In Baumholder, by the Summer of 1989 . . .
. . . we knew the Soviet Bloc was on its way down. Some clever people who weren't there will try to tell you otherwise, but by the time it was shirtsleeves weather that year we could all feel what was in the wind. East Germans, Czechs, Hungarians and others were already flooding through openings in the Austrian border, and there was even a de facto refugee camp down near Ramstein. It was like the last few minutes of a championship final: we had the points and the other team was never going to be able to pull it back out. You just needed to hold on to the ball, not do anything stupid and wait for the whistle.
At that point USAREUR had already been closing bases and shifting units around for a year or so. For example, the Pershing units had been disbanded, and Hermann was getting even more worked up than usual about taking back the real estate in Frankfurt.
The 8th ID remained in place for a couple more years (mid-1992) before the entire division was redesignated 1AD. I didn't think much of that idea, but I was a civilian in Heidelberg by then and USAREUR neglected to solicit my advice.
So, returning to Baumholder, at H. D. Smith barracks, in that unusually warm and pleasant German summer of 1989, we held a parade and ceremony down at the football field and 1/39 Infantry passed (for the moment) into history, redesignated as 4/12 Infantry. Sure, we kept the same buildings, soldiers and equipment, the same attitudes and approaches, but I think just about everybody could sense a change. The Cold War was ending, and something new was beginning.
Of course, we were wrong about the new thing. We thought it was going to be a quiet period of extended peace, continuing force reductions and lousy promotion prospects. No one I spoke to ever imagined that within eighteen months forces would be headed to the Gulf, or that in a handful of years 4/12 Infantry soldiers would be earning their CIBs in Bosnia. Instead, there was a flood of good people declining to re-up.
Turning back to the purpose of this blog, I should list a few names from those days.
I'm pretty sure that when the battalion-level redesignation took place, LTC Chip Shelverton was still the BC of 1/39 Infantry. I understand that he later retired as a Bird Colonel after a tour through Bolivia and ended up in the State Department working on demining issues during OIF.
MAJ Brooks McAllister was the Battalion XO. I bet he's still laughing about that Lieutenant he caught pissing in the gravel motorpool there at the HQ building. . . .
Where is he today?
Matt Ginn
4/12 Inf (M)
8th ID (M)
Baumholder FRG
1989
p.s. add your name to the roster now!
At that point USAREUR had already been closing bases and shifting units around for a year or so. For example, the Pershing units had been disbanded, and Hermann was getting even more worked up than usual about taking back the real estate in Frankfurt.
The 8th ID remained in place for a couple more years (mid-1992) before the entire division was redesignated 1AD. I didn't think much of that idea, but I was a civilian in Heidelberg by then and USAREUR neglected to solicit my advice.
So, returning to Baumholder, at H. D. Smith barracks, in that unusually warm and pleasant German summer of 1989, we held a parade and ceremony down at the football field and 1/39 Infantry passed (for the moment) into history, redesignated as 4/12 Infantry. Sure, we kept the same buildings, soldiers and equipment, the same attitudes and approaches, but I think just about everybody could sense a change. The Cold War was ending, and something new was beginning.
Of course, we were wrong about the new thing. We thought it was going to be a quiet period of extended peace, continuing force reductions and lousy promotion prospects. No one I spoke to ever imagined that within eighteen months forces would be headed to the Gulf, or that in a handful of years 4/12 Infantry soldiers would be earning their CIBs in Bosnia. Instead, there was a flood of good people declining to re-up.
Turning back to the purpose of this blog, I should list a few names from those days.
I'm pretty sure that when the battalion-level redesignation took place, LTC Chip Shelverton was still the BC of 1/39 Infantry. I understand that he later retired as a Bird Colonel after a tour through Bolivia and ended up in the State Department working on demining issues during OIF.
MAJ Brooks McAllister was the Battalion XO. I bet he's still laughing about that Lieutenant he caught pissing in the gravel motorpool there at the HQ building. . . .
Where is he today?
Matt Ginn
4/12 Inf (M)
8th ID (M)
Baumholder FRG
1989
p.s. add your name to the roster now!
posted by mhg at 10:15 AM
5 Comments:
Brooks is heading up the MARTA maintenance in Atlanta, GA---still raising hell in the motor pool
Yep -- the web beacon did its job and Brooks got in touch with me in late 2006. Sounds like he's doing well and enjoying himself.
Are you one of "us"?
Anyone heard from LT. David Reyes
Ssgt. Roswitz, Sgt. Miller, SFC Roderic Williams, any other 2nd Platoon.
Sean P. Carpenter spec
There for the change
Sean,
Spotted this and your other comments / gmail. Will RSVP to those separately. Here's the short answer to this set of questions, for the record:
no recent news on LT Reyes but lots of guys talk about him -- will see what I can do;
nothing heard from SSG Roswitz, and I remember SGT Miller but he's hard to trace;
SFC Williams became a policeman in Nashville, but I haven't had any luck contacting him directly;
have left my blasted roster in the office and am on leave right now, but will try to crack it this weekend.
Other messages to follow in relevant postings.
Cheers
Matt
Sean Carpenter...Dave Reyes was screwed out of two chances to go to DA selected schools by the messed up Co we had back then.."Wild Bill"...as far as I know he left the service shortly after that... the others you mentioned weren't really worth following...except SFC Williams...I hold to this day both of those men with the highest regards...
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