Chris,
I don't remember the exact dates but I was assigned to a highly secured area of USAREUR Headquarters (actually worked in a "bank vault" type of room). At the time, the security checkpoints into the HDQTRS casern was not much, i.e., if you had the appropriate green USA license and the right decal, you were pretty much waved into the facility. The bomb was attached to an officer's car who worked in the same bldg. as me. IIRC, the bomb was detonated electronically somehow; and the officer and an enlisted guy were killed. The blast effect was something I will never forget. Not much left of the vehicle. The area where the car was parked ( the old German paving bricks)depressed down a foot or so. Lots of anti-Nam war protests at the time, particularly in Heidelberg. BTW, I volunteered for Nam, spent 6 days at the Oakland Army base before they decided to divert me to Germany. Typical Army! Yeah...having grown up in one of the "rustbelt" cities, I've seen some pretty crazy stuff on the streets but probably is the reason why I have also been able to avoid many bad situations in the past. Thx for the VFW mag reference...its hard to believe at times that its been 35 years ago.
Mike
Yeah, that was close for you. I save only a few of the VFW and other Veteran Organization magazines I get, and that issue is one of them.
A friend of mine was in Munich and about 100 yards or os give or take from the massacare of the Israeli athletes by the PLO or whomever did it.
Yeah, I remember the German paving bricks and cobblestones, we have those still in Detroit on some streets in the older parts of town.
I was in the Infantry, and also volunteered for Vietnam, and a few fellows from 1/39 Inf. did go. We had a memorial in our Bn. HQ for those members of 1/39, Paddy's Gang, that were KIA. The last big troop levy came down in the Summer of 1970, about 7 or 8 months before I got there.
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, things almost went nuclear, and I knew a fellow from here that was in a Pershing I Missle Bn. at Heilbron, and they were one Defcon away from mounting the warheads and firing. My AT Pltn. sent 6 out of 12 TOW I AT Missile Systems to Israel, and everyone was on Red Alert. We moved our APCs to a valley and sat there buttoned-up waiting for the Soviet missle strike. The guy in the Pershing Bn. was in the field for 45-days. things were very tense, and no large scale troop manuevers were allowed in NATO and the Warsaw Pact during the time of the Yom Kippur War of October, 1973. I have known a couple Israeli Paratroopers that were engaged with the Syrians, particularily in that one village where there was dug-in Syrian Armor and Commandos, they were lucky to survive.
Glad you are here and also interested in the ACW, Chris
'What is more amazing, is that amongst all those approaching enemies there is not one named Gisgo.' Hannibal Barcid (or Barca) to Gisgo, a Greek staff officer, Cannae.
That's the CSS North Carolina BB-55
Boris Badanov, looking for Natasha Goodenov
