Monday, October 22, 2012

Douglass Reenlistment

  Shortly after I arrived in 1961, SP5 Donald A. Douglass reenlisted for another 6 years.  BIG hoopla about this.  It’s like he was the first person to ever reenlist in the 594th.

DOUGLASS REELISTMENT

  Left to right: SSG Jose Melendez, Unknown MSG, SP5 Donald Douglass, 1ST LT James May, 1ST LT Harlen Gray, SP4 Raymond Verdugo, SP5 Manfred Schweitzer and myself SP4 Tim Daugherty.

  About 4 weeks later Douglass and his wife Mary Lou were living in Grafenwohr.  Not sure that was a reenlistment perk!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Lindy’s Gasthaus, Zuffenhausen

  This was one of my favorite haunts. This is the place they guys took me to initiate me into the 594th.  Lots of beer that first night and I made the grade. While some of the clientele were American GI’s there was a good mix of Germans, Italians and Greeks.  The Italians and Greeks worked at the Porsche and Mercedes auto plants in and around Zuffenhausen.  I guess the Italians and the Greeks were what was known as low cost laborers.

  I have been on line trying to find the gasthaus and can’t find it.  I assume it has gone by the wayside.  The owners were very nice folks. The husband was Italian and his wife was German.  They always had pretty waitresses and a variety of nationalities to match their customers.

  Somewhere during my Army service I learned a very simple match game.  I always had it out on my table at Lindy’s.  All the Italians, Greeks, Germans and some of the GI’s could challenge me at anytime.  It cost one mark or one shot of Kirschwasser, with a cherry, to play me. Kirschwasser is simply a clear fruit brandy.  I think it could take the paint off a car. I would occasionally allow someone to win and that kept them coming.  The owners loved it because they got the drink business and I liked it because it kept my trips to Lindy’s almost free!  Funny thing about the game is that if both players know the game the player that goes first wins.

                                  

                      KIRSCHWASSER    

                                     0   0   0

                                   0   0   0   0

                                 0   0   0   0   0      

The zero’s above represent coins or matches.  The rules are simple. Make the other person pick up the last match or coin.  You can take as many or as few of the coins that you want but out of only one row at a time and in turn.  The people watching thought they had the game figured out until they sat down and paid their mark to play.  It was different when you were playing.  Maybe those watching got the bigger picture.

Friday, October 12, 2012

My Friend Heidi’s SS Father

  My first girl friend in Germany was named Heidi.  She was an older woman. All of 24 years old!  We had gone out for a few months. Generally we would meet at a gasthaus or I would pick her up in front of her house in Kornwestheim, north of Stuttgart.  We had been on vacation to the Eibsee Hotel in Garmisch and a variety of other places throughout southern Germany.

  Heidi had told me that her father had been a Nazi and that he was in the SS.  She also mentioned that her brothers didn’t particularly like Americans.  Her mother had passed away and she said as time passed her father kept getting a little meaner.  Heidi was about 5’10” rail thin and apparently got her height from her mother. . Her father and two brothers were all around 5’7'” to 5’9'” tall. Apparently her mother had been the stabilizing force in the family.

  I arrived early one evening and was waiting outside in the car.  She came out and got me because she was running late.  She introduced me to her father which was a little “frosty” but at least he didn’t shoot me.  We sat in the living room while Heidi got ready.  This was pretty early in my tour and I didn’t have much German language ability at the time.  I tried my little bit of German but he ignored me. After a couple more tries he got up walked across the room and opened the closet. It was good sized closet.  It had only a couple for coats so the SS Uniform stood out like a sore thumb.

SS UNIFORM

  The uniform shown above looks to be like the one hanging in the closet sans the cap.  All I really remember was the very dark uniform with the red arm band. I also remember the silver colored SS or whatever was embroidered on the collar.  He left the closet door open and left the room.  When Heidi was ready she saw the open closet and chewed out her father.  I’m sure it didn’t do any good but I never went back to the house and never saw him again.

  We had a run in with her brothers at Lindy’s gasthaus a few weeks later but the owner of Lindy’s and some of the regulars who knew me ran them off.  Finally one of the brothers, I think his name was Karl, cornered me and Heidi at a beer tent during Oktoberfest in Stuttgart.  The evening was early and Karl had started drinking long before we arrived and he ended up losing the fight! Needless to say Heidi and I eventually went our separate ways.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Some of our departed friends…

  When I arrived in Germany I was all of 18 years old. Many of the others were considerably older.  The younger ones that were there when I arrived left over the next year or so and were probably 2-3 years older.  Some of them have passed.  The obvious ones were some of the officers and NCO’s.

  LTC Lawrence H. Alexander was born in 1910 and passed away in Monterey, CA in 1999.  When he retired he moved to his home at Pebble Beach. He had purchased the home, while stationed at Fort Ord, in the 50’s. On retirement he worked for a while for Mobile Oil in the paint division.

