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97th Quartermaster Battalion |
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| 97th Quartermaster Battalion History | |||||||||||||||
 97th Quartermaster Battalion DI |
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| (Source: US Army Quartermaster Foundation website) | |||||||||||||||
| 97th Quartermaster Battalion was activated on 4 August 1965 in Germany; inactivated on 30 June 1975 in Germany. | |||||||||||||||
| 1965 | |||||||||||||||
| (Source: STARS & STRIPES, August 8, 1965) | |||||||||||||||
| The 97th Quartermaster Battalion was activated at Mannheim as part of the Army-wide COSTAR reorganization program. CO of the new battalion is Lt Col Robert A. Reade. The 97th will be the only battalion in 7th Army to retain the "quartermaster" designation. The new battalion, drawing manpower from all of the technical services, is composed of the following subordinate units:  Hq and Hq Co Petroleum Supply Company Medium Truck Petroleum Transport Company (Webmaster note: 40th Transportation Company was reorganized and redesignated on 1 September 1965 as Company B, 97th Quartermaster Battalion. On 23 September 1974, C Co, 97th QM Bn was reorg. and redes. as the 40th Transportation Company) |
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| 1967 | |||||||||||||||
 COVER 400.jpg) Briefing paper prepared for Gen Polk's visit to the 97th in 1967 |
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| (Source: STATION LIST, Dec 31, 1967) | |||||||||||||||
| ORGANIZATION (Dec 1967): | |||||||||||||||
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 Convoy of C Company 5,000-gal tank trucks on the autobahn |
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| (Source: Email from Jack Woods) | |||||||||||||||
| I was stationed with the 97th QM BN from 1967 thru 1969 as first the Petroleum Storage Officer, then Battalion Operations Officer and finally as the Battalion XO.
During this time the Battalion was commanded by LTC. D.D. McConaghy and later LTC. Foster F. Fountain Jr.. The Battalion Headquarters was located in the Funari Barracks in Kafertal outside of the town of Mannheim. As near as I can remember there were 3 companies assigned to the Battalion -- A, B and C Companies. All were petroleum line haul units utilizing 5,000 gallon tank trucks. A Company was located with the Battalion in Funari Barracks with B Company in Ludwigsburg and I believe C Company was in Karlsruhe. I may be incorrect on B and C Company locations, as time goes by the memory fades. There is a home page for the 97th QM Battalion in Military.com where a few of the Battalion members have posted info. |
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 Early aerial photo of the Münchweiler Army Hospital, no date (M. Bruhn) |
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 Annotated installation map, Münchweiler Army Hospital, 1971 (Click on map for a higher resolution version with annotations) |
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| 1971 | |||||||||||||||
| (Source: Email from Gerald Millikin) | |||||||||||||||
| Was stationed with A Company, 97th QM Battalion at Muenchweiler, Germany. I was a ration pickup driver for the Army hospital. I also drove a Deuce and 1/2, delivering troops to the Hinterweidenthal petroleum farm. We lived in NATO barracks at the complex. A Company was commanded from Mannheim. We had a tank (for fuel distribution) and 2 sites that were pipe line flow read stations I was later changed to mail clerk, then C/O's driver. In July of 1971 we were transferred to Pirmasens. Lucky for me, I was discharged the end of July. The Muenchweiler installation has been completely demolished. installation Were you aware that before A Co. 97th Qn.'s was at the hospital complex, they were stationed at the "Dahn Complex". These were buildings made of 2x4s and not insulated. They had pot belly wood burns in each troop barracks. No, I wasn't stationed there! That is where A Co. kept our C-ration and being the ration driver I was responsible for rotating them at that site. It was well taken care of for no one being there. |
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1973 |
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(Source: Transportation Command, COMZ. 29 February 1980) |
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The 97th Quartermaster Battalion was assigned to TRANSCOM by TASCOM General Order Number 24, dated 23 June 1973. In December 1973, the 97th Quartermaster Battalion, responsible for the distribution of petroleum products in Europe, was reassigned to the US Army Materiel Management Agency, Europe, but its two truck companies, "B" and "C", remained with TRANSCOM to be assigned to the 37th Transportation Group as the 40th and 109th Truck Companies. |
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MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION Class III Supply Point Mannheim, 1967 Class III Supply Point Haide, 1969 (near North Point Kaserne) |
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| If you have more information on the history or organization of the 97th QM Bn, please contact me. | |||||||||||||||
| A Company, 97th Quartermaster Battalion | |||||||||||||||
| 1969 | |||||||||||||||
| (Source: STARS & STRIPES, Aug 16, 1969) | |||||||||||||||
