I took these three photos of 8th Infantry Division aircraft at Bad Kreuznach AAF when I was a boy. I used to drive by the airfield to check out the aircraft. The photos were taken in the 1959-61 timeframe.

Attached is a copy of the Activation Day pamphlet that was used when the 8th Aviation Company was reorganized into the 8th Aviation Battalion. The 8th Aviation Company was based at Bad Kreuznach, but the Battalion was organized and activated at Finthen.

I am listed on the last page as “S-2 Capt H. Morgan.”

I was serving a ground duty tour as CO of Company B, 8th Signal Battalion, 8th Infantry Division in Bad Kreuznach.  When the Aviation Battalion was organized I was assigned as the S-2 of the Aviation Battalion.

B Co., ASTA Platoon (Aerial Surveillance and Target Acquisition) Platoon was my first assignment after Combat Surveillance School at Ft. Huachuca Az. I graduated Sept 2ND and arrived at Finthen Army Airfield, Finthen Germany at the end of that Month. (I think.)

B Co. was housed at Bad Kreuznach AAF but the airfield was longer at Finthen (1000 meters) so we were detached there. Our barracks was in the large hangar attached to the tower on the third floor. Our Platoon Headquarters was in a small hangar at the east end of the taxi way. It has been replaced with a new hangar some time since then, that is much larger.

Our mission was to fly SLAR (side looking airborne radar) missions looking into the east, USSR, East Berlin. We had a Red Telephone connected to Intelligence Dept. of the Army. We did not like to hear that phone ring. At that time the Mohawks were stationed several places around Germany in these ASTA Platoons. We flew a lot of training missions also and some involved Aerial Photography. I flew a grid photo mission over Finthen once and our Lab Tech's made a mosaic composet photo about 36in x 24in for the Mayor of Finthen and we hung one in our hangar. I was crossed trained as a photo lab tech. and developed and printed a lot of my own photo runs as well as my own personal photos. The photos I will be sending you were all 35 mm that I shot, developed and printed.

We ran the platoon like a small Co and had a Platoon Commander (Capt. McMillan). We called him Capt. MAC. He was later promoted to a Maj. Capt. Billy Baucomb was our next in command and our motor pool Commander. We also had a pilot, Capt.. Caldwell. They were Pilots and I flew a lot of Aerobatics with Billy By-God Baucomb as we liked to call him. He loved to make complex and difficult maneuvers including 360 overhead landings, precision snap rolls, Spins, 360 loops and such. Capt. was a kind of Jet_Jockey also and a very good pilot as well. I flew in several Air Shows also, great fun. All in all it was a lot of fun.

On occasions we did not have enough flight hours for the four T.O.'s (Technical Observers) as we were called, so we would get flight suit and helmet and sit in Flight Oops. in the tower begging rides. I flew in L-19 Bird Dogs, L-20 Beavers, OH-1 Bell Helicopters, CH-34's, CH-37's, Chinooks and a few others. I was also given a chance to fly one once in a while otherwise I was just riding along so I could get Flight Pay. We were exempt from guard duty and KP for most of the time. We often walked around in Flight Suits (orange) or flight jackets with helmet bags and knee boards. We also wore ejection seat harnesses for the Martin Baker Mark. V, Ejection Seat. Although I and the other Airborne Radar Specialist's 26E20, were E-2 at the time we looked like Officers and were saluted on a regular basis. We raised a lot of hell at the EM club and in the Gast Hauses in Finthen, BK and around the area.

We had the Air Force Riggers come to train our mechanics and inspect our Ejection Seats. We had three aircraft. One "A" Model (photo) and two "B" Models. That is six Ejection Seats. One was not armed, one was defective and two had no charges in them. That meant only two had a chance of ejecting someone successfully. One of the operational seats was the right side T.O.'s side. We T.O.'s could not land the aircraft and would have gone down if the pilot ejected. That leaves only one seat that had a chance of a successful ejection. That is not good but as lock would have it we never had an ejection in B Co.

I once had an engine flame out on the flight line three times before we were informed by the tower that we had been given fuel oil in stead of JP4. A flame out in flight could have been disastrous. Although the aircraft would fly on one engine it would not have had full power an could have caused a crash.

One day they flew the OV-1 Mohawks away and I was Assigned to HHC 8th. Avn. Btn. as a Ground Control Approach Radar Repairman (GCA) for a few months. I went to Baumholder for two weeks as the Commanding Officer and X.O.'s driver. Then one day the Sgt. Major called me in and told me that because I was an Airborne Radar Operator and was not jump qualified I was being sent to Airborne School. I just about shit my pants. Although I had parachute training and ejection seat training I was not required to actually make a jump. You see aviators think that there is no possible reason to jump out of an aircraft unless it is going down faster than it is going away.

