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Cooke Barracks is the setting for the book Brat: Kids of Warriors. The book is fiction, but the base is real. I lived there from late 1957 to early 1960. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever lived, and I'm a brat, I've lived a lot of places.

During World War II it was a Luftwaffe air base called the Fliegerhorst Kaserne. Hitler visited several times. Then on his birthday in 1945 Fliegerhorst Kaserne and the town of Göppingen surrendered to the American 10th Armored Division. Three weeks later the war ended. From that point on it became known as Cooke Barracks. I arrived in the winter of 1957 when 4th Armored Division took over the base. Living on a base with such a rich war history was truely amazing. We found Nazi stuff everywhere. It was a facinating way to grow up.