Not a person - an American unit

In connection with my posts about Keith Bradbury, I wonder if anyone can point me in the right direction as to finding an American unit from about the early 60's?

The markings on a vehicle were given to me as being:-

2nd BN, 52nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armoured Division (or should that be Armored )

Any takers?

Paul.

Google it in, I came up with all kinds of references the 52nd Infantry Ret.

Len (Ciphers)

if you google 3rd armored division you will come up with a lot of facts as to them being in frankfurt at drake kaserne.


The most famous soldier in the 3rd Armored Division during the 1950s was Elvis Presley, assigned to Company A, 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32nd Armor Regiment, Combat Command C at Ray Barracks in Friedberg. After his time in service, Presley made the movie G.I. Blues, in which he portrays a 3rd Armored Division tank crewman with a singing career. Future Secretary of State, General Colin Powell also served in this division.

paul try, usareur units & kasernes,

Three of our soldiers were tasked,in civilian clothes,to get an interview with Elvis.Not only did they get the interview,he also took them out to dinner.Always been an Elvis fan,love his singing!
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Don

slightly off topic, but not really....

And I think I've posed this question before but forget if it got answered....

When we (Canadians) were in Soest, there was a small American missile detachment there as well. A couple of the American kids attended Soest Senior High School, actually. They had their own Married Quarters not that far from ours, not sure where though.

It wasn't a large contingent there at all and one hardly saw any of the American guys kicking around the gasthofs or anything (I only recall meeting one guy at the Express, and that was when I was back working in Soest (1973), after the Canadians had left...so I assume the American missile bunch were still there when the British were).

Does anyone know anything about this bunch? American regimental/unit/divisions/etc designations confuse the hell out of me, though.

Stephen Lock wrote:

....

When we (Canadians) were in Soest, there was a small American missile detachment there as well.....

They were still there when 2 Fd R.A. moved in. They had a block at the bottom end of the Camp, that was supposedly out of bounds to us. We just called it the Yankee Bar, as they had their own bar in there. They were connected to 50 Missile Regt in Menden, and I believe some of them were there as well.

I believe that it was 69 Missile Detachment.

Paul.

I noticed too,that wherever we were stationed in BAOR there was a small American contingent nearby.Never gave it much thought till now!
And for our Canadian friends here never forget our trips to Soest and visits to your NAAFI,they had the most gorgeous frozen lobster tails,we used to go all the way there,as you might say,for a bit of tail!And the "T" bone steaks in the canteen,off a Dinosaurier I'd guess!
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Don

When I was stationed at Ft Henry we used to go over to the the American outfit to buy goodies at their PX at lunchtime,always stocked up on a box of 50 King Edward cigars for $5 for my Dad when we came on leave to England.
69 Missile Det sounds about right,I always thought they were there in support of the Bundeswehr.
Our Canex(NAAFI) was very popular with the Brits and Belgiques,so much so that they had a Canadians only day on Friday. One Friday they had Mavis on the door checking for foriegners and some big shots from Rheindahlen tried to get in,she was less than gracious about their entering,I can still hear her saying"Canadians only no Brits on Friday" with a very obvious London accent.

Paul wrote:

Stephen Lock wrote:

....

When we (Canadians) were in Soest, there was a small American missile detachment there as well.....

They were still there when 2 Fd R.A. moved in. They had a block at the bottom end of the Camp, that was supposedly out of bounds to us. We just called it the Yankee Bar, as they had their own bar in there. They were connected to 50 Missile Regt in Menden, and I believe some of them were there as well.

I believe that it was 69 Missile Detachment.

Paul.

Thanks, Paul...Now that you mention it, I do seem to recall some connection with Menden. Mind you, when we lived 'just up the road' from Menden along the Hoennetal in a town called Beckum enroute to Balve just at the Sans Souci turn-off I wasn't aware of any American outfits in Menden....Brits, yes, but no Americans.

We didn't get into Menden very often, for some reason, preferring to swing over into Iserlohn. I guess because Iserlohn was familiar to us whereas we weren't as familiar with Menden. Actually, I remember Mom saying she didn't "like" Menden LOL...have no idea what that was about!

TonyE wrote:

When I was stationed at Ft Henry we used to go over to the the American outfit to buy goodies at their PX at lunchtime,always stocked up on a box of 50 King Edward cigars for $5 for my Dad when we came on leave to England.

69 Missile Det sounds about right,I always thought they were there in support of the Bundeswehr.

Our Canex(NAAFI) was very popular with the Brits and Belgiques,so much so that they had a Canadians only day on Friday. One Friday they had Mavis on the door checking for foriegners and some big shots from Rheindahlen tried to get in,she was less than gracious about their entering,I can still hear her saying"Canadians only no Brits on Friday" with a very obvious London accent.

Didn't know they even had a PX there. My parents and I used to go down to Frankfurt on a weekend, stay at the hotel on base (a Howard Johnson's, a chain motel outfit whose 'architecture' was modeled after some 1950's vision of Colonial Virginia), have pancakes for breakfast, American coffee (well mom and dad did...I was still a tad young for coffee), and hamburgers for lunch! Of course, the PX stocked product and goods familiar to us, far more (and at better prices as I recall) than CANEX did.

Had to chuckle about having Mavis on the door during Canada Day at CANEX with her Londoner accent. Not sure how not allowing Belgiques or British in would go over with those coming to shop on that day but I suppose it soon became common knowledge not to go to CANEX on Friday unless you were Canadian! No way could one get away with such "discriminatory practices" today!

