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2 -14th ACR on the Border
War in Korea, the very first days of the Cold War in Germany and
a major concern that fighting could again erupt in central
Europe, this was the background to the end of the Constabulary
period and beginning of the U.S. Army surveillance mission on
the East-West border. Various squadron commanders and troopers
have stepped forward to recall the mission from their period at
Daley Barracks.
When the barrier fence was little more than barbed wire strung
along fence posts, the squadron was well aware of the Soviet
regiment in Meiningen and the "Meiningen Gap". While not a prime
avenue of attack to the West, it nevertheless was a corridor of
sufficient width to accommodate at least a secondary armor
thrust. Particularly after only a few kilometers into West
Germany, this avenue opened into broad, rolling farm land, ideal
for massed armor in the advance. The terrain ran all the way to
Bad Kissingen, Schweinfurt and Wurzberg / Frankfurt. The 2 - 14
ACR identified and staffed observation and listening points both
on the immediate border and in depth running southeast along
Highway 19.
Ed Keaney, Bobby Bush, CWO 4 (Ret) Jake Hulen, Robert Stauffer,
Edward Bowmann and LTC (Ret) Richard Moore recall the very early
days along the border.
Ed Keaney 1950-1953:
"I was there right at the beginning, the move from Schweinfurt
and the first days on the border. I had been with the scouts as
a sergeant and then Platoon Sergeant so I spent a lot of time on
the border. Two ham sandwiches in a bag and maybe a K Ration,
out the gate and off to the tower by Munnerstadt which was our
start point, turn on to the trail and have a good day! We would
patrol all the way down to Konigshofen and back. The border was
little more than a plowed strip and a few stakes, it was easy to
make a mistake. One jeep with a brand new radio was captured on
the DDR side, everyone and everything was returned within eight
hours .... except for that radio. I recall seeing the East
Germans and maybe Russians on the other side, one guy once aimed
his rifle at me but his patrol leader intervened. I think I left
a few cigarettes for that guy as we moved on."
"I recall some incidents of gun fire on the border; maybe it was
hunters, maybe not .... I don't think the shots were aimed,
maybe just harassment. I remember we were short of officers in
the units, Korea had taken its toll on the units so sometimes
quality control was in rough shape. I am pretty sure that on
some of the cold snowy days, more than a few patrols were
checking out local bakeries. That wasn't too bad, checking out
the Gast houses and the bars .... well .... that's another
matter. We were not using Wollbach at the time, such as it was,
our patrol base was the tower by Munnerstadt."
Bobby Bush 1951-53:
"I was in the Tank Company and then Recon Company 'E' and
finally Headquarters Company during those early days in Bad
Kissingen. We took over the border responsibilities from one of
the Constabulary cavalry units as soon as we moved to Daley
Barracks. There still were sizable stretches of border with no
fences up, particularly in the woods. The East Germans and the
Russians were always seen working on getting the fences up in
the open fields and near the towns, the refugee problems, at
least in the border area seemed over."
"I recall the patrolling as being handled by a Recon Company
with a platoon of the Tank Company attached as the reaction
force. The only guys going out to the border were the scouts and
their accompanying machine gun jeeps. All this was done from the
barracks and the patrols sometimes lasted as long as 36 hours to
cover the allocated area. The area by Wollbach (he may have
meant Munnerstadt) evolved as a patrol base used during the
Summer for scouts to camp on the long missions. A radio relay
was also set up there on occasion."
CWO 4 (Ret) Jake Hulen 1951 - 1954:“I was a platoon leader
with the 2-14 ACR in Germany from 1951 - 1954 and recall the
border mission. Something makes me think that two platoons were
sent to the Munnerstadt camp, one would take the north sector
and the other, the southern sector. Patrols were most often done
with jeeps, I cannot recall ever doing day light foot patrols.
The Munnerstadt camp was also our night listening post. In
addition to the jeep patrols, we would occasionally send out a
five man static observation post. The locations varied.”
