We had one more trip to make before we returned to the USA. We were going to Paris on a four-day American Express Motor Coach Tour out of Ramstein AFB, that was for the US military personal and their families which cost about $50.00 each. Margaret and I would take a bus to Paris and do all our sightseeing via the bus and the local English-speaking guides. I would not be driving in Paris. That was a good thing. Joy was going to stay behind in Bitburg with Rosie, Tom, and Charity. Thus, on Thursday, August 18, 1977, we got a ride to Ramstein AFB, where my brother Johnny Mingin had been assigned from 1964-1966 as an Air Force traffic controller, when I was in Louvain, Belgium. Ramstein AFB is in the Rhineland-Palatinate German area, as the headquarters for the United States Air Force in Europe. Today, there are more than 54,000 American service members and more than 5,400 US civilian employees who live there. With the advent of the Berlin Blockade and the chilling of relations with the Soviet Union in 1948, the USAFE wanted its vulnerable fighter units in West Germany moved west of the Rhine River to provide greater air defense warning time as part of the NATO expansion program. Two bases were laid out. Landstuhl Air Base on the south side and Ramstein Air Station on the north, near the town of Ramstein-Miesenbach with about 20,000 people. In June 1953, Ramstein was opened, as the Twelfth Air Force headquarters, supporting family housing, with a base exchange, a commissary market, and dependents’ schools. In 1961, the base was officially named Ramstein Air Base. South of the Ramstein Air Base is the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, operated by the United States Army. In August 1976, the Strategic Air Command 306th Strategic Wing was activated at Ramstein. From its inception, Ramstein was designed as a NATO command base. American Air Force Headquarters completed its move from Wiesbaden to Ramstein in early 1991. From 2004 to 2006, Ramstein Air Base underwent an extensive expansion with a major construction project as it took on all the activities of Rhein-Main AFB. In April 2015, Ramstein Air Base was an important control center in the drone war against targets in areas like Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Afghan evacuees boarded their final flight from Ramstein Air Base in 2021, as it became the transfer point for thousands of Afghan civilians. In April, 2022, Ramstein Air Base hosted a meeting of the International Advisory Group on Ukraine’s Defense and Counteraction to Russia to synchronize and coordinate Ukraine military assistance in the war with Russia. In December, 2023, a new Space Force component began at Ramstein Air Base. Margaret and I had a pizza that evening and saw the movie Mahogany, with Diana Ross. Then, we got on the bus with the other American military people as we drove all night to arrive in Paris the next morning. Margaret was happy that someone else was driving at night, so that there was no sightseeing that night. I was happy to get a couple hours of sleep. I had become accustomed to sleeping on the European trains sitting up in a chair. Margaret was not as good at it as I was. We just had to have our passports and ID ready when we passed into France from Germany. Have you ever traveled at night trying to sleep in a chair?
A day trip to Luxembourg City
Despite the death of Elvis, our trip still had to go on. On Wednesday, August 17, 1977, we traveled to Luxembourg from Bitburg, about 46 miles one way. Margaret, Joy, and I set out on this one-day trip to Luxembourg as we stopped in Trier on the way back. Luxembourg city was the capital of the country with the same name, the city of Roses, with a population of over 130,000, with about 160 nationalities, since foreigners represent 70% of the city’s population, while Luxembourgers are less than 30%. The number of foreign-born residents is rising steadily each year. There is a big gully or gorge in the center of Luxembourg that has the Adolphe Bridge that goes over it, a beautiful sight. Of course, it has Notre Dame Cathedral, theatres, and museums, as the cultural and political center of the European Common Market, with the highest GDP of any city in the world. Besides that, there is a large American cemetery where World War II veterans are buried along with General George Patton. Although the town goes back to Roman times, Luxembourg city became important in 963 when a small castle was built there with St. Michael’s Church in 987. However, because of its location and natural geography, it has been a place of strategic military significance. In 1443, the Burgundians under Philip the Good conquered Luxembourg. Luxembourg became part of the Burgundian, Spanish, Austrian, French, Prussian, and Dutch empires. In 1890, the Grand Duke William III died without any male heirs, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg then became an independent country. Luxembourg City regained some of the importance that it had lost by becoming the capital of a fully independent state. In both WW I and WW II, Germany occupied Luxembourg. After the war, Luxembourg ended its neutrality, and became a founding member of several inter-governmental and supra-governmental institutions. Luxembourg remains the seat of the European Parliament’s secretariat, as well as the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Auditors, and the European Investment Bank. Have you ever been to Luxembourg City?
