has not healed prompted repeated operations. He retired from Active duty on july 30. When his Security Job ends he expects to go to work locally As a truck Driver the idea of staying appealed to other canadians too but their efforts to do so produced mixed results he said. A a lot of them have tried. There a a Little problem getting a Job Quot Martin said adding that most who succeeded arc married to germans. Those who stay want to keep the local chapter of the Canadian legion a the equivalent of the american legion a Active Horgan said.  units arrived in 1970 As part of a major in july 1990, before the draw Down began Canadian forces base Baden Selling in employed 2,416 Active duty troops and 254 civilians. The local Canadian Community a total population was 6,208. The draw Down Cut those numbers in half by the time flight operations ceased a year ago. By sept. 1, the Community had Only 404 people. As the facility Cut Back base closeout team members Learned to improvise to do their jobs. Air Force master warrant officer Liz Mitchell a Supply specialist was one  she disappeared to a meeting one Day and when she returned her desk was gone a army it. Col. Dan t. Bui pit the last base commander said in an interview before his departure four weeks ago. To offer a replacement desk movers Cut a Hole in a pallet sized shipping Box Bulpit said. Mitchell used that for two months. Bulpit said the last time he saw Mitchell at work she was sitting on the carpet with a Tel fax machine on one Side of her and a Telephone on the other. Bulpit did no to have grounds to complain when Assignee to carry out the base draw Down plan because he was the officer who had written it. But the task left him feeling melancholy. Quot it is extremely difficult to walk away from what we thought was the finest fighter base in the Canadian forces a he said. Horgan the final keeper of the keys feels the same Way. A this was my first posting Quot he said. Quot its like the old saying. This was the Best posting in the Canadian forces so its All downhill from  fatso santas get death threats Denver apr Santa listened to children a Christmas Wisnes from the safely of police stations after death th.eats1 against Quot that fatso led eight Denver area shopping malls to cancel appearances by St Nick. David and Jeffrey Henderson twins who turn 4 on sunday planned to sit on Santa slap at the Crossroads mall in Boulder. Instead they had to visit him at the Boulder police department a few blocks  a a Quot they said a Why is he at the police station a a said their Mother Vicki Henderson. Quot i told them some bad person wrote a letter to Santa and said they were going to Hurt him so this is where he can be Safe. The twins were among hundreds of children who had to go to police and fire stations because of the Anonymous threats delivered by mail and fax machine a calling Santa an Quot impostor. Quot time is running out on that fatso one letter warned. A by thursday he Wilt be history along with anybody that gets in my  the Tetter writer said that he had enough guns and ammunition to kill 100 people and that the slayings of four people at a Denver area pizza restaurant earlier this month Quot was nothing compared with the carnage he would cause police Fri agents and the postal service investigated the threats As malls posted notices that Santa had returned to the North pole. Then police officers firefighters and other volunteers suited up As St. Nick in More than a dozen High Security Santa workshops. By noon thursday officers guarded Long lines of children. Quot i sure never imagined id be protecting kids and Santa Quot said detective Jim Wollack who watched 75 children line up in suburban Westminster. A this is supposed to be a Happy time of  at another site an 8-year-old boy solemnly warned his Santa lobe careful. Quot he told me a watch out Santa a Quot said Sebastian Metz a member of the guardian Angels crime fighting group who dressed up As St. Nick on thursday. Metz said some kids seemed less interested in him than his elves a guardian Angels who had come to Denver to organize a citizen Street patro1, Quot i was a Little jealous Quot Metz said. Quot i think these older kids believe More in the Angels than in  at Denver police Headquarters 7-year-old Jason Woodward did no to seem bothered by Alt the Security As he embraced Santa. But the situation frustrated his parents. Quot its really a helpless Type of feeling a Jim Woodward said. His wife Barb added a but we also feel Safe being in the police