A few months later I was reassigned to 122nd Avn. Co. that later became 122nd SAC (Surveillance Aviation Co.) in Hanau at Fleigerhorst AAF. Instead of three Aircraft it had 9 "B" Models (SLAR) and 9 "A" Models (Photo.) About six months later I and a few other T.O.'s were sent to the 244th. SAC at Ft. Lewis Washington. After another 6 Mo. of training the whole Co. was sent to Can Tho AAF, Can Tho VietNam. Another 6 Mo. and I ETS'd out to the States and was discharged.

The 8th AVN BN web site was a nice find, good reading.  I arrived at APO 111 Bad Kreuzach on or about April 8 1964, the unit then was B Co, 8th Avn Bn. HHC, A Co, and possibly C Co were at Finthen AAF.

We were the Buffaloes with buffaloes stenciled on white towels an the end of our bunks.  The company motto was "The thundering herd, to the sound of the guns."  I believe the 1st shirt was named Felton. I remember two pilots one was Kris Kristofferson and the other was a warrant named Randall. They used to sing together in gasthauses on week ends.

Some of the enlisted named Weaver, Hackett, West and Dozier.  They were a great bunch. During my short stay at Rose Bks we moved from the barracks at the back gate to ones by the front gate, we went from bays to four man rooms. 

About this time the 8th cav was getting the newer UH-1s and were looking for a few more men.  A group of us were tagged to go. I was flown to Coleman Bks, Mannheim in an L-20 Otter.  Reporting to D Troop, 3/8 Cav was different. The unit was up on border patrol. We soon learned the Squadron always needed detail people fence painting, grass mowing, police call, guard duty, C.Q. runner, the list never ended.  The squadron area was the opposite corner of the base from the stockade, near what I think was the Sandhofen gate. The helipad was across the street from the barracks. The PSP pads were built by the crew chiefs and mechs just before we got there, they had canvas under them to stop the growth of weeds under the PSP. 

When the unit returned with the aircraft more normal life returned.  I remember the orderly room had a glass case with a stuffed mongoose with a corbra wrapped around it. We had about 8 UH-1B's, 3 or 4 H-13's and a very loud H-34. While I was there we totaled two aircraft: an H-13 on take off right on our own ramp, and a UH-1 on field maneuvers flying it into a hillside, no injuries in either adventure.

We had a line shack with cartoon creatures painted on the sides. The UH-1's mostly had quad M60's on the side; we had two Hueys with the 24 rocket tubes on each side.

I can recall lots of alerts, some field duty, a trip for a NATO maneuver to Denmark.

In 1965 the Army set up a school to transition pilots from fixed wing qual to rotary wing. Each Cav outfit in Germany sent 2 UH-1's to the school in Stuttgart. I was TDY for 6 mos, we stayed at Nelligen Bks. The school was such a success that they ran a second school at Schleissheim outside of Munich.

I was getting short then and returned to Coleman to start to outprocess. Some of the great people I remember from the Cav were CWO Hatter, Capt Brown, Capt Madden, First Sergeant Trapp, John Heaton, Luce, Nelson, Cox, Ward, Snyder, King, Rinehart. I ETS'ed April 1966.

Eleven years later for some strange reason I joined MA NG. and retired April 2002 age sixty. Some of my best memories involve UH-1's, Army aviation and good comrades. ABOVE THE BEST

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In 1965 the war in Viet Nam placed a tremendous need upon the Army for qualified rotary wing aviators.  To relieve this possible shortage USAREUR started a transition school to train fixed wing pilots into qualified helicopter pilots.  A group of qualified instructor pilots were assembled, D Trp 3/8 Cav and every Sky Cav D Trp in USAREUR was to send (2) UH-1's with crew chiefs to the school at Stuggart AAF.  It was good duty for the crew chiefs, we had no extra duties, no guard duty, no KP nothing but take care of the helicopters.  We were housed at Nelligen Bks, we had a barracks orderly, a bus with a driver to take us to the air field and were on separate rations, because the flight schedule often conflicted with the mess hall serving times.

If I remember correctly we flew 4 hours in the morning, 4 hours after noon and twice a week 4 hours night.  Most of the UH-1's had their unit crests painted on the cargo doors.  The one from the 8th Cav had the HONOR AND COURAGE crest,  We knew we were flying with the best pilots in Germany at the time.  Not all the fixed wing pilots thought this was an improvement for them, this made for some interesting conversations in the cockpit, auto rotations became normal, (the fixed wing guys did seem to like those).  I believe a Major Fiore was in charge, I can't remember the maintenance officer's name, but the both of those guys treaded the crew chiefs great.  The program went so well they were setting another one up in Schleissheim near Munich the next year.  I helped set up a few auto rotation lanes, with used tires but was too short to stay with the school and returned to Coleman bks to start to out presses.