“I think the ’reaction force’ for any trouble on the border
was located back at Daley Barracks and it makes sense that it
would be the third platoon in the recon company. I do not recall
taking the ½ tracks or tanks to Munnerstadt, I am sure that the
patrolling was done in jeeps alone. “
“I do not recall radio communications being much of a
problem. I don’t think the reports were real - time events
unless something really out of the ordinary was seen. My
recollection is that the men on patrol knew where the high
ground or clear avenues for radio communication were and would
keep the patrol base up to date when they felt sure the messages
would reach us.“
“My best border story, and all of this is a long time ago,
had to do with escorting a U.S. Senator up to the border. I
think he was from New Mexico and for some reason, wanted to take
a piss - over the line - into East Germany. Far be it from me to
get in the way, so we found a place and - he did it - while at
least to East German Volkspolitzei guards observed.“
“My other significant memory from those days was of racial
integration in the battalion. Those were, as they say,
interesting times in the Army. Battalion Commander LTC Spurrier
and then his successor, LTC Reynolds, were great leaders.
Training, maintenance and discipline were always top priorities.
After Germany, I was in the reserves for a while and then went
into the National Guard. I went to flight school, took a
position as a Flight Warrant Officer, went to Vietnam and then
spent many years either in uniform or as a civilian NG employee
doing flight training or maintenance. Finally retired from it
all as a CW 4 in 1989.“
Robert Stauffer 1954-55:
"We only used the scouts on the border, the tankers and mortar men
concentrated on training and maintenance. The infantry squad was used
as necessary to fill in if we were short. We often saw Russians on the
border, now and then we picked up stray East German civilians and
guards on our side. They were interrogated and returned. At least
once, US forces wandered across and a similar fate was in store for
them. Everyone was armed and shots were exchanged across the border.
We never started it, but we always responded. On the other hand, there
was one Russian I would see quite often right on the very border line.
He spoke English, we would chat and I think I even gave him a pack of
cigarettes. As a platoon leader, I tried to spend as much time on the
border during our turn as possible. We only used the radios to report
on things that seemed out of the normal pattern; everything else was
covered in an extensive debriefing once the patrol was completed."
"I recall our schedule as two weeks on the border, two weeks doing
maintenance and two weeks conducting classes and training. Alerts came
at any time of the day or night and often we were out for two or three
days on no notice. I don't think we expected a war but we took the
possibility very seriously."
Ed Bowmann:
"I was trained as a tank driver but soon was driving scout jeeps on
all the patrols, it seemed as though we went out for 24-36 hours each
time. We patrolled with the machine gun jeep in the day and set up a
listening post at night. Three 'C' rations was all you could expect
until we got back to the barracks or the tent camp by Wollbach ( maybe
Munnerstadt ) which I think we used in both Summer and Winter. One of
my strongest memories is just how rural the whole area was, farm land
and large woods in neatly set up blocks, you'd go through these tiny
German villages and maybe see one or two weak light bulbs in the
windows, the night sky was as dark and filled with stars as you could
ever imagine. You really felt as though you were way out ... there ."
LTC (ret) Richard Moore 1954-55:
"I don't recall the gun fire on the border but there certainly were
many gaps where soldiers could stray across by mistake. One patrol
strayed north into East Germany by three or four hundred meters once
and the Vopo's came tearing after them at high speed. I don't think
that particular US Patrol stopped heading south until they got to
Mellrichstadt! I was in Recon Company D in the early 1950s and
remember that there was an old stone tower by Munnerstadt that we used
as both an OP and a rally point for the patrols. The patrolling was
done primarily by the scouts but we rotated through other members of
the platoon as needed. I had to be careful with my drivers to insure
that the every vehicle could move out if an alert was called so that
always required a careful check as the assignments were made."
As the border began to evolved into the full barrier system, the
casual patrolling to intercept smuggling and refugees of the old
Constabulary days gave way to a system of formal patrolling, fixed
observation posts and spot reports detailing East German activity. The
border observation mission became something that troopers of the
Eaglehorse squadron could clearly recognize but there were some
surprises.
