Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
brigades of the 3d Armored Division]. We're going to send your platoon to Friedberg for six
weeks on temporary duty to build the entrance road into the area."
So, at the end of that week--I've been in the country now seven days, hardly seen my
platoon because I've been out at the command post exercise--I'm with the platoon sergeant
and we're moving out to go build a road. So, I spent my next six weeks away from home
station. Still didn't have a car, still didn't have a final BOQ [bachelor officers quarters] room,
and I'm up making arrangements as the engineer company officer in charge in the area of
Combat Command C--we were still organized as combat commands at those times--located
in Friedberg. Arranging for billet space for my troops, mess hall, maintenance facilities,
moving all of our equipment up. Happened quickly. We had to do the design. Nobody had
done a design of the road. Nobody had yet found a quarry; they thought there was one
around. All of that befell me to put together the entire operation to build that road.
So, the challenges came very quickly for me as a new platoon leader in C Company.
Q:
I sense from your description that the 3d Armored put a lot of emphasis on training. Is that
the case? Was that generally true of armored divisions?
A:
Oh yes. We trained, trained, trained. I spent at least six months of every year that I was there
that first three years away from my BOQ. My particular platoon supported two different
battalions, the 37th Mech Infantry and the 32d Tank Battalion, also at Friedberg. Each time
they took the Army training test, my platoon went out with them. Each time they went to
Grafenwhr or Wildflecken, my platoon went with them. Each time they had a pre-test,
which they always did, my platoon went with them. Each time they had a pre-test command
post exercise, which they always did, I'd always go and participate. So, having two different
battalions to support, I'd go through all those cycles. Then we'd go to the field for our own
23d Engineer Battalion training or bridging exercises. We were fortunate to have Campo
Pond right there in Hanau. This was a big, local training area and we did a lot of training
there. So, it was a continuum of field training--combined arms, primarily.
It was a very good place for a young officer to learn about the Army, troops, units, and how
engineers are part of the combined arms team. I've always felt that Germany provided the
best vehicle for that because you could get combined arms training at the field training
installations like Grafenwhr or Wildflecken. Also, they had the bigger exercises such as the
REFORGERs and the winter FTXs [field training exercises] where you could put Corps
against Corps, division against division, and get the whole unit chain operating.
In addition, the 3d Armored Division was a particularly good place to start for me because in
the heavy division, speed of action characterizes what they do. You really have to learn to
think at the speed of your weapons systems. We were just, in 1957, 12 years out of World
War II. There was still rubble in some of the cities. There was still that armor mentality
carryover that we had. You and I talked earlier about Hollingsworth and all preaching at
West Point that armor was firepower, mobility, and shock action. In this 3d Armored
Division they would just drum that in all the time.
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