USAREUR Units - 3rd Log Command

I was assigned to HHC 3rd Logistical Command in the latter part of 1966. Just after the French decided they no longer wanted us there. We had a number of (French) civilians that worked for us and they weren't happy with their government.

I was a Spec 4 when I arrived in Orleans, France, the home of Joan of Arc. I was assigned to 3rd Log Supply. Our sergeant was an old lifer and wanted nothing to do with the move. With a few months I was promoted to sergeant and put in charge of the company's move.

They picked me for the promotion because there were only two senior enlisted personnel. My counterpart was also the same rank, but he had dual citizenships, one American and the other was German. He couldn't be sent back to the fatherland, as he could have been drafted in their military. We worked night and day loading up all those flatbed trucks in route to Germany.

I had a great CO, who would eventually be shipped to Vietnam and was KIA.

Once we completed the task of getting everything moved, they shipped us by train to Germany and then on to our new post in Worms (Taukkunen Barracks).

I remember it as if it was only yesterday. When making the final check in all the buildings in France, how weird it felt walking through those empty buildings and all the history that had taken place in them.

In Germany, in the basement of our building, there was a passageway from one side of the basement to the other. One day while walking through it, myself and another sergeant, noticed some losse bricks in the wall. We removed them and found stairs going down about twenty feet or so. The stairs lead to a large steel door. We never were allowed to further investigate, as we were ordered not too!

Question: Did your office use the early computers for tracking supplies within 3rd LOG COMD?

We didn't have anything computerized back then. If it wasn't nailed down and moving, we put it on the flatbeds! In the barracks in Germany we had a number of ex (German) military personnel from Germany, working for us. And obviously because of their loss of the war, they didn't hold high regard for Hilter. We also brought in a number of former Polish military personnel for labor purposes.

Our company was the main support unit for a number of smaller companies working out of that location. We were a headquarters company, not like your real field units. We had a lot of civilian personnel working there and from time to time, that could cause problems with those in the military that had to work for them. Some military personnel didn't like taking orders from civilians.