"I had the honor of taking command of the 2/14 ACR
in July 1966. Prior to this, I was working on a major staff study at
Heidelberg and I came to know the VII Commander, LTG Mildren. As I
got ready to move to Bad Kissingen, he told me, ‘ If you ever need any
help let me know and I’ll see what I can do ...’
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Entrance to the border camp as of 1968. Much work had been done,
other improvements took place over time.
--Gene Meder |
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Newly built Border
Ops Center in Winter of 1967
--Richard Harrington |
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Among my first priorities upon taking command was to
review our border surveillance mission and the border camp. Configured
as a "tent city", Camp Wollbach was similar to any forward camp found
on the ranges and MTA’s in Germany. Conditions were Spartan but
acceptable. I felt, however, that perhaps we could do better and
began to investigate what improvements could be made. At Daley
Barracks, as both the squadron commander and post commander, I had
some freedom of action and Lieutenant General Mildren pledged his
support in getting a more substantial camp built.
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Family day at the
camp , a good chance to show off what we had built.
--Richard Harrington |
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Here is the new Day
Room in late 1967, named to honor the man who really helped us get
the project moving, LTG Frank T. Mildren.
--Paul Palmer |
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The German Facilities Engineers were able to do a
site survey and determine how to bring in additional electricity,
water and a septic system to support an expanded and improved camp.
Good fortune smiles on the bold and, at the time, France had just
pulled out of NATO and the US forces in that country were departing.
We were able to identify and rapidly procure from a depot, the
Quonset Huts and other "tin" buildings that had been removed from
France and with General Meldren’s assistance, get them moved and
placed at the Wollbach. Other smaller buildings were built on site and
after three or four months, things were really beginning to take on a
professional look. Before the end of 1966, all of our border troops
were out of tents and the camp was essentially complete. Troopers from
the squadron put in a lot of labor in addition to all the other duty
requirements and I was proud of their efforts. As a way of
acknowledging the great help of LTG Meldren, the newly built Day Room
was named in his honor complete with a sign."
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Side view of
Mildren Hall.
--Paul Palmer |
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Interior view of
the new Day Room.
--Paul Palmer |
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Follow Up
Through the years, many additional improvements
occurred at Camp Wollbach / Lee. The pre-fab buildings were added in
the early 1970’s taking the place of the barracks style Quonset Huts
and as time and budgets allowed, further camp improvements occurred.
The sign on the Day Room - in use as the Camp Beer Hall, lasted at
least until 1978, the building itself was replaced in the major camp
upgrade in 1985. The camp has recently been sold to a group of German
investors who are exploring the idea of turning the site into a Cold
War theme museum. Remaining on site, however, are at least two
buildings from the first construction activities of 1966, the former
arms room and the metal building initially used as an Orderly Room,
then reconfigured to the Camp Lee Day Room then finally as the
Learning Center.
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... and here is the
interior view in the opposite direction.
--Paul Palmer |
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Here I am
surrounded by the men who really did the heavy lifting to get the
camp finished, the soldiers of the 2/14 ACR to include Sergeant
Major Jefferies at far right.
--Paul Palmer |
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"Frank T. Mildren Hall" in use as
the camp Beer Hall in 1978
--Bob Stefanowicz |
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Quonset Hut
buildings being assembled at the border camp in 1966. These became
our barracks; we finally got rid of the tents. |
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