The PX at the missile det was more like a tuckshop but you could order anything you wanted from their system.

Fridays was set aside because on Thursdays busses from Brit units arrived with wives and kids followed by a trucks to carry the goodies,Saturdays were mostly whole families coming sometimes from a long distance and it got really crowded,and they met other people they hadn't seen for years on other posting and they would stop and chat,you couldn't move. So on some Saturdays we would drive over to Iserlohn or Lippstadt and go to the NAAFI to get things like kippers or fish paste and other British delicacies.

The Mavis story goes on,her husband was in RCEME and moved to Lahr as a civilian in Base Maintenance,she got a job again with Canex and was just as stroppy with the French Army people that flocked to our store at the week end,she was till there when I left in 1977.

I'm sure I must have known, or at least been aware of, Mavis as it sounds as if she was "in house" during my tenure in Soest, both with parents and later when I was working there.

Getting stroppy (now there's a word I haven't heard for some time! I still use it and get blank stares) with French Army personnel would be something to see....anyone who has ever holidayed in France (specifically Paris) know how stroppy the French can get. A bit testy.

No doubt the whole situation would escalate higher with Mavis getting stroppy, some French soldier reacting and getting stroppier which, I am sure, would cause her to get stroppier more and up and up and up we go!! Ooooh, what fun!!

Ah,yes,the stroppy French.Many years ago we drove to Cherbourg airport,parked our car in the garage,paid the 5 francs per day parking fee.Off we went to Guernsey,on our return checked in,asked for our car keys,got them,and were told by the officiall the parking charges had gone up to 10 francs per day.Nearly started the next war between UK and France,I organised all the other passengers who had their cars parked,we said "non"and off we went to get our cars.They must have thought about trying to stop us,but we HAD our WIVES with us,and the French retreated in true WW2 style!
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Don

i have a serious question about the french,i saw an article the other day about the berlin airlift,the article went on to say how germany was split into 4 zones shared between the 4 super powers,USSR,AMERICA GT,BRITIAN and FRANCE.my question is who or indeed why was FRANCE designated a super power,dave.

I suspect it had something to do with Charles DeGaulle, who was President of France at the time, and that France was part of the Allied Forces and probably some geographical considerations as well given France bordered parts of Germany and, in fact, certain regions of Germany and France had for centuries bounced back and forth between the two (Alsace-Lorraine etc).

Certainly the USSR and America were 'superpowers' even at the end of WWII. Great Britain wasn't in the same league but still held vestiges of empire and certainly had played a major and key role in the Allied effort. The Dominion of Canada's involvement fell under Great Britain's as the links were, at the time, far stronger than they are now (for better or worse); politically and even culturally, we had not yet established ourselves independently from Westminster.

France had some overseas holdings as well still, colonies and such, but I wouldn't go so far as to have described them as a "superpower.'

I think, too, the zones had something to do with Yalta? Not sure about that aspect.

Here's a few one liners I got in an email from Canada.

Going to war without the French is like going hunting without your accordian. -Gen Norman Schwarzkopf

I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me,- Gen Patton

The French are always there when they need us, forgot who said that.

For sale,French Army Rifle,never used, dropped once

de-gaulle,now there was one brave french man,spent the war years in england,and would not let the allies enter paris unless he headed the parade,dave.

Just after the first Gulf war I was at a meeting talking POL matters with a French Army Colonel. After a few seconds something dawned on me, the French had played a considerable fighting role in that war!

Why did I not know about it? Simply, the UK press had hardly mentioned it.

The same goes for the Afghanistan business. The Brits get the big mention, then the Yanks ,but how often do we hear about the Canadians, Dutch, Germans etc. etc?

This is the first "NATO" operation, but do the UK press acknowledge this?

Don;t get me wrong,I am still British, but sometimes I despair of the British media and the British attitude to "Johnny Foreigner"

dandc wrote:

de-gaulle,now there was one brave french man,spent the war years in england,and would not let the allies enter paris unless he headed the parade,dave.

ehehehehe....I remember a wonderful quote from Winston Churchill (and I paraphrase here) "We all have our crosses to bear; mine is the Cross of Lorraine." Referring to DeGaulle hailing from Lorraine.

Of course, Canadians will recall the arrogance of the man in 1967 (?) when he came to Canada, specifically to Montreal, for Expo '67. At the time, Quebec Separatists were making a lot of noise about seceding from Confederation (the term used here to describe the political make-up of autonomous provinces (10) and at the time two territories within a federal framework; Ottawa (federal) has certain powers and authority and the provincial legislatures have certain powers and authority .. or in the case of Quebec, their National Assembly).

In a speech that has gone done in infamy he proclaimed "Vive la Quebec. Vive la Quebec libre!" A rallying cry for the separatists. Trudeau, who was Prime Minister, and a Francophone nearly had a conniption fit. Various MPs did....it created quite a furor. Trudeau's approach to The Quebec issue, like many of our PMs, was often conciliatory and accomodationist, but he did invoke the War Measures Act when the Front de Liberation de Quebec (The FLQ) kidnapped a British diplomat and a few others and killed the diplomat, stuffing him the trunk of a car. The jury is still out on whether he was right to invoke the Act or not (in effect, declared Marshal Law and sent in the Army with wide reaching security powers).

And they say Canadian history is boring!!!

Cross was the British Diplomat and he was released, it was LaPorte a Canadian politician who was assassinated ... could be wrong, after all I'm just a bloody immigrant here ..

Len (Ciphers)