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Me in the Army |
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Living in Germany |
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Being in the Army in Germany was a lot different than being in the States.
It wasn't just that there was more to do when you were stationed
Stateside... it just was altogether different. Wildflecken was one
of my favorite places I was stationed... Unfortunately, I don't have a
lot of pictures from there... but it was a blast!
Most of the time, I lived in former German Barracks... it was eerie to
live and train where you KNEW units like the SS and the First Panzer
Division once called home.
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Our "mess hall" was once the "Wermachtkantine" - the same purpose.
They had pictures up on the walls of some buildings, showing the
historic photos... I found a lot of pleasure in finding where those
pictures were taken. |
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Above, these buildings, in Wildflecken, served as our barracks... they
once housed German soldiers, during WW2. The Donau river has had 3
bridges at this location. |
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Baumholder, to the left, had the same buildings as Wildflecken, pictured
above... |
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Going anywhere with the tanks meant either you drive, which was expensive,
or loading onto a train, which was probably expensive, also, but easier
on the tracks, roads, engines... |
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Tying the tanks down was a process you really got used to after a
while.... some mishaps now and again, but mostly, it was pretty safe.
In all, I remember railheads as some of the funnest times in Germany...
hours on end spent in the trains, playing cards, and killing time. |
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Reforger |
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REFORGER - Return of Forces to Germany, was a country-wide exercise that
involved the units "in country" and various units from the USA which
were deployed to Germany in an exercise that simulated a European
Theater conflict... "The Russians are coming".
In reality, it'd have gone Nuclear... there
wouldn't be enough time to deploy enough forces to prevent the Russians
from sweeping across Europe if they had of chose to jump. Maybe
we'd have stopped them, but I personally doubt it, unless Nukes were
used.
REFORGER Exercises were a BLAST! |
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"Blue" forces fought against the "Red" forces... basically, the only
markers were the blue and red stickers on the tanks. In the days
before MILES (Laser Tag for tanks), we'd call out the numbers on the
placards to the controllers... Not very technical, but it worked. |
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It was interesting to be driving through the countryside. |
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The Germans took it in stride... and we got a lot of great training out of
it... not to mention stories galore! |
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I went on quite a few REFORGER Exercises in my day... they are part of
what comes to mind whenever I reminisce about my time in Germany. |
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On the Border with Germany and Czechoslovakia |
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I spent a lot of time defending the frontier of freedom... the border
between East and West Germany... they're all friends now, but back then,
it was a HUGE thing! I stayed at a couple of
camps, and drove through the gates of others... it was an interesting
time. Life in the border camps was the part of the Army that I
liked: we had a "real" mission that mattered. We were the eyes and
ears of the Army in Europe, and it was our job to track the activity of
the East Germans and Russians along the border, and to ensure we
maintained the security of the border. We rotated through duties
at the camps with the other squadrons and battalions in the units I was
in, although the Armor Battalions only were sent to the border on
occasion, when the requirements of the CAV units left gaps in the
timing. |
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I lost count of how many pictures like these that I took... a GAK taking a
picture of me taking a picture of him. Its funny when you think
about it. For up to 6 weeks, you stayed
ready, on alert, sleeping in your uniform, ready to run to the alert
vehicles, already set up and waiting to head out the gate, mere minutes
after the call came in. It was awesome! |
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It was pretty ominous on the border itself... near towns, the fence was
concrete, giving it a prison look... in the country side, the fence was
a metallic mesh, made from hardened steel. |
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Roads ended at the border, and just disappeared into overgrowth.
On the backsides of the border stones, "DDR" was stamped... on "our"
side, it was "FRG". Across the top, there was a line denoting
where the border went. |
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Life in the camps was, well, sort of dull. If you were on the alert
platoon, you waited for the call to come, which happened every 12 hours
or less... Hoping and not hoping that, when it came, it was a 'real'
mission.
If not, then you studied and made ready for
your patrol time to come up. |
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Then, literally in a matter of months, it was over.
President Reagan said, in a famous speech in Berlin, "Mr Gorbachev, Tear
down this wall!"
It was awesome. The whole world heard
it, again and again. A couple of years went by, and everyone
waited to see what would happen.
Towards the end of my time in Germany, it
happened. It was odd... We noticed towers left unguarded, we saw
them digging in the zone between the border and the fences. They
cut holes, rebuilt roadways across the border... all of it right before
our eyes.
The flood of East Germans pouring out was
amazing! It was awesome seeing how thrilled they were to be in the
west, and how happy there were with us...
Some folks just stopped on the side of the road, and stared back at
the fence... it was an ominous sight. |
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When they were cutting the holes in the fence... it was eerie. The
world was flipping over, it seemed. What I knew and trained for 10
years was changing...
On the right, the bulldozer that was
clearing a roadway for folks to leave hit a mine... proof that they were
there - they denied it. The guy in the orange hat is digging some
out... not the job I'd want! |
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Not sure what happened on the left... there sure was a loud bang...
sounded like the war was starting! It was
eerie at times on patrol... you were face to face with the "enemy" - the
guys you'd be fighting should the balloon have gone up... |
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When I got sent back to Germany after Desert Storm... the two countries
had united. There was no border.
I guess these items were left for posterity.
The fence was totally gone for miles in both directions, but they left
these segments, along with the West German Border Pole, and the East
German tower. It was locked up, though. |
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