my part in the Cold War

this is nice. somthing to tell your kids

 

Pardon my ignorance, but what are 'red parts'?

 

my part in the cold war.

KP. Are you going to finish the story of your adventures in Germany?

 

the rest of the story

we arrived in Baumholder Germany by way of a glass topped tour bus, (What, the army had no busses and had to hire a German civilian bus to transport slodiers from the repple depple in Frankfurt?) Baumholder sits so far back in the mountains that the trains have to back in on the single track. I think it is in part of the Hundsruck or dogs back mountains and its near Idar Oberstein, a town that has something to do with diamonds. also the home of one of my wifes ancestors, I have lots of memories of gloomy foggy Baumholder. on was pairs of soldiers walking around post with blue white and gold 8th Division patches on their right shoulders, whereas I was fresh fish and had none. I got some from the supply sergeant right away and had them sewn on by the tailor. I was told that the DAK trained in Baumholder in huge buildings with wind machines sand piles and sun lamps, wether or not this is true I havent a clue. I had arrived with an M1 Carbine disassembled and tucked in my duffle bag. Numerous times we were asked to open the bags for inspection, but they never dug under the top layer and saw the muzzle of that carbine staring them in the face. a jeep arrived from Mannheim it was one of those new M151 jeeps, and it picked up me and the new CO Lt. Richardson. I thought the ride was fabulous. in the night and the dark we were warm and comfortable. when i arrived in Mannheim I remember standing in Coleman Barracks with this heavy duffle bag on the cobblestone streets in front of the barracks, and I just knew these cobblestones had known the hobbnails of the boots of the wehrmacht back in the early 1940s. Now the US Army had the place.

 

Lt Richardsons tight gloves

after a while I got used to the routine of early, and I mean early morning formations while it was still dark and Lt. Richardson whom I never liked standing out front and harangueing us wearing tight black leather gloves with no wool liner like the ones we wore and it just struck me that he looked effeminate. soon I found out that he didn"t like me either. In my 23 yo mind he seemed like a petty martinette. I did have difficulties adjusting to the first sergeant too. what was it did I feel superior because I had a college degree and they were barely literate? this was a period in my life when I had a love hate relationship with the Army. nevertheless, I did my duty wether they told me to sweep out the bays of tech supply or go to inspect the arms room of the first of the 13th infantry. I walked into their arms room down in the basement with a clip board and a pen in my hand and obviously different DI on my field jacket and hat, this soldier says to me, and i still can remember the sneer in his voice "what do you want PRIVATE?" I replied, "I'm from the 708th Maintenance Battalion,and I'm here to inspect your arms room." he answered, Oh please don"t gig my weapon, here let me go to the mess hall and get you some coffee and rolls" the truth is he was the one who had no business in the arms room being a cook not an Armaments person. I noted that in my report. Now it was my turn to make someone squirm. I found a .45 Auto pistol with a broken sear and one that some idiot had taken steel wool to make it shiny by removing the parkerization. I wanted a statement of charges on that weapon that would now have to be reblued at a civilian gun shop at the army's expense, several M14s had seriously cracked stocks and the cooks was rusty and dirty, Court martial offense.

 

red parts

Red parts are not communist produced gun parts but merely parts that had been painted red to see if you replaced the right parts without making unnecessary repairs, it worked. it made you think very hard wether or not to replace things. but getting back to the inspection, I want you to understand that this was not the IG inspection but instead merely a courtesy inspection to help the unit get ready for the upcomming inspector general's visit. This cook who greeted me with such disdain had been paying someone to clean his weapon, and they had been pocketing the money without performing the service. As a result a certain cook was now in deep doodoo. Now I had the Company commader in the arms room kow towing to the private. Well, Lindquist how are we doing? Not too well sir. There has been some serious screwing up of the weapons in this unit. Now he wanted to get me doughnuts and coffee, It is very strange that in a case like this rank means nothing. Just the combat readiness of the fighting equipment of a US Army infantry unit. Of course no officer is going to sign a statement of charges brought against another officer so the .45 had to be reblued at a certain Liutenant's own expense. This episode is basically true and the names have not been changed to protect he guilty. It felt good to be using the APG training in a real situation as was intended." to the sound of the guns"