Elvis Presley (1935-1977)
Elvis Aaron Presley, also known as simply “Elvis,” was an American singer and actor. Known as the “King of Rock and Roll,” he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley’s energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy. Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935, but his twin brother Jesse Garon was born still born. He got a guitar at ten and learned to play it. His family relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13. He frequented Beale Street, where he met BB King. His music career began there in 1954, at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. His first song was “That’s All Right.” Presley played on the local TV show Louisiana Hayride. Good looking Elvis was a pioneer of rockabilly, an up-tempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for the rest of his life. Presley’s first RCA Victor single, “Heartbreak Hotel,” was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. Within a year, RCA would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular rock and roll. Though his performative style and promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans led to him being widely considered a threat to the moral well-being of white American youth. In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, he relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. Presley held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. Some of Presley’s most famous films included Jailhouse Rock (1957), Blue Hawaii (1961), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed NBC television comeback special “Elvis,” which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, “Aloha from Hawaii.” However, years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits severely compromised his health. Thus, Presley died unexpectedly in August 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42. Presley is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales estimated around 500 million records worldwide. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, adult contemporary, and gospel. He won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He also holds several records, including the most certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump. That is a summary of the highlights of his career. I never did like Elvis. I thought that he was all show, since he always used other people’s songs. In fact, I liked Carl Perkins and his “Blue Suede Shoes,” rather than the Elvis version back in 1956 and 1957. However, Margaret was a big fan. Did you like Elvis Presley?
Our reactions to death
We all react differently to a famous person dying. Margaret was devastated by the death of Elvis Presley, since she was a big fan. I was not that upset. I remembered as a five-year-old, my barber starting to cry when the radio said that President Roosevelt had died. I remembered as a twenty-four-year-old as I heard the news in Louvain, Belgium, that President Kennedy had died. I remembered as a twenty-nine-year-old in Trier, Germany, when I heard about the sudden deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr, and Senator Robert Kennedy. Sudden deaths make a big impact, since I still remember the phone call about the death of my brother Johnny drowning, when I was thirty years old in Germany. However, when my brother Jerry called me about the death of my father when I was thirty-three in Chicago, I was not shocked since he had been very sick with throat cancer for over a year. Death comes when we least expect it, no matter how old we are. What death has affected you the most?
The death of Elvis Presley in August, 1977
Well, that afternoon on the way back to Bitburg, Margaret, Joy, and I were driving, when the Armed Forces radio station in our car announced that Elvis Presley had died. I wondered if it was true. The world went into mourning on August 16, 1977, when the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley, died at the age of 42. Crowds gathered outside the gates of Graceland, for the funeral of Elvis Presley. Headlines the next day, in the American Stars and Stripes newspaper said, “ELVIS, KING OF ROCK, DIES AT 42.” “ELVIS PRESLEY DIES OF HEART ATTACK.” It almost seemed unbelievable. The early news reports were short, incomplete, and confused, but Presley, the “greatest rock and roll performer in the world” had died. How could this be, since he was only 42, a few years older than me? Many celebrities have been subject to a reversal of fortune with untimely deaths. Though Presley’s cause of death was originally claimed to be a heart attack, later toxicology reports identified high levels of several pharmaceutical drugs in his system. Many doubted it. Others just accepted the story as another drug-related death of a rock and roll star. How the cause of death changed from heart attack to prescription-drug poisoning typified the pattern of a celebrity’s fall from grace. Elvis Presley was at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, resting between concert appearances, when his then girlfriend, Ginger Alden, found him lying face down on the floor of his bathroom. The medics quickly moved in, but it took several men to lift Presley onto the stretcher, since he was obese, almost bloated. Dr. George Nichopoulos, Presley’s doctor, affectionately known as Dr. Nick, ordered the driver to take Elvis to Baptist Memorial Hospital, 21 minutes from Graceland. At the hospital, emergency personnel made valiant efforts to revive Presley, but without success, so that he was pronounced dead at 3:30 PM. During the autopsy, doctors found no signs of stroke, heart failure, or lung disease, but he was chronically ill with diabetes and constipation. Physical evidence indicated possible, long-term use of drugs, but toxicology tests would have to confirm that. On August 17, 1977, the doors of Graceland opened for public viewing of “The King’s” body and Presley instantly passed from music legend to cultural icon. Crowds had gathered early that day and quickly grew to an estimated 100,000. The mourners ranged from pre-teens to middle-aged and older men and women. Many expressed genuine, open sorrow over his death. Others were more upbeat, almost festive, and eager to be part of the cultural history. On August 18, 1977 a funeral procession of 17 white Cadillacs and a hearse carrying the body of the “King of Rock and Roll” slowly made its way from Graceland to Forrest Hill Cemetery. In his 20-plus years as celebrity entertainer, Elvis Presley had become a defining force of the times. What do you know about Elvis Presley?
