Taylor Barracks Taylor Barracks is a former military installation in the Vogelstang suburb of Mannheim , Germany , operated and administrated by the United States Army , Europe , USAREUR . In Dec 2010 USAREUR announced that the installation was handed back to the German government . History . The original " Scheinwerfer - Kaserne " ( Searchlight Barracks ) was constructed between 1939 - 40 as part of the Wehrmacht ’ s rapid expansion following the Nazi takeover . The unit stationed there during World War II was part of the " Luftwaffe ’ s Flakscheinwerfer - Abteilung 299 " ( 299th Anti - aircraft Searchlight Detachment ) and the installation supported the various searchlight units posted around the city to protect it from bombing . The anti - aircraft artillery units were supported from Sullivan Barracks , then known as " Flak - Kaserne " , and home to 1st Bn , 49th AAA Reg . Anti - aircraft positions stretched from the Coleman Army Airfield ( then known as Fliegerhorst Kaserne ) where two batteries of heavy guns were positioned , around Käfertal to Wallstadt . American occupation . The American garrison has its roots with the American occupational forces immediately following World War II . In those days , Mannheim installations were administered by 2nd Military District ( renamed Heidelberg Military Post in 1947 , Headquarters Area Command in 1952 and in 1965 North Baden Area ) that also managed Heidelberg , Worms and Karlsruhe posts . The barracks was named after Pvt . 1st Class Cecil V . Taylor who posthumously received a Silver Star for courage in the face of the enemy . Taylor continued to fire his machinegun , though mortally wounded , fighting off an enemy counterattack in Beilstein , Germany , on 18 April 1945 . Taylor was assigned to 399th Inf Reg , 100th Infantry Division . In January 1948 , the 547th and 584th Ordnance Companies were moved to Taylor Bks from Mannheim - Rheinau to operate Heidelberg Military Post Ordnance . In June , the companies were joined to form the 7859th Ordnance Company and over the years this unit was renamed many times becoming the current Maintenance Activity Mannheim . In Dec 1949 , 503rd Engineer Light Equipment Company moved from Berlin to Taylor Barracks . At Taylor Barracks they were involved in German - American friendship projects such as building sports fields etc . . As the Cold War became hotter , they were increasingly sent into the French occupation zone near Kaiserslautern to build various military facilities . One of these was then called Rhein Ammunition Depot , now called Rhine Ordnance Barracks . In 1950 the French zone roads and economy were lagging far behind the British and American zones . The escalation of the Cold War mandated the French zone roads be upgraded . An Autobahn bridge near Kaiserslautern destroyed by German engineers near the war ’ s end made long stretches of the autobahn useless . The 503rd built a by pass road around the bridge to facilitate traffic movement on the Autobahn . In early 1951 , the entire company moved from Taylor to Ettlingen , near Karlsruhe . At this time the 501st & 502nd Engineer Companies were also at Taylor Barracks but the 501st was deactivated in 1950 and in early 1951 , the 502nd , a pontoon bridge unit , moved to Phillips Barracks , Karlsruhe . Cold War . The 109th Engineer Battalion , a South Dakota National Guard unit called up during the Korean War , arrived in Germany in June 1951 and was quartered in Taylor Barracks assigned to the 11th Engineer Group . The 109th was in charge of nine bridges over the Rhine river . Standard M2 Bailey Bridges were mounted on M4 floating metal pontoons , with half of the bridge on each side of the river . The bridge halves would swing from each side of the river and when they met in the middle of the river they were fastened together with huge steel pins . Each line company was in charge of three bridges that were spaced at various distances along the Rhine , some as far as 30 miles apart . Their second mission was to destroy all the bridges across the Rhine in case of a Soviet invasion . The battalion was replaced by the 37th Engineer Battalion in 1954 . The 11th Engr Grp also developed the Class 100 Heavy Raft for tactical river crossings . The raft was an emergency means of crossing the Rhine River with heavy loads . As of October 1955 , the units on Taylor were 11th Engineer Group ( which moved to Tompkins Bks , Schwetzingen , later ) , 37th Engineer Bn ( which was inactivated in 1958 ) , 535th Engineer Co ( a Light Equipment unit ) , 350th Infantry Regiment ( which moved to Livorno , Italy , in 1956 to be part of the new Southern European Task Force ) and 427th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment ( Team 23 ) . In 1958 , 547th Engineer Battalion returned to Germany following a " gyroscope " move , that is , a temporary relocation of a unit to the United States , and was stationed on Kelley Barracks , Darmstadt . The 547th was an 11th Engr Gp unit supplemented with two additional companies from the inactivating 37th Engr Bn , in 1962 Companies D and E of the 547th were moved to Tompkins Barracks and became Companies of the 20th Eng Bn the following year . On 15 March 1963 , by General Order Number 13 from Seventh Army , the following provisional redesignations took effect : Company D , 547th Engineer Battalion became Company D , 20th Engineer Battalion ; Company E , 547th Engineer Battalion became Company E , 20th Engineer Battalion ; and Company D , 299th Engineer Battalion became Company F , 20th Engineer Battalion . Companies D and F and HHC were co - located with the battalion Headquarters at River Barracks , Giessen , Germany , and Company E was stationed at Taylor Barracks , Mannheim , Germany . Rivers Barracks was originally Verdun Kaserne , a German installation built for Signal units . It was renamed by the Americans after World War II , for Staff Sergeant Rubin Rivers of Company A , 761st Tank Battalion . The 547th Eng Bn continued its bridging operations , training exercises and community support projects through the early 1960s . In 1963 547th regained company D and E and the 20th Eng rotated to Fort Devons , MASS . The battalion headquarters returned to Fort Devens in September 1963 . Company A was reconstituted at Fort Devens and Headquarters assumed control of the line companies , including B and C , later that month . Companies A and C , 115th Supply and Service Battalion , were quartered at Taylor Barracks in 1963 . Company C was a civilian labor service company that provided daily labor details to the various operational sites in the battalion . The 115th had its HQ on Autobahn Kaserne , Seckenheim , and was a 1st Support Bde unit from 1965 - 1970 . HHD , 22nd Signal Group was activated in 1964 and located in Building 346 on Taylor Barracks until 1974 when it was inactivated . It commanded 68th Signal Battalion located at Nellingen Airfield ( with companies in Karlsruhe , Neu Ulm and Giessen ) and the 447th Sig Bn located in Prüm ( with companies in Prüm , Linderhofe , Bremerhaven and Camp Darby ) . The 22nd was replaced by 2nd Signal Group which was reactivated in June , 1974 and redesignated a brigade in 1979 . The 1st Support Brigade was activated in June 1965 as a subordinate maintenance support headquarters under the Seventh Army Support Command . The newly formed brigade headquarters was organized around the nucleus of the headquarters of the recently inactivated 521st Engineer Group . The brigade ’ s offices at Taylor were in buildings 333 and 335 . When the 7th Army Support Command was dissolved in 1970 , the brigade became a major subordinate headquarters under the Theater Army Support Command , Europe ( TASCOM ) with some of its units stationed on Taylor such as HHD , 81st Maint Bn , 77th Maint Co ( Hvy Equip ) , 81st Maint Co ( Lt Equip ) and Equipment Support Center Mannheim .