Connecting the Troopers of Today with the Veterans of Yesterday.
Greetings all
Hi, I was in Bravo company 501st Military Intelligence battalion "Nightstalkers" 17 Kilo (changed to 96 Romeo in '85) Ground Surveillance Radar. Our main billet was in Katterbach. Near the 1st AD headquarters in Ansbach. I was there from 83 - 86
We had a permanent 365 nights a year presence on the border. We spent (individually) between 30-45 days on Camp Pitman (Weiden) with the 1/1 Cav "Black Hawks," and covered from Pilsen, CZ south to the Austrian/Czech border. We traveled in 3 man teams with one man from the Cav units to provide the 4th man for rear security. We used 2 men in the vehicle that set up the radar, and the 3rd man (with the cav. guy) provided rear security and would run to the nearest town to perform our hourly check-in with "command central." We occasionally had our radios blocked by Elvis or polka music courtesy of the Czech / russian border units. During the summer, we used 2 jeeps, and in the winter, we used an M113 and a jeep. When we weren't on the border, we were being whored out to every armor/cav/mech infantry units that wanted us. And then there was Graf usually 2x a year. It seems that both times were in the winter. Graf is where I first saw an M113 APC leave the ground and fly, ala Fast & Furious. They came down a small hill hit a bump/rise/ piece of earth like a ramp?? Anyway, the track went airborne, just a couple of feet, but far enough that they landed almost flat in the pond that was there. I think it took them about 3 days to clean out the track. The open drivers hatch, TC cupola, and bay hatch all provided the large wave that came over the trim vane and covered everything inside in dirty-pond water. The only thing that was not covered in mud on the driver and TC (Sgt Jaime Nieves) was the area around their eyes when they removed their goggles.
I know that Tom Punjack and Dave Harmon were both in the 2nd Cav prior to hitting Bravo Co. late 70s to early 80s
Are there any other 17Kilos/96 Romeos out there?
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December 14, 2002.jpg, 77 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Douglas White on
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The Grenze sign was from my very last mission on the border Oct 5th 1985. I walked up to the border Pissed on Czechoslovakia and then pulled out my kbar and cut it off of its pole.
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Permalink Reply by Dave Gettman on
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Douglas, if you go on eBay these days there are lots of border signs and sections of border fence for sale. You can even get East German uniforms and equipment. Some of the stuff is going for quite a bit too.
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I left directly from Camp Pitman to the airport when my tour in Germany ended in February 1975.
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Hey, I was there at Pitman with you 84-86. Did a few GSR missions with you guys on the Grenz. BTW - this is a really old Troop pic. We got rid of Sheridan's in 1982 and got M60A3's
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Camp Pitman July 1984. Oostmark Kasern in the background. Border jeep in the right side. Carriers (M113A2) are part of Combat Element. Appears that Reaction Force is not in camp at that point. Barracks is on the left side behind the pine trees. Perm party vehicles in front of the building. Rear center is the Gym (white steel building) Building behind the M880 ambulance is the OPS building, also contained the Arms Room, NBC Room, briefing room, a greating area (front room) and of course Operations.
During WWII this was Stalag 13 (out of pic, right side. Only the smoke stack is left).
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From the barracks looking to the rear of Camp Pitman. "Rat Fuck" (Reaction Force) is the ITV and M113A2 by the wire. Had 15 min from the horn, to the briefing and out the gate.
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Motor pool area to the rear. Tank is mine, A-11. This is 1984, NATO 4 color camo pattern. The following summer we repainted to the 3 color
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This was the third design of the 2d Cavalry DUI, worn from 1924-1931. The sharp points on the ends of the bottom scroll again called for a redesign.
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