Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe government offered Camp Casteau, a 2 km² Belgian Army summer training camp near Mons, which was an area in serious need of additional economic investment. In September 1966, NATO agreed that Belgium should host SHAPE at Casteau. SHAPE closed its facility at Rocquencourt near Paris on 30 March 1967, and the next day held a ceremony to mark the opening of the new headquarters at Casteau. The drawdown of the British Mediterranean Fleet, the military difficulties of the politically decided command structure, and the withdrawal of the French from the military command structure forced a rearrangement of the command arrangements
Lee Flemming Lee Flemming Lee Andrew Flemming (born May 11, 1968) is a retired United States Army Infantry Officer; he was the 27th commanding officer of the Installation and Base Support Group (BSG) of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) from July 2014 - June 2017 and most notably is the first African American in the history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to command the installation since its inception in 1949 after the conclusion of World War II. SHAPE is the installation that houses Allied Command Operations (ACO) and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). COL Flemming was awarded