| If you do
NOT see the Table of Contents frame to the left of this page, then
Click here to open 'USArmyGermany' frameset |
|||
|
536th
Engineer Service Battalion |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
|||
| Headquarters Company, 536th Engineer Service Battalion | |||
 Unit photo of HHC, 536th Engr Svc Bn in Bremerhaven (Hugo Kann) |
|||
| 1950 | |||
| (Source: Email from Hugo Kann) | |||
|
|||
|
|||
 Honor Guard at US Army parade along Bürgermeister Schmidt Strasse, 1952 (Hugo Kann) |
|||
 BPE unit participates in parade along Bürgermeister Schmidt Strasse, 1952 (Hugo Kann) |
|||
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION There is much more that I could write about. The following are some examples that you might also find interesting: 1.) M. was an American Indian in our company. He couldn’t get used to the cool damp weather in Bremerhaven because he probably came from the warm and dry climate of American Southwest. He always wore his heavy, army-issue overcoat – all buttoned and the collar turned up around his ears. When he walked he never looked down at the ground or to the side; he always looked straight ahead. One night he got drunk and walked right over the edge of a sea wall and fell into the Geeste River where he drowned. Actually, Mitchell didn’t drown; he suffocated when he landed about ten feet below and face-down in the exposed muck of the river bottom while the tide was out. No one saw what happened. But we figured that in the dark of night he got disoriented and started walking toward the river and, since there was no guard rail and the top of the sea wall was even with the ground, he simply stepped off into space. As an aftermath of his death, we ran into a problem with Ping Pong. He was the little Chinese civilian who had set up shop in the basement of our barracks. I never did know his real name, but it probably sounded something like ping pong. He spoke only a few words of English, but he did a terrific job of cleaning and pressing our uniforms. On the day they brought the dead soldier’s uniform to him for cleaning and pressing, he took one look at the mud-caked uniform and ran the other way; he was afraid of clothing that someone had died in and he absolutely refused to touch it. 2.) Drinking was a common pastime. Sergeants H.C. and his friend T.T. would go to the post’s NCO Club and get snockered. There was a time or two when H., after a few drinks, would get frisky and start a fight with T. Later, H. would come back to the barracks holding a steak over one side of his face, nursing a black eye. The story usually was that T., who was quite a bit bigger, had had enough of H. after a while and had hauled off and smacked him up side the head. But after the two sobered up they were still friends, ready to do it all over again. 3.) Even our company’s mascot, Bruce, liked to drink. He was a medium-size, light-brown mutt who lived in our barracks. No one knew were he’d come from. He just showed up one day and decided he had found a home. After all, a warm place with plenty of food wasn’t that easy to find in postwar Germany. And he fit in well with the rest of the troops – he liked beer. Anytime someone poured beer into a saucer he’d quickly lap it up. Occasionally, Bruce would even show up at one of the downtown bars where the guys from our barracks hung out. That of course meant more beer for him. There was only one problem with his beer drinking. After he had enough, he’d curl up in one of our rooms to sleep it off – and he’d let go with a barrage of the most god-awful smelling beer farts. 4.) If you looked at Pfc. P., the first thing you noticed, other than his wrinkled uniform, was that his face always had kind of a gray cast to it – it was dirty. That was because the guy had an aversion to taking showers. So sometimes, in an old Army tradition, P. was hauled off to the shower room and given a “G.I. Shower”. After that treatment he usually kept himself clean looking – at least for a little while. 5.) And then there was Sgt. S.A.. He was one of those streetwise operators from New York City. But there was one thing he pulled off that no one could figure out how he did it. He was sent back to the U.S. for reassignment because he had reached the absolute maximum time allowed by the Army for tours of duty in Germany. He left for the States all right, but he didn’t get sent to Korea nor get assigned to some other place besides Germany. Instead, he showed up again in Germany about a month later. Not only did he manage to return to Germany, he was back in Bremerhaven. And to top it off, Stasy got himself assigned for another tour of duty with our company. One had to admire the guy for figuring out how to manipulate the Army for his own benefit. 6.) The interview (see Attachment) |
|||
|
|||
Later in life, when I worked in industry, I sometimes would get on my soap box and preach to my fellow engineers and marketers about avoiding idioms, slang and company jargon when talking to visitors from foreign countries. I would say something like this: “When you’re talking to that group of visitors from Japan that’s coming in today, don’t use expressions like: ‘… that’s a different kettle of fish....’ Sure, they’ll bow and you’ll get a bunch of polite smiles from the ones in the front row, but the guys in the back will be frantically flipping through their pocket dictionaries trying to figure out what in the hell “kettle” and “fish” have to do with the radios we’re trying to sell them.” 7.) As is often the case, when the big guys get caught with their fingers in the cookie jar, the peons suffer the consequences. I was one of those peons when in the beginning of my third year in the Army the news of a major scandal broke. According to the findings of a general court martial, three officers and an American civilian had conspired with some Germans to defraud the U.S. Government. Specifically, they had illegally sold coal stocks under their control and destined for U.S. installations. It was hard coal, anthracite, a very valuable commodity then, that they had diverted to German middle men. The defendants were found guilty of a number of charges, including conspiracy with the Germans, larceny, theft, willful dereliction of duty, and false swearing. Their penalties were dismissals from the service, fines and terms of hard labor. How did all this affect me? In August of 1952, I and several others were transferred to Det. E 7802 BPE at the POL Depot at Farge, a suburb of Bremen. 8.) There also were some U.S. Air Force personnel housed in one of the Marine Barracks buildings, but I have no pictures. I do remember that my Army comrades derisively referred to the Air Force guys as "bus drivers." It didn't make any sense to me then, because it wasn't until years later, after I had arrived in the States, that I noticed their uniforms were very similar to those of Greyhound bus drivers. 9.) I keep remembering more little things that happened, such as when a 536th captain called me to his office and asked me to explain to him what a bidet was (he had gotten a work order for the installation of a bidet at a colonel's residence). Or how at the POL Depot we took over the locomotive shed and off the books converted it into enlisted men's club with a hardwood floor and a a secret entrance through a moveable bookcase. You can see the building at the end of the triple-track siding (GOOGLE Maps image in Farge POL Storage Depot section). |
|||
 After a brief farewell ceremony, trucks of HHC, 536th Engr Bn begin their road march to Kaiserslautern. |
|||
 Packed with all their equipment and office furniture, the trucks of HHC, 536th Engineers stand assembled prior to their departure for Kaiserlsautern |
|||
If you have more
information on the history or organization of the 536th Engr Bn, please
contact me . |
|||
 |
|||
|
|
|||
| Related Links: |
|||
