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Lt. Col. Lars Zetterstrom, U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern commander, met with Landstuhl Mayor Klaus Grumer Feb. 24 to discuss public concerns about helicopter noise.
A new antenna to reduce noisy hovering time, plus limiting late-evening flight times during winter months, were solutions Zetterstrom proposed to Grumer, who repeated his call for Company C, 1st Battalion, 214th Aviation Regiment to be relocated.
Helicopters from the medical evacuation unit must hover when contacting the control tower at nearby Ramstein Air Base, Zetterstrom said. They also are required to train at night to prepare for lifesaving missions.
“We’re looking at funding a project that will install an antenna,” Zetterstrom said. “That will allow (crews) to have better communication with the aircraft control tower, and therefore reduce the hovering time required and therefore reduce noise in the community.”
The garrison and Landstuhl leaders agreed to meet, as German news outlets recently highlighted residents’ complaints about helicopter noise. Anita Schaefer, the local German parliament representative, also attended.
Company C Soldiers, many who live in Landstuhl, support U.S. and allied partner training in Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels with medical evacuation flights, said 1st Sgt. Kyle Brunell. The unit also responds to humanitarian emergencies, such as the current mission in Montenegro, where air crews are providing medical flights to snowbound mountain villages.
During the company’s recent Afghanistan deployment, Soldiers supported U.S. and NATO ground forces, saving lives during hundreds of medical evacuations, Brunell said, including the rescue of several German troops.
Since returning from Afghanistan in July 2011, the company has flown 141 training missions near Landstuhl, none of which lasted past 9 p.m., Zetterstrom said.
“We’ve agreed to look at the possibility of changing the authorized flight time, to (10 p.m.),” Zetterstrom said.
Grumer, however, hopes to see the unit permanently relocated. Schaefer said she will suggest the move at the German federal level.
Since taking office in 1994, Grumer has held several meetings with the U.S. Army about helicopter noise, he said. Recently, when the U.S. proposed relocating Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to nearby Weilerbach, Grumer expected the medical aviation unit would also move, he said, as he assumed the helicopters and the hospital were linked. Zetterstrom explained how, six years ago, reorganization moved Company C from the U.S. Army’s medical command to a combat aviation brigade.
In the past four months, the garrison received complaints from two local residents, one in Kindsbach and another in Hütschenhausen, said garrison spokesman Mark Heeter. Each complaint is investigated and promptly responded to.
“I’m very thankful that Colonel Zetterstrom is engaged to help reduce the noise,” Grumer said.
The meeting exemplified the Army’s commitment to a longstanding friendship with the people of the Western Palatinate, where U.S. troops have been guests for the past six decades, Zetterstrom said.
“We made some concrete decisions that will hopefully alleviate some of the public’s concerns about the noise,” Zetterstrom said. “But we also now have an understanding that this helicopter unit’s mission is to save lives and to do that they must train.”
