Posted on 02/28/2014 3:26:40 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany -- Less than a year after they left European soil, American tanks have returned to military bases in Germany where they had been a heavy presence since World War II.
In April last year, the last Abrams tanks left Germany, coinciding with a drawdown of U.S. forces that saw the inactivation of two infantry brigades -- the 170th and 172nd. Now, it appears that chapter of history may have been closed a bit prematurely.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
I was with 6/10 FA in Bamberg, we had 175mm til ‘78 when we converted to 8 “, also with 2/3 FA in Butzbach with 155 SP and at FT Lewis with a 105mm battery as Battalion FDC chief, but loved Germany the most!
“An a 10 would be so much fun to fly and strafe chit wiff”
You mean the 10’s being retired this year and next? The A10’s that are being replaced by the phantom F35?
I went back to Germany last year.
I was shocked at how many caserns were padlocked and barbed wired shut.
This was in the Aachen and Mannheim area.
All of the housing and facilities at Butzbach have been leveled, from what I heard on the 3rd AD Facebook group. Also the housing & PX/Commissary at Bad Nauheim is gone and replaced with new German civilian houses. There are several websites for the units in Germany.
http://www.armykaserne.com/kaserne_photo_page.htm
http://armykaserne.com/us/schloss-kaserne-butzbach/
http://forgotten-frankfurt.blogspot.com/
There is another big website dedicated to all of the units that served in USAREUR. I’ll have to send it to you from my office next week. I thought I had it here on my home computer, but don’t, drat!
I was the 3AD DivArty S-2 1985-87.
Charts and darts before Freddie FADAC.
My Lord, I am getting old...
GFT, TFT, MET+VE, RDP, GST, TGPC
ahhhh now we’re playing FA trivia-—
What does “TIP” stand for when conducting a simo, as in “tracking - tracking tracking TIP”?
Swords have been beaten into plowshares since 91.
By everyone.
Actually I don’t think anything serious is likely in Europe soon. The Russians really aren’t that strong. Those hordes of tanks are gone and they haven’t the manpower, money or the stomach for anything serious. Grabbing territory from people with even less is their league right now. And they aren’t up to grabbing anything anywhere they can expect guerilla resistance. They seem up to Anschluss type operations where they can just roll in.
“Telescope in Place”, first using the lower non-recording motion and then the upper motion of the M2, plus or minus 2 mils. (I was a 13B too!). M101A1, M114, M198 and M109A5.
Just don’t ask me to do a Polaris-Kochab or solve a Met. It’s been a long time.
TFOOL-ULU.
K-Transfer or HE spotter round. IIRC. PNL. It’s coming back, slowly.
Ah yes, the old days of “charts and darts.” Now it is all done with hand held computers with the firing data electronically direct to individual gun.
I remember once when as FO, the FDC screwed up the ABCA registration and I took over doing it from the op to get a good registration. What a trip that was. That was back when FO sergeants were senior 13Es before 13F fist happened in May or June, 1978.
I still have the set of “sticks” I bought back in 75 to use when I was in C/2-27 FA, in Friedberg. We had M-109A1s. My first FA assignment was the FDC section, C/2-34th FA, 194th Armored Brigade at Ft. Knox.
My past experience was a battalion was between 500 and 1000 men, but I’m unsure how that translates to tank quantities/with technical/logistic support company personnel. I could see 2-300 support personnel required for anything from 25-50 tanks, but I’d be guessing.
All,
Here is the link to the USAREUR Units & Kasernes website I mentioned late last week:
http://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm
It is a really great site for bringing back memories and showing family members “where I served in US Army Europe.”
I hope you enjoy it and that it brings back happy memories.
Hey thanks for the link!
Thanks for the ping and the link.
Thanks for the link!
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