Initial efforts of the Division Headquarters were directed towards clarification of command channels, orientation of newly arrived units, obtaining permanent billet assignments, and the development of SOPs designed to assure effective reporting and control procedures. Preliminary action was taken to generate movement of cargo by highway with emphasis placed on long-haul convoy movements. The subsequent development of this organization can probably be best appreciated by citing a few basic statistics.

During the calendar year 1951, Transportation Truck Battalions moved a total of 70,517 tons while traveling a total of 2,164,520 miles. Of these figures, 41,162 tons and 1,131,510 miles were logged after 5 September, the date that the 37th Transportation Highway Transport Division became an operational headquarters. Highway operations were generally of the standard types: long-haul convoys and short-haul or shuttle operations. Two operations merit special attention: Operation Drive-Away, and the Military Express and Passenger Service now operating between Heidelberg, Germany, and Verdun, France.

Operation Drive-Away was organized to move new replacement vehicles from Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation to various Military Posts and Depots throughout the US Zone of Germany and COM-Z. This operation realized a saving of $1,044,570, for the cost of blocking and bracing a motor vehicle on a rail car was alone as great as the entire cost of movement of that vehicle by highway from the port to its destination. Beginning 14 April 1952, every morning at 0545 hours, Monday through Friday, a sixty-vehicle convoy left Bremerhaven bound through the British Zone for Kassel. Here it spent the night at a temporary billet site established to accommodate the soldiers who manned the convoy. The next day they would set out again; before night fall, they would have reached their destinations at the Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Rhine and Stuttgart Military Posts - or, only one day later, at any remaining posts or COM-Z. Fourteen Companies participated, delivering 7,500 vehicles and 604 trailers, with only forty-seven accidents during the 3,620,000 miles driven. The training derived from this operation were invaluable.

The other noteworthy operation, the Heidelberg-Verdun Express and Passenger Service, is unique to military highway transportation, and is designed to reduce cost and delay of movement of personnel, express, and less-than-carload freight shipments. The type of bus employed is arranged to operate with up to sixteen passengers and two and a half tons of cargo. During the first month of operation - October 1952 - this operation encompassed 12,420 miles, during which 437 passengers and 57.5 tons of cargo were handled.

The 37th Transportation Highway Transport Division is composed of the 28th and 154th Transportation Truck Battalions, stationed at Mannheim; the 24th, at Hanau; the 53rd at Kaiserslautern; and the 148th, at Ludwigsburg. Each Battalion consists of four assigned Companies equipped with either light (2½-ton personnel or cargo) or heavy (10-ton tractor-semitrailer) equipment; at least one heavy Company is included in each Battalion.

What follows is a brief description of early efforts to computerize operational aspects of the U.S. Army line haul transportation in Europe.

With the completion of Operation FRELOC and the transfer of the HQ to Kapaun Barracks, Vogelweh, it was determined that computerization of the day-to-day operations of the newly organized 37th might provide a more effective utilization of the tractor trailer fleet.

The manual method was rather inefficient. Operations personnel kept track of hundreds of trailers on wallboards surrounding the Operations room. Upon entering the HQ building in Kapaun Barracks, Operations personnel were often heard screaming over the dysfunctional Army phone system while communicating with units all over Germany.

Prior to my arrival, a trailer load of IBM equipment arrived at HQ. Little was known about the data processing equipment, and it remained in the storage trailer for a period of time. The humid Germany climate was unkind to the mechanical card handling equipment, so when the equipment was off-loaded the mechanisms were rusted, and the equipment was determined to be inoperable.

Fortunately, a 37th staff lieutenant worked for IBM prior to entering the Army. With his efforts and contacts, the equipment was replaced at no cost to the Army, and the DPU began its work. As there wasn't enough space in the HQ building, the DPU was set up in Pulaski Barracks, and was incorrectly referred to by HQ personnel as 'IBM.'

