When I arrived in late June I was the first “Newby” to arrive in quite sometime. I will never remember all of the people and many of them left in the next few months. The people that were there and stand out in my memory were Major Dexter Adams, Corporal Blair, PFC Jack Compton, PFC Eugene Della Rocca, SP5 Donald A. Douglas, MSGT Eugene Duch. SP4 Tony Filigno, SP4 Stephen Fuchick, SFC Lake, SP5 Lucky Lukowski who I was replacing, PFC McDermott, SSGT Jose Melendez-Garcia, !st Lt. Harlen E. Gray, SP5 Manfred Schweitzer, SGT David Hunt and SP4 Larry Star.
Some of the other people that arrived over the next two years stayed in Stuttgart and others were transferred to other locations. As Grafenwohr became a fulltime TMO effort Don Douglass and his German wife Mary Lou moved the Grafenwohr. Another soldier that came through and spent a brief time in Stuttgart was Eugene Della Rocca. He also was transferred to Grafenwohr. SP4 Yutaka ‘Rich’ Seino dropped in for a few weeks and then was transferred somewhere. Rich was from the Los Angeles area and we shared a room while he was there. Mike Sampson from San Francisco was with us a for a while and then got transferred to France.
Most everyone was rather young like me. Most were doing their 2 or 3 years service and then going home. We had a few retreads come through the unit and will be the cause for some great stories. Will probably have to leave their names out of the stories for fear that their friends and relatives would be offended.
A few of the others that were in Stuttgart were SP4 Raymond Verdugo; SGT Thomas M. Lacy, who continues to be a very good friend; 1ts Lt. James L. May, SP4 Nussbaum and PFC Perry both of whom worked in Personnel. We also had a PFC Snell and I’m not sure how long he was there or when he arrived.
Some of the names from the TMO’s were Major Clyde D. Johnson the OIC in the Munich office, SFC Robert ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins was also in Munich and drove race cars. PFC Jesse McCreary was also in Munich. Capt. Patrick Gorman was the OIC in Nuremburg and had SSGT George W. Pellet working for him. George was “in waiting.” He had just a short time remaining and didn’t have much clue as to what was going on. Had a date early each day with his favorite liquid!
The two other civilian employees were Frau Schlayert and Art Wenhuda. Frau Schlayert was the CO’s secretary and a good one. Wenhuda commuted each day from the town of Aalen. He was probably 65 years old when I arrived and I know that some of the guys used to rib him about how many Americans he had killed during the war. He always swore that he was on the Russian front. No matter, he did his job without the benefit of frequent showers.
If you read this blog and you were there leave a comment and let me know your name, when you were there and what you job was.
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