  Major Dexter W. Adams was born 1921 and died 1992 at Indianapolis.  After he left the 594th he was the Transportation Officer at Stuttgart Post/Robinson Barracks.  Later he was on the faculty at the U.S. Military Academy.

  MSGT Eugene Duch was in charge of the personnel department at 5th RTMO when I arrived. He was born in 1916 and died 1997 in Detroit.  He always wanted to help the new soldiers.  He had had stomach cancer in the 1950’s but survived for many years after.

  1ST LT Harlen E. Gray was there when I arrived.  Hard to get to know but was honest and treated you fairly.  He finished his career as a LTC and retired in San Antonio, TX. Born in 1934 and died in 2005.  Originally trained in Armored.

  SSGT George W. Pellet was one of the “in waiting” soldiers.  Had almost 18 years in when I arrived in 1961.  George was one of those fellows who drank early and hard and looked like he was 65+ years old. He was amazing in that he could drink enough to fill his right leg and still function rather well. Born 1926 and died at the ripe old age of 48 in 1974.

  Haven’t been able to keep track of everyone for obvious reasons.  Checking Ancestry.Com and the Social Security Death Index has given me some dates. A couple of the younger soldiers that have passed on are Steve Fuchick from Pennsylvania (1941-1972) and Tony Filigno from Seattle (1941-2009).  As I recall they both worked in the commo truck.

  If you knew any of these guys or were at Grenadier Kaserne, please leave a comment.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Schotzie

   I’ll bet you thought I was talking about a girl friend.  Well Schotzie was everyone’s girl friend.  She was an extremely obese little dachshund. She was at Grenadier when I got there in 1961 and was gone a few months later. I assume she wandered off or died from extreme obesity.

dachshund

  I was told that Schotzie belonged to no one.  The guess was that she was the mascot of one of the German civilian groups on the kaserne.  She had free reign of Grenadier and could been seen ambling her way between the mess hall and the canteen in building six.  The canteen had a plate of wurst and a bowl of beer waiting when ever she showed up.

  If you were walking around the kaserne and she was at the curb she would bark at you and let you know you were supposed to pick her up and place her on the side walk.  Poor thing was so fat she couldn’t negotiate the curbs.  To this day I have no idea where she slept.  We figured she had a bed in or around the motor pool or the small maintenance buildings behind building six.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Irish Mafia

  We had a small group of us that quite often went out on Saturday mornings to have a beer or two in some out of the way gasthaus.  Trying to get a little local color rather than going to the NCO club or the usual haunts in and around Grenadier Kaserne or Robinson Barracks.

IRISH CARTOON

  The group changed from time to time but the four original members were myself, MSGT Thomas McKiernan, SP4 Michael Callahan and SSGT Sean Webber. For a time McKiernan was either the manager or assistant manager of the NCO club at Robinson Barracks.  McKiernan was a big barrel chested sort of fellow. Prior to arriving in Stuttgart he was assigned to a MAAG unit in Vietnam. He was NCOIC of a motor pool in Saigon.  He had close to 30 years in the service.

  Weber was assigned to the motor pool in Ludwigsburg.  He had at least 20 years service and was always threatening to retire.  SP4 Callahan had around 18 years in the service and worked in the dependent housing office at Robinson Barracks. I think Michael was about 40 years old. He was another “in waiting” soldier.  If McKiernan was on the large size, Callahan was small, all of about 5’6” tall and weighed in at about 110 (Our little Elf).  His wife, who was a delight, was about 22 years old, weighed in at about 180 Lbs. A regular Ma and Pa Kettle.  I’m not sure what Michael’s highest rank was during his 18 years but by the time I left Germany I out ranked him.

  Originally we were picking small towns like Calw, Marbach, Tubingen and such because not many GI’s went there and we could get to see a little  local color.  We also stopped at small hole-in-the-wall gasthaus’ in and around Stuttgart.

  The beginning of the end of the Mafia came one Saturday morning early in 1962. We all hopped into McKiernan’s VW (1950’s Era) and headed out. Webber and I were in the back seat, McKiernan was driving (steering wheel between his knees)and Callahan is in the front passenger seat.  We arrive at a gasthaus and Callahan jumps out and runs into the gasthaus. By the time we enter Callahan is in a fight with two younger men and they are winning. We waded in and the fight gets bigger! Finally we get things under control and the owner is yelling at us to leave.

HEIL HITLER

  Michael always said he didn’t do anything to provoke the folks and he promised faithfully to always mind his manners.  This issue happened one more time but we were out so quick the Germans had no idea what had happened.

  The next time Michael hopped out of the car Webber was right on his fanny as he entered the gasthaus.  No sooner did he get through the gasthaus door when he clicked his heels and yelled, at the top of his lungs, “HEIL HITLER.”  Needless to say Callahan road in the backseat from then on. Over time it didn’t get much better, he still wanted to pick a fight.  He even tried to pick a fight with a Special Forces SFC when we were in Bad Toelz.  After a while we no longer included him on our Saturday outings.  Callahan was still there when I left Germany in 1963.