When I arrived the unit was in the capable hands of Master Sgt. Jennings and Staff Sgt Parker. 16 enlisted men worked around the clock to provide updated trailer locations by tracking tractor trailer movement throughout Germany and the Benelux countries.

Soon thereafter, Sgt. Jennings and I hired a German civilian as the programmer for the DPU. Volker Biehl lived in the US and Canada for a period of time, gaining programming experience with Canadian Kodak. It was a perfect fit, as Volker was familiar with board wiring (early programming), and had an excellent command of the English language. Over time the process was refined by enhancing the reports, and systems were developed to enhance the DPU support of the 37th mission.

The punch card equipment surrounded the walls of a 30' x 30' room, and consisted of sorters, a collator, a justifier, and a 407 accounting machine which was used to print the various reporting sequences. A separate room housed 3 keypunch machines for data entry, and a card verifier.

The process:
Each night company drivers checked in at their destination and submitted daily trip tickets. Locations were noted to show the spotted location of the trailers. The logs were hand-carried to the 37th HQ; or in the case of outlying units, 'twixed' to HQ.

The keypunch operators would wait to get the updates, and then enter the information on a new set of 80 column punch cards. Once completed, the update cards were given each night to the machine room crew to be mechanically sorted and merged in order to create updated location reports which were then 'hand carried' from Pulaski to Kapaun Barracks for use by Operations personnel.

When trailer locations were not reported for 10 days or more, the DPU published a 'Lost Trailer Report' to allow Operations to initiate actions to determine where these trailers were last seen (reported). Understandably these reports generated significant command interest, and were therefore unpopular.

Being a good typist was a plus for a data entry person, but being careful to not misspell the unique names for the 100 or so German towns all over Germany was a must! If the town names were misspelled, the areas were not totaled correctly, which drove S-3 personnel NUTS!! As with any new data system, input requirements and report usage required education and re-training of the unit truck masters.

As the DPU became more efficient, reports to assist with inventory accountability and vehicle maintenance were created for command use.

Fun tidbits:
A number of trailers disappeared during FRELOC which precipitated the transfer of the unit from Samac, France to COMZEUR. Several trailers were never found. 3-day passes were offered to drivers reporting the location of the lost trailers. GI ingenuity was alive and well. Using a stencil and black spray paint, some of the drivers changed the trailer numbers to get a 3 day pass. This created havoc with maintenance records designed to match trailer numbers with serial numbers; and also resulted in a list of different 'missing' trailers. Needless to say, the reward system was short-lived.

Once in awhile experienced operators would get wild and crazy and pick up an entire deck of punch cards (~2000 cards) by compressing them between their hands for the purpose of moving them from one machine to another. When things didn't go right, the cards would 'pop out' and fall to the floor. Ingenuity then took over. Since folded, crinkled cards wouldn't meet the tight tolerances of the mechanical equipment, the damaged cards needed to be 're-punched.' Not wanting to take the time to create new cards, the operators used a steam iron to straighten out the cards, with only a re-sorting operation required to resume where they left off.

The nearby CLG personnel built a swimming pool behind our Pulaski building. They agreed to allow us the use of the pool, provided we pay for pool paint.

With the equipment available today, one operator knowledgeable as to the spelling of the names of the German towns could do everything in a 8 hr work day that we completed with 16 operators working around the clock. Reports would now be transmitted to the various units over modern data lines.

About the author:
I received a commission as a Transportation Corps Officer. Upon completing an advanced computer management class at Fort Monmouth, and a consultation with officer assignment personnel at Fort McNair, I was offered the opportunity to head the 37th Transportation Group DPU. I arrived in Germany with my family on February 10, 1968, and reported to Colonel William C. Applegate, Commanding Officer of the 37th Transportation Group.

I left the Army in January 1970, and soon established a mountain real estate company in Colorado. My interest/commitment to computer systems continued, and in 1978, we purchased computers to support our real estate work. I consider my 37th experience to be invaluable in our systems approach to the business. I can be reached by emailing bill@cabin-country.com.