The Cathedral at Cologne
We were going to visit the medieval Cologne Cathedral, once the world’s tallest building in the world between 1880–1890. Today it is the third-tallest church and tallest cathedral in the world. The Cologne Cathedral started in 1248, but was abandoned around 1560. Finally, it was eventually finished in 1880, not just as a place of worship but also as a German national monument, celebrating the newly founded German empire and the continuity of the German nation since the Middle Ages. Residents of Cologne sometimes refer to this cathedral as “the eternal construction site,” like the people in Barcelona with their Sagrada Família Church. Thus, this Cathedral, known as the Kolner Dom is the city’s most famous monument. The people of Cologne like to call their city the Rome of the North, because of this cathedral. The Germans and the local Cologne residents love this Gothic landmark, so that it was designated a World Heritage Site in 1996. This cathedral has a Shrine of the Three Kings, a globally recognized landmark, one of the most visited sights and pilgrimage destinations in Europe. This shrine supposedly contains the relics of the Three Magi. There are also twelve Romanesque churches in Cologne, examples of medieval church architecture, with some that go as far back as Roman times. However, many of these churches were very badly damaged during World War II, so that reconstruction was only finished in the 1990s. Besides there are now 35 Islamic mosques in Cologne. Once inside the cathedral, what immediately strikes you is the height of the stained-glass windows. As you stand there inside and look up, the height of the Gothic roof takes your breath away. I could not remember if I had been there before. We may have gone there on one of our Church tours in Louvain, but this was quite a distance from Louvain. I don’t think that we did, since this was so remarkable, I might have remembered it. We were going to go to a zoo there for Joy, but I am not sure if we went there or not. What is the best cathedral that you ever saw?
A one-day trip to Cologne
On Tuesday, August 16, 1977, Margaret, Joy, and I took off for Cologne, about 90 miles east of Bitburg. We were going to go there and come back the same day. Cologne is the largest city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Cologne is the fourth-largest city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich, with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and over 3.1 million people in the Cologne-Bonn urban region. Cologne is also part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, the second biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the whole European Union, about 16 miles from Bonn, then the capital of West Germany. Cologne is famous for its “Eau de Cologne,” which has been produced there since 1709, so that now cologne has now become a generic term. Cologne, the French version of the city’s name, has become standard in English, even though the Germans call it Koln. The town of Cologne was founded as a colonial part of Rome around the time of Christ with a population around 50,000 in the second and third centuries. Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202) claimed that Christianity was brought to Cologne by Roman soldiers and traders. In 321, the Emperor Constantine approved the settlement of a Jewish community with all the freedoms of Roman citizens. Early medieval Cologne was part of the Frankish Empire. In 1288, Cologne gained its independence from the archbishops and became a Free City. Thomas Aquinas studied in Cologne in 1244 under Albertus Magnus. Cologne’s location on the Rhine River placed it at the intersection of the major trade routes between east and west as well as the main south–north western European trade routes, one of the largest European cities in medieval and renaissance times. Cologne lost its status as a free city during the French period in 1794. The Napoleonic code remained in use on the left bank of the Rhine until 1900. In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna, Cologne was made part of the Kingdom of Prussia. During World War I Cologne was the target of several minor air raids but suffered no significant damage. Cologne was occupied by the British Army of the Rhine until 1926, but they were more lenient to the local population than the French. Konrad Adenauer, the mayor of Cologne from 1917 until 1933 and later a West German chancellor, acknowledged the political impact of this approach. Cologne prospered during the Weimar Republic (1919–33), but the democratic parties lost the local elections in Cologne in March 1933 to the Nazi Party. Compared to some other major cities, however, the Nazis never gained decisive support in Cologne. However, during World War II, Cologne was a Military Area Command Headquarters. The former mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, became the first West German Chancellor. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, reducing the population by 93%, destroying around 80% of the millennia-old city center. Despite Cologne’s status as the largest city in the region, nearby Dusseldorf was chosen as the political capital of the federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with Bonn as the provisional federal capital of West Germany. Cologne benefited by being sandwiched between two important political centers with various federal agencies and organizations. The post-war rebuilding has resulted in a mixed cityscape, restoring most major historic landmarks, so that today this city boasts around 9,000 historic buildings. Cologne is a major cultural center for the Rhineland, with the University of Cologne, one of Europe’s oldest and largest universities. Lufthansa, Europe’s largest airline, has their main corporate headquarters in Cologne, with a significant chemical and automobile industry, as well as aerospace programs. Today, the number of people with a migrant background is around 40%. Turks are the largest immigrant group in Cologne with nearly 100, 000. Cologne has more than 60 music venues and many museums. Have you ever been to Cologne?
