Jonesy was unique!!!!

  To this day I don’t know where corporal Jones came from. All I know is that he couldn’t read or write and he had been in the Army during WWII and Korea.  He worked at Stuttgart Post (Robinson Barracks) and I think he worked for Special Services.  I do know that he was always moving sports equipment around on the weekends for the little league teams.

  During the early 60’s the Army had a rather good sized PX at Robinson Barracks (years later it was much larger) and they also had a Class VI store. The Class VI store was the location where you went to buy cigarettes and booze.  Each month we were issued a Class VI card which allowed you to buy so many cartons of cigarettes and so many bottles of liquor.  As I recall a carton of cigarettes cost about $1.50 (5 carton limit per month) and a bottle of Jack Daniels was $3.00 to $4.00 (I think a 4 bottle limit). You were not supposed to share your card with anyone!!!!! And you couldn’t purchase more than one carton or bottle at a time.

  I arrived at the Class VI store one afternoon and Jonesy was the only customer in the store. He was at the counter with about 15 bottles of booze.  He had a bunch of Class VI cards in his hand (Illegal). I asked him what the occasion was and he just smiled and said, “It’s Tuesday and I’m ready to F--k, Flight or run a Foot race.” That was Jonesy.  I will tell you more about Jonesy when I cover the NCO club.

  If you were in Stuttgart at Robinson Barracks or Grenadier Kaserne feel free to leave a comment.

Dodging “Potholes…”

  After all the preparation and planning, I could still get lost occasionally.  We had to be at a railroad siding near Hohenfels at 0500.  Since we had been north to Baumholder the day before we were running late, rather than stopping in Stuttgart we continued driving to Hohenfels.  We were in a very small town looking for the turn to Hohenfels.  I had only been this way once before and it was during day light hours.

  We kept driving back and forth through the little town and couldn’t find the turn. We finally stopped about 0300 and checked the map. I told SSGT Melendez that we would go back through town one more time then head out to the other way that I knew would take us to Hohenfels. On the way back through town we came upon a farmer pushing a wheel barrow out to his field. I figured what the hell, I’ll try a little German on him and see if he will help us. I began by saying “Wo ist die Strasse” and he butted in and said in darned good English “The road to Hohenfels is 200 meters down the road then turn right.”  He didn’t miss a beat and didn’t even slow down.  To this day I have wondered how many GI’s he had given directions to.

  Our odyssey wasn’t over yet.  Once we found the road, Melendez tells me he has a short cut that he had used before and we could still arrive on time. Not wanting to be late I followed his directions and we were soon dodging huge pot holes in the road. A lot of the road didn’t seem to even exist!  After all the bouncing around and dodging huge “potholes” we saw an MP jeep about 100 yards ahead.  As we got closer the MP got out and stopped us.  He was almost screaming at us, “Where the hell have you been?”  About 10 seconds later there was a large explosion about a quarter of a mile behind us.

  We had just navigated the back side of Hohenfels and the artillery impact area! Melendez almost turned white, and got out of the jeep and vomited. We got to the main part of the base and then the railroad siding.  The sound of artillery shells landing in the impact area went on for almost another hour!

Damned BIG Traffic Circle

  I had been warned about driving in France.  I was told they plant all their fruit trees along the side of the roads.  If you hit one and break it off you end up in court and paying for the fruit it would have given off had it lasted another 8-10 years. Same with farm animals. Female pigs – how many piglets would it have had during the rest of its life? 

  Needless to say I was a little apprehensive about driving there the first time; however, I had to make an appearance at NATO headquarters in 1962.  I had been escorting NATO Hawk transfer shipments for a few months and they wanted to see who I was.  To that point they were working with me based on the word of LTC  Alexander.

  So in the late spring I headed for Kaiserslautern then on to Verdun Reims then to Paris.  Being my first time in France I wanted to make sure that I was able to get fuel at our military bases along the way.  I picked up a fellow soldier at our office in Verdun. He needed a ride to Orleans so I planned on dropping him in Paris and he would take the train to the 594th Transportation Group headquarters.  I don’t remember his name but we were about the same age and got along fine.  He also eased my mind some about driving in France.

  The picture of the Arc de Triomphe above is what you see in the travel brochures.  Keep in mind I had to negotiate a city of millions that I had never been to and do it in a US Army jeep.  We were doing good until we got the The Arch. I saw a break in the traffic and shot to the center and the inner most circle thinking that we could keep going around until we saw the road we needed.  The picture below will probably show you what we were up against.

  I think there were about 8 or nine lanes and frankly we hadn’t really thought this whole thing through.  You will notice the cement like circle at the base of the Arch and check all of the darned roads leaving the circle. As we kept going around the Arch, at about 25 miles per hour, I couldn’t help noticing this very tall, de Gaulle looking French police officer.  I think he was laughing at us – at least smirking.

  After a dozen or so loops he had stepped out into the inner lane and motioned for us to drive onto the cement area.  He wasn’t President Charles de Gaulle but he sure looked like him even down the the honking nose. I almost lost it when he began to speak and sounded exactly like Maurice Chevalier.  He was a nice fellow and asked us where we were going.  We told him NATO headquarters and he said “Ah, Porto Dauphine.” He gave us the directions and then stood on the running board of the jeep and stopped traffic all the way across 8 or 9 lanes to the street we needed to be on.  We may still have been there except for him.

  The picture above shows NATO headquarters shortly after being built.  I survived the meeting with the NATO folks.  Stayed over night in a small hotel they took me to and headed for home the next morning  I don’t remember dropping the guy from Verdun at a train station so the NATO folks may have done that for me.

  In the mid 1980’s I was managing in Europe and had a couple of sales people working for me in Paris.  One of the universities we called on was Universite Dauphine.  We walked into the building from the back side and I had this overwhelming feeling of déjà vu.  It was the building I had been in in 1962.  When de Gaulle tossed NATO and the US Forces they made it into a University.

  Want to leave a comment.  Stationed in the Paris area in the early 60’s.  In the 594th.  Feel free to leave a comment.

Monthly fingerprints

  During the early part of 1962 we were informed that anyone with a Top Secret Clearance would be finger printed every month.  I was told that a artillery Captain had his twin brother take his place! The finger printing was based on the documents you had access to you.  I am assuming that I was finger printed because I knew where the artillery unit was supposed to move to when war broke out.  I was also privy to the dependent evacuation plan.

They told us that the real Captain got tired of being in the Army so he had his identical twin brother fly to Germany and take his place. His brother lived with him for about two months, meeting all the people he worked with and what he had to do to fit in.  After a two month period they switched places.  The switch went on for 3 or 4 months until the imposter-brother got tired of the Army.  At that point the real Captain didn’t want to come back.  Imposter brother turned his brother in and they both were off to Leavenworth.

  The monthly finger printing only lasted a few months until they figured out that the chances of that happening again were pretty slim.

  If you have any funny situations involving transportation, the 594th Transportation Group or Grenadier Kaserne feel free to leave a comment.