FRANKFURT, Germany — The runways that once helped feed a blockaded Berlin, bade Elvis farewell after his Army service and provided the first glimpse of freedom for hostages returning from Iran now stand empty.

A hub of U.S. military activity for decades, Rhein-Main Air Base is being given back to Germany and its logistical functions are being taken over by bases at Ramstein and Spangdahlem. Ceremonies set for today will mark the handover, which will take until the end of the year.

"The mission has moved," said U.S. Air Force Col. Tom Schnee, who is overseeing the shutdown. "We're all set for the symbolic closure."

Since 1945, the air base has played a role in nearly every major conflict for the U.S. military, from ferrying troops to Europe and abroad, to providing support for the 1991 Gulf War, and again in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The pilots who flew nonstop during the Berlin Airlift took off from the runways of Rhein-Main. For Marines injured in the 1982 bombing of their barracks in Lebanon that killed 242, the base was the first glimpse of home away from home. In January 1981, the 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days in Iran flew to Rhein-Main aboard C-9 Nightingales.

"It was a key base, the gateway to Europe for about 60 years," said Dr. Earl Moore, a Dallas physician who was a U.S. Navy aviator during the Berlin Airlift from 1948-49 and flew from Rhein-Main to West Berlin most days and nights. The Soviet Union cut off ground traffic in an attempt to starve the Allies out of Berlin in the first standoff of the Cold War.