Company A, 97th QM Battalion is located at Funari Bks, Mannheim. Company commander is Capt John T. Doughty, Jr. The company provides service facilities to meet the petroleum needs of Seventh Army and TASCOM units in Europe by operating three supply points and two tank farms. All types of Class III supplies (motor gasoline for vehicles - MOGAS; diesel fuel; aviation gasoline - AVGAS; and other petroleum products) are received, stored and distributed in wholesale quantifties by A Company at its various locations. Authorized units can pick up bulk quantities of gasoline by sending tank trailers or trucks to one of the company's supply points or have a delivery made according to need and authorization. The company makes local deliveries (it has 30 tractor-trailers) but the other two battalion companies (B and C) are responsibly for long-haul deliveries. Each tanker entering a tank farm or Class III supply point must undergo a safety inspection by the guard posted at the gate. Trucks can be turned away without the requested fuel for various reasons: tank compartments containing rust or debris; evidence of fuel leaks; vehicles carrying more than one type of fuel; missing fire extinguishers. Once entry is permitted, the tanker moves to the issue point specific for the type of fuel required. |
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1972 |
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(Source: Thomas Poisson) |
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I served in Germany from Sept 1972 to June 1974. I was stationed with Co. A, 97th Q.M. Bn. in Pirmasens. Husterhoeh was the kaserne where our billets were located. A Company was on the third floor; on the second floor was (Headquarters) 97th Battallion. On the first floor was the mail room, supply room and arms room. Half of the side for A company and the other half for battalion. From there I was sent to Germersheim Army Depot where I worked on a petroleum tank farm. After several months I was sent back to Co. A to work at another tank farm in Hinterweidenthal. A Company operated two POL storage facilities. One facility was the Hinterweidenthal Tank Farm, approx. 40 minutes from Pirmasens. The other facility was Bellheim Tank Farm. That facility was about 20 minutes from Germersheim. Personnel assigned to the Bellheim facility were billeted at Germersheim Army Depot. B Company did all the transports with S/P's (MOGAS, diesel, AVGAS and JP-4.) B Company billets were located in Kaiserslautern. The German Bundesbahn (railroad) would bring fuel cars up to our gates. Then we had our own locomotive that would go out and hook up the cars and run them to our risers. From there we would check From there we would check the couples on the bottom to make sure they were closed. Then we would climb up the riser and pop open the top latch and swing the spout over. At that point we would call out to the tanks and request a feed of low pressure AVGAS or JP-4. At the same time we would have B Company driving in to load their trucks. There was also a C Company that also did transportation. But I am not sure were their billets were located. (Webmaster note: STATION LIST for Sept 1972 places C Company at Coleman Barracks, Sandhofen.) After several months there, I was sent to HHC V Corps in Frankfurt where I worked unloading tanker (barges) ships that came in on the Rhine River. It was a small detachment - 2 NCO's and 5 enlisted men. We mostly worked at night and had our days off. First, A Company had a small storage facilty just outside frankfurt - 15 mins. It was called and known as "Frankfurt Shell." This is were all the fuel arrived on barges and were then off loaded. Hence the name (shell) for Shell Oil Company. We also had a locomotive on site with US Army lettered across it. But it was a small run of track to the gates of the installation, approx 200 yrds. So it was tricky with only 2 splits of tracks. Also, there weren't that many storage tanks - I believe there were only 5 or 6. Now, the river were the barges flowed up on was the Main. These barges were all foreign vessels from other countrys. And we would only unload one at a time. Mostly they would come in late at night and it would take a good 18 hrs to unload one. Probabley did 2 or 3 a week. Most of the petroleum would ship out on rail cars. A side note: We were under the commmand of TASCOM (Theater Army Support Command). After several months there, I was sent TDY to UARG ... this was probably the best job. Because I worked everywhere, living in hotels, eating in restaurants and wearing civies - it could not get any better. It was also something to see, the massive logistics involved in moving a complete division of men from Ft. Riley, Kansas to differant regions in Europe, and all within 72 hrs. It was awasome. They called this execise REFORGER. So I got to see really a lot of stuff. Anyways, I have just leaned now how to somewhat use a computer and I googled my old outfit. Came across your email, so i decided to drop a line. What I would really like to do is see if I can get in touch with some of the guys that were in my outfit. |
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| C Company, 97th Quartermaster Battalion | |||||||||||||||
| (Source: STARS & STRIPES, April 29, 1972) | |||||||||||||||
| C Company, 97th QM Battalion attained a first in USAREUR in March 1972 when it transported more than 2 million gallons of bulk POL to USAREUR and Seventh Army Class III supply points throughout central and northern Germany. | |||||||||||||||
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