The WALL

  I guess you had to be there. I had been in Germany for all of about 6 weeks when the shit hit the fan!  They started building the WALL.  I wasn’t scared or worried that we were going to have WWIII, but life wasn’t the same for about 3-4 months.

  The U.S. starting moving men and equipment to Europe.  It got to the point that Bremerhaven and our two major ports in France couldn’t handle the massive amounts of equipment and personnel being sent to Europe.  The U.S. opened offices in Rotterdam and began receiving large shipments through Holland.

  We had so many troops showing up that it was becoming a problem finding a place to put them.  At one point we had close to 5,000 troops scattered all over the training centers at Grafenwohr and Hohenfels.  We had already filled up the existing housing and billets at all the military facilities in Germany. As we reached mid-winter the snow was falling and so was the temperature.  I was in Hohenfels in January or February of 1962 meeting a train with some 200 military personnel. It was all of 4 degrees at 1500 hours. The camp commander, I think he was a Lt. Col.,  asked me where he was going to put these new men.  I don’t think he expected an answer. I explained that my job was get them here not house them!  I don’t know how many troops were in tents but it was a lot.  You have to remember these posts were training centers.  When people trained here they came with their own housing = called tents.

  After a few months it was somewhat apparent that we weren’t going to war.  Once that realization dawned on everyone it started getting back to normal.  From mid August 1961through about September 15th I slept on my desk or on a cot in my office.  Military movements became a 24/7 operation.  Besides the troops coming from the U.S. we had armored outfits heading to the border.  Passau was getting crowded!

  Even Kennedy decided to show. Scheduling one of the General’s command diesels to transportation the President wasn’t any fun.  Especially when we moved him to a siding to let a “Fast Freight” pass by.  The Bundesbahn Fast Freight had priority over all rail traffic and that included our president.  There was a lot of pissing and moaning but by the time a colonel got out to complain he almost missed his ride.

IF YOU WERE AT GRENADIER KASERNE, IN THE 594TH TRANS GROUP OR WOULD JUST LIKE TO COMMENT PLEASE DO SO. THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT. TSD