The staff of the postal branch, now located in Munich, will be assigned offices in the EUCOM Adjutant General's Division at Campbell Barracks. Space vacated in Munich will be returned to Munich Military Post.

Transfer of the central postal directory APO 743 unit from Wurzburg to the basement of Building 1 at EUCOM Hq will make it possible to eliminate the locator file of the Machine Records Branch of the AG at EUCOM Hq. The central postal directory maintains a complete file of names and locations of American occupation personnel assigned to EUCOM over the past several years, so that mail with incomplete or obsolete addresses can be redirected.

APO 403, which now is located in the Grand Hotel in Heidelberg, will be moved to Building 9 at Campbell Barracks when the fire station transfers to new quarters now being constructed. Offices in the Grand Hotel will be returned to Heidelberg Military Post.

This change will eliminate one complete handling of mail to and from a small branch APO to EUCOM Hq, speeding up deliveries as much as 12 hours. A smail branch post office will be maintained in the Heidelberg post-exchange store.

A change that was inaugurated last week in the routing of mail trains to and from Bremerhaven will give one-day mail service to the majority of Army and Air Force post offices. Mall trains are attached to a U. S. duty train leaving Bremerhaven in the early evening and arriving at Frankfurt the next morning. There, the cars are switched to through trains to Karlsuhe and to Munich-Garmisch.

Mail sacks for Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Munich and Garmisch are taken off en-route, and mail for these and other EUCOM points are taken aboard during scheduled station stops.

Mail cars are attached to through trains for the return trips to Frankfurt and Bremerhaven. Formerly, mail was channeled from Bremerhaven through the base post office at Frankfurt, and dispatched to other EUCOM APOs on six different trains.

(Webmaster note: a subsequent S&S article, in the May 6, 1950 issue, announced that the consolidation of EUCOM locator files (AG Machine Records Branch) with the Central Postal Directory had been completed.)

After completing Postal School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN our class Postal 12 was sent to Fort Dix, NJ for 3 weeks OJT with the 22nd Base Post Office. Part of the class went to France and the rest to Germany. We arrived in Germany on Aug 31, 1959.

I was with the 74th Army Postal Unit at APO 189 in Primasens and we got our mail from the 70th Army Postal Unit at APO 227 in Kaiserslautern. When the Berlin Crisis started the 22nd Base Post Office was sent to Kaiserslautern and we began getting our mail from the 22nd Base Post Office at that time.

APO 189 was not near the Bahnhof but near a railroad spur on Post (Husterhoeh Kaserne). Best I can remember both APO 227 & the 22nd were on Panzer Kaserne.

Then there was the classified mail that was not package well. Two inch thick reports/orders would be put in a plain 10x12 envelope. Several times in transit these documents being to heavy for the envelope would break open. I would report immediately and then be questioned, sometimes extensively, as to what I might have seen or read.

There are other stories about how my kindness was misused by my fellow "soldiers". Never the less there are many fellow BPO men that I would like to know if life has been good since those days in Germany.

If my memory serves, this is what I remember about the 25th Post Office. I know nothing about the motor pool as we where separated by a fence. It was said that Wallace Barracks once was General Rommel's Calvary Headquarters and there was evidence that these building we worked in might have been tack rooms for cavalry.

I will use the numbering as seen on the map above.

D. This was the storage area for surface mail or as we called it "boat mail". A truck would come every 2 or 3 weeks from Bremerhaven and drop the forty foot trailer and then pick it up the next day. Also hidden in one corner, when I first arrived in August 1969, was the register mail office. Very unsecured but that soon changed and moved to B.

C. This was the main sorting floor for all mail and local APO 0154 mail. Bag racks and pigeon hole sorting racks and floor space for sorting package mail. I/we worked night shift so our main task was to ready the mail for the trains. It was not heated very well and on cold winter days it was not a pleasant place to work.

Every night we met a train from Frankfurt going south to Munich and the Munich train going north to Frankfurt. The Stuttgart Bahnhof and meeting the trains had its own set of challenges and memorable adventures. Like the arguments with the Italian workers over carts we both used to put our unloaded mail on. If the trains where on time we had plenty of time to unload but if running behind they left on time if that meant only a 5 minute stop or less. It was especially crazy at Christmas time and many time there was so much mail to unload we wouldn't get it all off. The mail that was not unloaded would return on the Munich train the next night. This made the men on the trains a bit unpleasant at times. Thankfully for me the register mail came in bags and Christmas had little effect. But it did get touch and go when the trains were late checking all the numbers and signing off responsibility. It all had to come off and there was a couple of times bags where thrown off as the train pulled out. Sign and jump off a moving train. But we got the job done.