Col (Ret) Curtis Rosler, LTC (Ret) Willard C. Copp and Robert E. Lied
collectively recall the border mission and the 2/14 ACR in the late
1950s and early 1960s.
"Much of the border was still open. There may have been some barrier
fence in the northern portion but the majority of our sector was
marked by both East and West Germany but there were no fences. Maybe
when the Berlin Wall started going up, the fence building picked up
speed."
"Our border camp was by Wollbach and it was no hotel but adequate.
There was a building that held our HQ, mess hall and radio room. There
was a troop billet and a generator building. All this was there when
we arrived so I guess it was put up in 1956-1957."
"The surveillance mission was performed by the scouts in their jeeps,
pulled from the three platoons and used as a consolidated group under
an Lt from the Troop. He was the OIC for the mission and I guess we
rotated the Lts, maybe ten days each. If additional men were needed,
we always had the infantry squads to draw from. The tankers and mortar
men remained in BK with the rest of the Troop. We had no fixed OPs
that can be recalled but there were many places we all knew that
provided good vantage points to observe the East or could be used as
listening posts at night. I think we were covering much of our sector
each day, perhaps two sets of two scout jeeps going both northwest and
southeast along the border. Much but not all of this occurred in the
daylight, I believe we maintained a pretty good presence at night, not
patrolling but in stationary positions. Spot reports were called in as
observations were made and these were relayed to Daley Barracks. Also,
the Squadron had one or two L19 aircraft that flew the border when
ever possible. The Lts from How Btry were trained ariel observers and
that was their contribution."
"Back in Bad Kissingen, we had a H34 type cargo helicopter from Fulda
stationed on the parade field with crew ready to go. This was the '
fast reaction force ' and it was staffed by an infantry squad from the
border Troop and an additional Lt. In the event of any sort of trouble
on the border, they were our initial response. They were called out
and inserted on occasion for training but I don't recall an actual
emergency alert. It was called the 'Howdy Doody squad'."
"There were a few 'illegal border crossings', and most times these
were picked up by the West Germans but once, an East German guard came
across to one of our patrols. That was a big deal for some time. On
occasion, we filled in at OP Alpha in the 1/14 sector when they were
committed to major training."
During most of this period, only Troops E, F and G conducted the
surveillance mission. H Company and How Battery were exempt but as the
mission demanded, on occasion, they sent entire platoons to the border
to assist. In early 1967, the 2/14 ACR was detached from the parent
regiment and attached to the 2 nd ACR. This situation remained until
the reflag to the 11th ACR and return to V Corps. Also during this
period, the squadron was responsible for a very long run of border,
extending from Frankenheim in the northwest to the junction of West
Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia in the southeast.
Starting in 1966, the border mission was run from two camps, at
Wollbach and at Camp Harris, Coburg, with a reinforced platoon at the
each location; fixed OP's and jeep patrols kept watch. Wollbach was
basically a "rough and ready" area but under LTC Paul Palmer in 1966,
a more permanent camp was built. The next commander of the 2/14 ACR,
LTC John Byers, expanded the OP that watched the Meiningen Gap. The
building he left behind is what troopers of the Eaglehorse, a few
years later, would remember as OP Sierra. At some point also, the
brick OP we later remembered as OP 13 by Breitensee was built. Buses
rolled almost every weekend from Bad Kissingen to the border camps
carrying wives and children for reunions that lasted a few hours.
Col (Ret) Norman Harms, 2/14 commander in 1969-1970, recalled the
border much as his predecessors. The Army in Germany during the
Vietnam era was a very demanding assignment for all ranks. He
remembered border tours of six weeks per Troop with ample support from
HHT and H Company. The border to gunnery and immediately to major
maneuvers and then return to the border was not uncommon for a cavalry
troop. He noted,
"... but the best story I have concerning the border concerns those
trees by the OP on the hill. The trees and the brush were in the way
of the troops, that was clear to me. I tried on a few occasions to get
the local Germans to cut them back to improve our vision ... no luck!
