Excitement was in the air Tuesday morning - we were going to Camp Darby! Here is a map of Camp Darby taken from the AAFES home page (manages the PX/Commissary) with additional notation locating the high school and elementary school.
I am told the base has changed very little from the '50's. The parts I could remember have not changed - the PX/commissary, and the elementary school. Sadly, I could not remember where the U-control airfield was once at and it wasn't there any more. That was probably my favorite part of Camp Darby.
It's not a big base. When we were there I believe I once heard there were about 100 American families stationed there. Today Italians manage the base, and only 25% of the people working there are American.
We arrived at the base early in the morning. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the gate at the threat of having our cameras confiscated. As we waited on the bus for our passports to be checked and be given clearance to enter, we reminisced about the base.
I remembered our mom dropping us off at the base theater on Saturdays where, for 25 cents we'd spend a better part of the day watching cheesy serials and then a couple of movies. One of the guys remembered it was his job to watch all of the "brats" that were dropped off that way!
For those of you that aren't a military brat, base life is slightly bizarre. The National Anthem was (is?) played before the movie and you most definitely stood up while it was played. In the morning and evening music was played over the P.A. for the raising and lowering of the flag. Whereever you were on the base, you stopped, and faced the flag. If you were in a car, you stopped and got out. Like I said, a little weird, but there was also a tight feeling of community there that I have never seen again in my life.