B. Was the Register Mail and Certified Mail office. Office is a generous description. But it did stay warm in the winter. More secure than in the corner of the "boat mail" room. Pigeon holes and floor space for sorting packages. We also received postage money from the postal window office in the PX which was held for the day shift to deal with the next morning.

On a cold January night in 1971, two weeks before my time in the Army would end, my kindness bit me. After a cold night of sorting and a very cold trip to the Bahnhof I let the guys on the floor come into the Register Mail Office to warm up. When my shift ended I walked across the parking lot and went to bed in building H. At 9:00am I was awakened and told that one of the envelopes containing receipt from the PX was missing. We had some new guys on the main floor and I suspect that one of them grab it when I was working my mail when I letting them warm up. Scared the investigation would keep me in the Army longer than my commitment, worry set in. But thankfully the Captain and the First Sargent pushed it through fast. It also helped to pay back the (140 or 170?) bucks which was a hardship at the time as I was shipping my belonging back home.

F. Was civilian quarters for motor pool workers. I am terrible at names and cannot remember the names of the family that befriend me. They where from Yugoslavia. I would kick the soccer ball around with their son and their daughter who was a very beautiful young woman. They had me over for supper a number of times and the language barrier was difficult but we had many good laughs. They served me a small glass of a Yugoslavian liquor. It made my eyes water and the whole family got a big kick out of that. And if I burped after the meal Mother seem quite pleased and the Father would point it out to her with glee.

H. Our barracks building. First floor - 25th BPO administration offices and showers. Second Floor housed us. I think there was about 5 rooms with four to a room and one that held five I believe. Bathroom was also on this floor. I do not recall what was on the third floor but there was a game room with a pool table in the 4th or attic room. The view from our rooms was Bad Cannstatt and the Nectar river valley. Immediately outside the window was a street then a sidewalk and then a hillside vineyard. Below my room was the First Sergeant's office and I found out quickly not to play music to loud.

The two buildings, I and J, for the most part where empty. There were some clubs that met in J.

K. This is the building where the beer vending machine resided. Other than that it seemed to be occupied by German workers.

"Mail Trucks" - is where we parked our trucks.

1. Is where the pile of dirt was I shot into to qualify with the 45.

M - the Gym, as I recall, was not used much but then I work the night shift.

"Parade Ground" was never used by us. We assembled outside of H.

Our Exchange, Dinning/Mess Hall, NCO club, Theater and Baden-Wuerttemberg Headquarters where up on the hill about a mile or more from us. It was quite a hike up the hill if you could not secure a ride. My open classified mail interrogations took place in a building up on the hill. But this layout does seem familiar.

I rarely used the mess hall. I ate at a local Guesthouse (2) around the corner from the Main gate about a half block. Because I ate there so often the owner started kidding me and calling me Mr. Rockefeller. We became friends even with a language barrier. Would help him move kegs in the basement once in a while and receive a free meal or beer. His wife on the other hand did not like him to befriend me. But it is a great memory.

Not sure if you are aware of this or not but you can go to Google Maps and get street level view of Wallace and the guesthouse and the street that went up the hill to Headquarters.

Here are a couple of pictures of the entrance to the 25th BPO in Stuttgart taken in 1971. Wallace Barracks was an old pre-World War II (maybe even a pre-World War I) German Calvary post. In fact, the main bulk post office, where we sorted all the mail for the Stuttgart units, still had horse rings on the wall. I was a Postal Window Clerk and I worked units at Patch Barracks, U.S. General Hospital in Bad Cannstatte, and several other units that I can't recall right. I worked the last year of my tour as the NCOIC at the three man unit (APO) at Robinson Barracks.

I named as many of the places on the installation map (above) as I could remember. The transportation motor pool (Stuttgart TMP) are things that I could just sort of recall as I did not really spend any time in that area except to get gas for the company jeep that I sometimes drove and a couple of other times that I was in the area, so the motor pool may or may not be exact. But, as you can see most of compound was really utilized for the motor pool.

Our billets were really a small area when compared to the entire building where we were housed (Bldg #4303-4305). It was three stories and had a basement. The basement was our rec room with a pool table and few tables and chairs and a Coke vending machine and a beer vending machine. So, we did not have a snack bar. There may have been one in the TMP area but I don't know for sure. The first floor of the billets was the CO's office, First Sergeant's office, a few sleeping areas, the showers and toilets, and the company mail-room. The 2nd floor were sleeping quarters for the men who lived on the compound and the third floor had a few sleeping areas. Since the 25th, like most units during the Viet Nam era, was always undermanned, the third floor was not fully occupied.