A Saturday night cruise on the Rhine River with the Frosts
We arrived in Koblenz with our new American friends from the Bitburg Air Force Base and the Cochem Army Base. We all went on a six-hour boat ride from 6PM to midnight on Saturday night, August 13, 1977, on the Rhine River. We traveled south and then came back on the Rhein Erleben party boat. Today, there are two-hour sight-seeing cruises from Koblenz on the Rhine River. Our trip was a once-a-week Saturday night party cruise for six hours with two dance bands, one on the top deck and the other on the bottom deck. There was plenty to eat and drink, especially Mosel wine. The first part of the trip was in the daylight. We got to see many of the old German castles in the setting sun. In fact, I have a booklet called Castles on the Rhine between Mainz and Cologne, 30 selected color photos together with descriptions, from 1976. I know that we did not see all of them. However, what was neat was that on the way back to Koblenz in the dark, some of the castles had fireworks displays, Roman candles, or just lighted castles. It really was spectacular in the dark as we cruised along the river. I have postcards from a couple of them. Finally, the trip was over. We got back on the bus, drove to Cochem to leave the American Army people there, and then to Bitburg, as we said good-bye to our new American military friends. We were really tired. We did not do much on Sunday and Monday, except hang out with Tom and Rosie. On Monday, it was just Margaret, Joy, Charity, and I. We got caught up on laundry. We only had a little over a week to go. Have you ever been on a night river cruise?
Wine tasting at Cochem
Before we got to the Rhine cruise at Koblenz that August Saturday night in 1977, we stopped in Cochem, another small town along the Mosel River with just over 5,000 inhabitants. Seven rivers enter into the Mosel River there, since it was only about 30 miles from Koblenz. Cochem had been part of the archbishopric of Trier, until the French occupation began in 1794. In 1815, it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. In WW II, parts of Cochem’s old town were destroyed. Since 1946, Cochem has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Western Germany. There were two reasons why our bus stopped in Cochem, the biggest German town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate. First, Cochem was the home of the American IV Army Corps. Thus, we would pick up some more Americans from that army base to go on the Rhine cruise from Koblenz. However, the other main reason for stopping at Cochem was for wine-tasting at GW Chochem Wine Lilte, as we got to see the wine factory cellars with the wooden wine barrels. For less than a dollar, we got three full glasses of Mosel wine. We had a choice of Reisling, either Qualitats, Pradikat-Kabinett, Pradikat-Spatlese, or Pradikat-Auslese. We also got a souvenir sampling glass. On top of that, I think that Rosie and Margaret bought some wine bottles for our cruise. Thus, the visit to Cochem was practical, to pick up some more Americans, and entertaining with wine tasting. I think that Margaret was beginning to really like this trip. Have you ever gone wine-tasting?
A Saturday bus trip to Koblenz
We hardly had time to rest up, because on Saturday, the next day, August 13, 1977, we were off for a Saturday night Rhine Cruise from Koblenz. This time we went with Tom and Rosie Frost, while Rosie got a babysitter for our toddler girls, Joy and Charity. Bitburg AFB provided a bus to and from the cruise in Koblenz, so that I did not have to drive. Koblenz is a German city on the banks of where the Rhine River and the Mosel River meet, with a population of around 110,000. Thus, it is known as “the German Corner,” a city that celebrated its 2000th anniversary in 1992. In 55 BCE, Roman troops commanded by Julius Caesar reached the Rhine and built a bridge between Koblenz and Andernach, so that the remains of a large bridge built at the time of Christ by the Romans are still visible today. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city was conquered by the Franks and became a royal seat. In 860 and 922, Koblenz was the scene of ecclesiastical synods. In 1018, the city was given by the emperor Henry II to the archbishop of Trier until the end of the 18th century. When the French Revolution broke out, Koblenz became a popular hub for royalist émigrés and escaping feudal lords who were fleeing from France. In 1794, Koblenz was taken by the French Revolutionary Army, so it became the capital of the new French department of Rhine-et-Moselle. In 1814, it was occupied by the Russians. The Congress of Vienna assigned Koblenz to Prussia, and it became the seat of government for the Prussian Rhine Province. After World War I, France occupied the area once again, as it became the center of the American occupation force from 1919-1923. During World War II, it was the command city of the German Army Group B. Like many of other German cities, it was heavily bombed and rebuilt afterwards. Since 2010 the Koblenz cable car has been Germany’s biggest aerial tramway. Thus, we would have both the culture of the Mosel River and Rhine River at Koblenz. Have you ever been to Koblenz?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 