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5th Infantry Division
Red Diamond
(Page 2 - Division Special Troops)
Looking for more information from military/civilian personnel assigned to or associated with the U.S. Army in Germany from 1945 to 1989. If you have any stories or thoughts on the subject, please contact me.



SPECIAL TROOP UNITS


 
 
Special Troops
 
 
 
 
 
 
Division Special Troops
 

Headquarters Company

Division Band

5th Military Police Co

5th Quartermaster Co

5th Reconnaissance Co

5th Replacement Co

5th Signal Co
5th Quartermaster Company
1954
(Source: STARS & STRIPES, Nov 8, 1854)
5th QM Company celebrated its 37th Organization Day on Nov 7, 1954 with competitive events at Augsburg.
5th Signal Company

Eugene Winkler (Wisconsin) on left, and Frank Brummet (Indiana), on right, outside
of Company HQ. I took the photo, They were both Electronic Technicians
(Radios, etc.) (Jason Mavrovitis)

Me (Jason Mavis - now Mavrovitis) in the repair van. There was not enough radar work
for me, so I helped out repairing radio and communications equipment (Jason Mavrovitis)
1954
(Source: Email from Jason C. Mavrovitis, 1954-55)

Excerpts from Jason Mavrovitis' personal memoirs:

I was on the deck of a military transport ship docked in New Jersey. It was loading troops and cargo bound for Bremerhaven, Germany. I remembered the advice I had received from World War II veterans and tumbled down a gangway to find the hold I was assigned to and a top bunk at an air vent. I climbed up, and in, and claimed my territory.

Volunteering for kitchen duty was easy enough. Within minutes, I was in the ship’s kitchen wearing a gigantic white apron. I was a butcher’s helper, cutting meat, scrubbing chopping blocks, and doing whatever the cook wanted me to do. The chief cook was Greek, so I ate well when on duty, eight hours every other day.

Augsburg and Ansbach, Germany
(Once we arrived at Bremerhaven) a train was waiting for us within walking distance from the ship. We got on board and started our trip south toward a replacement center ("Repo Depot") close to the German-French border. The center, at Zweibruecken, was on a hill overlooking a beautiful, forested landscape. In seventy-two hours our clothing had been laundered and dry-cleaned, our hair cut, and our transit orders issued. We were taken to the rail station and sent off to our units.

The train ride gave me a sense of what Germany was like. The rail right-of-way bordered many well-kept homes whose flowered gardens were a surprise to see out of the train window; it was nothing like train travel in the U.S. After several hours, we stopped at a station, and my group was ordered off the train at Augsburg by the sergeant who accompanied us. It was a beautiful summer afternoon. The little square directly outside the station had a statue, a fountain, and flowers. We climbed aboard the trucks that were waiting.

The Augsburg train station (Bahnhof) in the late 1970s
 
I was dropped off at the company commander’s office of the 5th Signal Company, Fifth Infantry Division just as the sirens sounded an “Alert”. The sergeant told me to follow the office staff and I was soon hiking into the countryside behind combat dressed GIs, my Class “A” uniform soaked with sweat. We returned to the kaserne just in time for evening mess.

I met my fellow technicians and fell into the daily work routine with relative ease. The truth be known, I liked the Army and my duties.

Within two or three weeks, I was ordered to report to my company commander. He told me that I was being sent to a radar specialist school in Ansbach and to prepare to leave the next day.

The small city is located southwest of Nürnberg [Nuremberg] in the region of Bavaria known as “Franconia,” the land of the Franks. Its countryside of rolling hills and walled medieval cities includes Würzburg, Bayreuth (where Wagner built his opera house), and Nürnberg. It is close to the fabled romantic road that passes through charming towns like Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber.

Barton Barracks, Ansbach - home of the USAREUR Signal School, 1950
 
Ansbach proved to be a dream assignment. We had classes for six hours each day, weekends free, and lots of spare time. Fortunately for me, I met Adolph Lang, who was the organist at the Post Chapel.

Adolph was a student at Erlangen University and had achieved the position of "Doktorant", one who has been accepted for studies leading to a doctoral degree. The title was highly respected by the townspeople. Adolph eventually received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Montpellier in France, and became the curator of art and history for the Ansbach-Bayreuth District in Germany.

Adolph’s friendship opened doors for me in the German community and offered many wonderful experiences with German families and students. I met Adolph’s mother, was a guest in their home, and was invited to several family socials during my stay. With Adolph’s sponsorship, I traveled on weekends with him and his student friends to out-of-the-way towns and restaurants, and became, for a short time, the first American member of the Ansbach Madrigal Chorus. Its young boy soprano members arrived at rehearsals with mud-and-cow-dung covered boots, incredible voices, and advanced musical training.

Adolph introduced me to his friends as a “Greek”-American. The Germans, especially the educated class, had a high regard for anything Greek and romantically credited to me the best attributes of an ancient Macedonian or Athenian.

My mother was so appreciative of my having been taken in by Mrs. Lang that she sent a box of lingerie and cosmetics to her as a Christmas gift. Germany was still recovering from the war, and luxury items were in short supply, very desired, and expensive.

On a golden October morning, Adolph, several student friends, and I took a drive to Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber, a picture book, medieval-walled town that sits on a high hill overlooking the river Tauber. We had lunch under grape arbors at an outdoor restaurant that was tucked next to the town wall on the side of the hill that led down to the river.

Following lunch, we visited a museum that exhibited artifacts of medieval Rothenburg: suits of armor, mail, weapons, and — in glass cases — various pieces of jewelry and implements. I stopped at one case puzzling over a tool or implement that looked like a trap. Finally, Adolph came to me with two young women from the group. “What is this, Adolph?” I asked. He broke into a grin, and the girls started to giggle. “A chastity belt,” he whispered. I thought that their existence was myth.

After several letters back and forth to work out the details, John Hirsimaki and John Ryan [friends from Brooklyn who entered the Army the same day as I did - we volunteer for the draft] arranged to spend a Saturday with me in Ansbach. They were with the 16th Infantry Regiment of the First Division (the Big Red One) in Schweinfurt, a train ride of about two hours from Ansbach, with a transfer in Nürnberg. They introduced me to Wiener Schnitzel a la Holstein at a little second floor restaurant named Bratwurstglöckle, that overlooked an ancient cobblestone street. The restaurant represented itself as Althistorische Gaststätte seit 1540, having been in existence as a restaurant since 1540 A.D. We made plans over a wonderful meal to meet in Heidelberg at Christmas.

In late October, I returned to the Fifth Signal Company to resume my duties as a technician at Fifth Division Headquarters and in the field with the Fifth Division’s artillery battalions. I serviced radar and electronic equipment at Headquarters and at the field training facilities of Grafenwoehr, Vilseck, and Hohenfels, where artillery and tank exercises were conducted in conjunction with infantry units.

The first three weeks of December 1954, I was in Munich as part of a team of technicians. We were on special assignment to a tank division to install new communications equipment. Living conditions were interesting. My three companions and I from the Fifth Signal Company were billeted in a room behind the post laundry. We had two double bunks, a table, and our own bathroom.
 

1. Repair van

2. AN/MPQ-10 being repaired



 
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