On either side of the 25th BPO's billets were housing for the families of the workers for the motor pool. When I say workers, I am talking about the civilian workers, most were 3rd nationals from Turkey. I do not recall ever seeing any U.S. Army personal living in any of the building in the Wallace Barracks compound.

The operations area of the Post Office was across the parking lot from the billets. It consisted of the Bulk Mail Area where all of the mail coming into the Stuttgart area and going out of the area was housed until it was either sorted for local distribution or sent to the airport, the bahnhof, or held until container trucks arrived to be shipped by boat. The bulk mail room was a very large area as you can tell by the photograph. The Postal Area also housed the XO's office along with the NCOIC for postal operations and several other Staff Sergeants. It also housed the vault where the stamps, money orders, money and various other items the Postal Window Clerks would need including an Armory. Window Clerks transporting stamps and money were all certified in the handling of the U.S. Army 1911 45 ACP weapon, but the armory also housed other weapons including an M50 Machine Gun. There was a "Dead Letter" office and the registered mail room, where the registered mail was under surveillance or in a vault at all times. There was a basketball gym at the very end of the building, but rarely used.

When I arrived at the 25th in January of 1970 the CO was a Captain Hammer, but a couple of months later he was rotated to Viet Nam. The "Top" Sergeant was Master Sergeant Pitts, who was there until late February 1972 when he rotated back to the States and retired after 29 years of service. (He wanted to do 30 years but he was going to be sent back to Viet Nam for his last year and it would have been his third tour of Viet Nam). The XO was a 2nd Lt. and we went through several of them so I don't recall their names. They never seemed to stay very long before they were Viet Nam bound. My final CO was a 1st. Lt. not long out of West Point, but he was only there for three or four weeks before my ETS date.

I do recall that the Headquarters for the 25th BPO and later designated the 25th A.G. Detachment was the Adjutant General Headquarters located in Heidelberg, Germany.

I will try to recall the U.S. Army bases we serviced and the ones where we had window units assigned. The 25th did not, of course, have Postal Window Units at every base that we delivered mail to or got mail from. I should be able to recall the bases where we had window units as I worked at all of them at one time or another.

I can't remember exactly where the BPO was located Iwhich installation in Munich) but I still visit with my commanding officer and just talked to him this afternoon. I told him about your site and that there was no mention of the 26 BPO during his time as Commanding Officer.

I know there was a mail room out at Bad Tolz. There was a US Army Special Forces unit was stationed there.

Two other officers in the BPO were Capt. Pat Siemon and Joe Bruschi (not sure of spelling). Pat arrived about the time I was transferred and he eventually became the commanding officer of the unit. Joe Bruschi was the COPE when I was there. Paul Martin, whom I still visit with, was the XO and the Operations Officer. Sgt Chuddy was the First Sergeant. I don't know about the APU's that received mail. Ken can probably tell you about them. I know there were a lot of Unit Mail rooms that we delivered mail to.

When I first arrived there we were part of USAREUR (U.S. Army Europe). Then we became part of COMZ (which was Communications Zone Europe). I do remember the troops were living at Warner Kaserne in Munich. Married housing was in Perlacher Forrest.

I don't know what happened to the 15th APU at Zweibrucken. It would be nice to know so maybe someone will get the itch to do a search for these postal units sometime soon.

APO 727, located at Atterberry Area and supporting Frankfurt Sub-area, recently merged with the 28th Base Processing Office. 28th BPO took over the functions of APO 727, resulting in faster mail service for personnel in the Frankfurt area..

The 28th BPO is the largest base post office in Europe and operates around the clock. The unit consolidates and processes mail from:
Wuerzburg
Fuerth
Munich
Heidelberg
Stuttgart
Ulm
Augsburg
Kaiserslautern
Baumholder
Trier
Mainz
Bad Kreuznach
Metz
Bremerhaven
Berlin
Giessen
Kassel
Hannover

CO of the 28th is Capt Edward J. Murphy. He commands 127 men.

The 28th BPO is the only Army post office that handles international mail.

From my limited memory, here is what I remember of Gutleut: it seems Bldg 1163, the wing closest to the main entrance, were billets for 28th BPO on the second floor. I think an MP detachment was on the third floor.

Bldg.1169 or 1170 was the service club -- I could see it from my bunk window. Bldg.1162 to the right of the main entrance as you look at the installation map, were the barber shop and the dry cleaning concession operated by German nationals.

Bldg. 1166 may have been the PX. It was over that way. I think the craft/activity center was on the first floor below our billets in building 1163.

