The Hunsrück is the region between the Rhine, Mosel and Nahe Rivers in West Germany. It is smaller than the state of Delaware or about half the size of Yellowstone National Park. Nearly 60 U.S., German and French military installations are in the area. Hahn Air Base is the largest with 72 nuclear-capable F-16 fighter bombers and an estimated 150 nuclear bombs. Roughly 25,000 U.S. military personnel (including families) live in the Hunsrück. The housing area at the Hahn base is the largest city in the Hunsrück, with nearly 10,000 inhabitants, though it does not appear on any German maps.

The Hunsrück became a focal point of the West German peace movement in 1983 when peace researchers discovered that NATO planned to deploy 96 U.S. cruise missiles at the Wüschheim Air Station between the villages of Hasselbach and Bell.

In fall 1983 local Christians began gathering for weekly prayer vigils at the gate to the cruise missile base. The services, which continue today, are official services of the Protestant congregation in Bell. In October 1986, 200,000 people from all over Germany converged on Bell to demonstrate opposition to the new generation of nuclear missiles. Soon after, people organized the first blockades of the base.

Local villagers and many Christians participate in the Hunsrück peace initiative. They have found creative ways to express their discontent with military policy. Blue and white peace doves hang in many windows. One farmer painted a bull trampling missiles on her barn. Christians planted 96 crosses next to the cruise base as a contrast to the missiles.

As a result of the initiatives of Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and peace movement pressure, the INF (Intermediate Nuclear Forces) treaty was signed in December 1988 and ratified six months later. The first cruise missiles were withdrawn from the Hunsrück in April 1990 to be returned to the United States where they were to be "burned, crushed, flattened or destroyed by explosion," according to the treaty. Meanwhile, however, military construction continues in the region. A large reconnaissance and communications center is being built less than a mile from the cruise base. Nuclear weapons storage vaults and a second runway are being added at Hahn Air Base, where a new generation of F-16s was being introduced in the summer of 1990.

I moved to the village of Krastel in fall 1987. Krastel is a mile and a half from the cruise missile base and 12 miles from the Hahn Air Base. There I joined two couples, Clemens and Beate Ronnefeldt and Armin and Annette Keimburg, in a small intentional Christian community with the support of the Church and Peace network. In various ways we seek to witness to God's shalom in this setting.

Two years later I married Cathy Stoner and we returned to Krastel in fall 1989 where we now work together relating to the American community there. Our work with GIs and their families grows out of our solidarity and identification with German brothers and sisters active in the peace movement. We regard our work as an extension of their efforts. Our German friends have provided perspective, support and encouragement for our work with military personnel.