I found your website while searching for information on the USNS Buckner, a troop ship that I had the pleasure of hitching a ride from NYC to Bremerhaven in May 1965. After basic training at Fort Jackson, SC I was assigned to the Military Police School in Fort Gordon, GA. Upon graduating from MP School we were flown to NYC and then bused to somewhere on the docks of NY City. Coming from the Coal Regions of Northeast Pennsylvania, this was my first trip to the big city, any big city and also the first time I had ever seen a ship. The USNS Buckner was immense, or so it seemed to a young kid fresh from hills. We boarded the ship and were shown to our bunks. They said we had 18” of space between our bunk and the bunk above us but I believe they were using a short ruler.
After five horrible days in a stormy sea we finally had fair sailing for the final four days and I was on deck when we went through the English Channel. Upon arriving at Bremerhaven we had to stay another day on the ship while at dock. The next day we boarded a train that took us to Kaiserslautern where we were separated into smaller groups and loaded into 2½-ton trucks for our wild ride to Pirmasens Signal Depot (PSD). We completed some paperwork and were further divided into even smaller groups and put into ¾-ton trucks for our final destination, Miesau Depot. I was assigned to the 164th Military Police unit and I was very excited to get started in my new police career. However, I was in for a very rude awakening. The 164th MP Unit was a security unit assigned to guard underground storage units in a secure area. I became a “Humper”.
Having been born and raised at the “Gateway to the Pocono Mountains” in Summit Hill, PA near famous Jim Thorpe, I thought I knew what cold was. “Humping” a beat meant walking on a three foot wide wooden sidewalk about 30 feet long in full combat gear for 8 hours unprotected from the wind, rain or COLD. I couldn’t believe the cold. It was a wet, damp, bitter cold. I never could get used to that cold.
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