As mentioned, we were based at the Kaserne but transported by truck to the Südbahnof in Sachsenhausen each day. I was on the second shift, worked in the so called "bureau" which was a sorting department. Often went to the Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt to deliver mail shipments, both regular and registered. The beauty of the job at that time was that I worked 4 days on, 2 off -- an innovative schedule.

We had opportunities to travel to several European cities in the mail cars thanks to the generosity of the men charged with the duty of guarding those cars.

So many years have passed, so many memories have faded. I sent Jim Craig, who served with me at the time, a bunch of pictures. Also, I remember a few interesting things that happened.

Thank you for your work on the website.

68th Army Postal Unit, Aschaffenburg

The 68th had two satellite post offices, can't recall their names. But, one was at a Field Missile Facility. They were fairly close to A-burg. The 68th APU was billeted @ Ready Barracks in Aschaffenburg, I believe in Bldg #410 with the 7th Transport Co. and the post office was located in Bldg #401. The 68th messed and billeted with the trucking company.

The 68th was deployed to Lebanon in 7/58 two months after I rotated.

Hope I was of some help after 50 some odd yrs.

By 1960, postal activities in Europe had expanded to include a Base Postal Office at Metz, France; eleven Army Postal Units operating twenty-eight Army Post Offices; and the USAREUR Postal Finance Office (moved from Wuerzburg to Metz, France in 1954 and co-located with the Base Postal Office). Although technical supervision continued to be provided by Postal Branch, no centralized organization existed to exercise operational control over the postal organizations within USAREUR.

The United States Army Postal Group, Europe, was organized per USAREUR & 7th Army General Order 148 dated 26 February 1969, and was assigned total responsibility for all postal functions formerly executed by the USAREUR Adjutant General Postal Branch which had been redesignated as a Division. The six Base Post Offices and ninteen Army Postal Units initially assigned were reduced and redesignated as three Adjutant General Companies (Postal), and eleven Adjutant General Detachments (Postal).

Since then, six additional postal units have jointed Postal Group, Europe, and all units have been redesignated as Postal Companies and Postal Detachments.

From 1 January 1974 to 16 September 1988, the United States Army Postal Group, Europe exercised command and control over three Postal Companies and seventeen Postal Detachments located in Germany, Belgium, and Holland; provided technical control over all postal operations throughout US Army Europe, and was responsible for coordinating mail movement and postal services to the military forces in the Sinai, Berlin, Liberia, Turkey, Zaire and England. At that time U. S. Army Postal Group, Europe was authorized 962 military and 113 Department of the Army civilians, and moves 71,000 tons of mail each year while providing in excess of $100,000,000 in postal finance sales annually.

Webmaster note: On 1 January 1974, the Postal Group, U.S. Theater Army Support Conmand, was transferred to the Office of the Adjutant General, Headquarters, U.S. Army, Europe.

In 1974, the staffing of the Army Postal Group detachments was based on manning guidance in the Table of Organization and Equipment (TO&E) 12-550H Postal Service organization which was structured based on tactical considerations. This TO&E listed the types of functional teams required for a field postal unit and the number, grades, and specialities of military personnel required for each team or unit. These units were not combat support units, but rather administrative service support units. During wartime, direct postal support for tactical units would be the responsibility of the divisional postal activities. The responsibilities of the units would be restricted to the rear support areas.

The postal units were staffed to support a peacetime population composed of military, U.S. civilians, and dependents. Unit size varied based on the population served. The manning requirements of units would drop significantly during wartime because of the reductions in the volume of mail and financial services and an increase in the man-hours worked per week.

From Jan. 1970 to Dec. 1972 I was assigned to the 226th AG Company (Postal) APO NY 09108 (McGraw Kaserne, Munich Germany). We were part of Postal Group Europe which was headquartered in Worms, Germany.

Shortly before I arrived the 226th had been called the 26th BPO. Captain Robert J. Younger was the Commander, later promoted to major and reassigned to be XO of Postal Group Europe (I believe). He was the best commander I ever encountered in the military.

The mission of the 226th was to receive and dispatch mail via plane at the Munich civilian airport, train at the Munich East Train Station, and by trucks to about 10 Kasernes in southern Germany. The daily runs to the different kasernes included Augsburg, New Ulm, Garmisch & Oberammergau, Murnau & Bad Tolz, Bad Aibling & Berchtesgarten, Munich & Dachau; a nightly train was also dispatched to Stuttgart and Frankfurt.

The company was comprised of about 50-60 enlisted men, no women, about 3 Officers, and 3-6 local nationals. All single soldiers were housed in excess family housing on McGraw Kaserne.

I went TDY to Garmisch to become part of the Armed Forces Recreation Center ski patrol unit.

I would like to correspond with anybody interested in my story and sharing theirs.