So, as Post Commander, one day I just solved the problem. We had those
Combat Engineers at Daley, I got a group of them in trucks with chain
saws and sent them up to the OP. Couple of hours later, the tree and
bush problem was solved .... the Germans were not happy! So the
complaining started and even the VII Corps Commander came down to take
a look. He took me aside after the visit and said, ' I have money in
the budget for this sort of thing, trees and maneuver damage, we'll
smooth it over with the Germans, although I think in one day, you just
used half of what I have! Have to agree with you though .... you did
the right thing!'" .
MSG (Ret) Jack Stoltz:
"I was with the squadron from Feb 1969 until early 1973, first as a
Platoon Sergeant in Troop F and then as the Squadron Border NCO. Here
is how I remember it. The rotation was E, F and G only, the missions
on the border were done with the scouts and infantry squads primarily.
The tankers and mortar squad helped out as needed. I guess now and
then, some troopers from H Company may have come up to help but it was
a rarity. The standard patrol was done with the jeeps and we had the
block house OP by Highway 19. I remember we used the M113s as static
OPs quite often. The camp at Wollbach had not received any "newer"
barracks yet, it was still the Quonset Huts and they were adequate.
There was no "Beer Hall" during my period and we used the Mess Hall as
the movie theater at night. We did have a Camp Custodian looking after
the Camp."
"I recall five times when East German Border Guards or workers came
over. It was as they were putting in new mine fields and had the fence
line opened up. On four occasions, the BGS picked those guys up; they
usually had people on site monitoring all the big East German
projects. Once, one of our patrols found an East German guy and we
immediately turned him over to the BGS. That was an exciting day!"
"We did not have a big training program at Daley for the next Troop as
it got ready to go to Wollbach, that was left up to the Troop
Commander and his guys. The rotations came so fast, that even with the
turn over common in the Vietnam period, there were not too many new
troopers to familiarize with the border each time. As a Platoon
Sergeant, I always handled it ' in house '. Within 72 hours of the new
Troop assuming the mission, there would be a command inspection by the
SCO and myself. We would look as all aspects of the camp and the
mission to insure they were off to a good start. I was active on the
border for both quality control and working on missions that the S2
gave out and I was the observer on some of the border flights. We did
not have an "air insertion" patrol, however."
"The only times we used the camp at Coburg was when we filled in the
border patrol of the 2 nd ACR unit that had gone to Graf. That
happened maybe once or twice per year and when we had our rotation,
they came up to Camp Wollbach. In my career, I spent a lot of time in
border cavalry units, and I really enjoyed it and I think the troops
found the mission interesting."
BG (Ret) Mike O'Connell, squadron commander in 1972-73, remembers big
changes as the 14th ACR reflagged to the 11th ACR. At the camp, he was
able to get the support of the Regional Facilities Engineers to fully
winterize the buildings and with help from the VII Corps Commander,
LTG Mearns, found some funds for further improvements at the Beer
Hall. The tables and chairs were added, a donation from the local
German beer distributor and this may have been when beer was first
authorized. He also wanted an entire cavalry troop to be able to
occupy Camp Wollbach so plans were drafted to expand the hardstand.
The construction was underway as he changed command.
Col (Ret) Frank Hurd, the Troop G commander and S2 was with the
squadron from 1970-73 and witnessed the replacement of the older
Quonset hut barracks buildings at the camp with German manufactured
prefabricated buildings. The camp roads and track park were still
unpaved and a fire destroyed the wood frame motor shop building. It
was replaced with the cinder block two bay building that remains on
site to this day.
Great thanks to Col (Ret) Paul Palmer, Col (Ret) John Byers, Col (Ret)
Norman Harms, Col (Ret) Frank Hurd, BG (Ret) Mike O'Connell, MSG (Ret)
Jack Stoltz and all the other members of the 2/14 ACR for helping us
tell this story.
Lt Stauffer and 'patrol Dachshund'
on the border in 1954 having a little bit of fun while we did a
serious job. After seeing all those huge German guard dogs on both
sides of the border, I couldn't resist this photo.
--Bob Stauffer
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