US Army brat in Cold War West Germany

[Alexander]

Attachment 407932Attachment 407931

USAREUR / NATO road map for central Europe. This is a general road map for use by the military, they had much more detailed maps for field work. Daley Barracks, where we were based, was in the small Bavarian town of Bad Kissingen (known to us as BK), just north of Schweinfurt. As can be seen on the map, we were not far from the East German border, the thick red line, and the Soviet 8Th Guard units on the other side who faced our 11th ACR. You can just see the town of Meiningen where they were based. The famous Fulda Gap was just above the town of that name, we faced what was known to us as the Meiningen Gap. This was a series of little valleys and gentle hills going roughly east to west. Near to the town of Millrichstadt was the forward base of the 11th ACR, a place called Camp Lee. I visited the camp several times to see my dad and you got to look across the border thru field glasses and see the NVA border troops, the wire fences and towers. It made a big impression on me. There was always a Cav troop made up of M60s, M551s and M113s on standby 24 hours a day, just in case the Soviets thought about having a vacation in our part of Germany!!

[bigmacglenn]

I remember the comic-book style maintenance booklets very well...After Vietnam the average education level of the GI was the 8th grade with a GED, so they dumbed-down the manuals to make them interesting/understandable. The scantily-clad females were later considered very sexist when the Army decided to combat sexual harrassment in the service and were then omitted as not to offend female GIs...My Step-dad is a retired Lt.Col and still has boxes of training manuals stashed...cheers, Glenn

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[dustyr55]

This brings back so many memories of my time in Germany. I still have my SMLM card tucked away somewhere. I actually saw a SMLM vehicle when we were in the field for Reforger 75. He was in an obviously restricted area. It just so happened that a Military Police car came up the road a couple of minutes after the Soviets went by us. MP's took off after them, but I don't know if they ever caught them.