Wintershield II

   Below is a patch I found on line.  I have never seen it before and we sure didn’t get one for participating in the Wintershield II exercises.

Getting ready to head to Graf.  This was a normal occurrence each year when units went to Grafenwohr or a unit was being relocated to Passau for border duty.  Load the APC’s and/or tanks on rail cars for transport to the “field.”

I was told that the Wintershield II exercises cost the US government over a million dollars just in damages to farm land and buildings in small hamlets through out Bavaria.  The jeep below was just a minor problem.  Picture tanks in mud up to the top of their tracks and frozen in place!  We were following  tanks through a small town headed to Hohenfels when one made a wide turn and the barrel of his cannon tore off the corner of a house on the corner.  It was around 2:30 in the morning and you could see the couple standing in their bedroom wonder what the hell hit them.

  I found the picture below on line. It is a Ranger unit during Wintershield II that was collecting egg shells so they could fill them with powder and use them as fake grenades. Are war games fun? Duh. All the time that Wintershield was happening they were beginning to build the WALL.  An expensive few years for the US government.

  To think I was there when they built it and I was back in the 80’s when they tore it down. WOW…