The
United States Constabulary
Army of Occupation - Germany and Austria 1946-1952
Reminiscing
Chapter One
Sitting in the gunners seat of an M8 armored car.
Written by Eight Ball
March 1946. So I am sitting in on one of those
dumb Chaplains hour at that Marburg Repple depot, waiting to see where
the Army was going to reassign me next.
Stepping
outside for a quick lung filler, (bull durham of course), I spot this
guy all dressed up in a spiffy outfit. What country did this
guy come from?? Striped helmet, Eisenhower jacket, jodpur pants and
shiny brown cavalry boots.
This guy is spieling about a new
outfit starting up and they are looking for that dreaded word
(Volunteer). But I kind of liked what he was pitching so I raised my
hand and said okay.
Four months
later I am sitting in the gunners seat of an M8 armored car, (boy that
81 millimeter mortar training sure helped.), riding down a dusty back
country road patrolling a border. A week later, I am sitting in this
muddy little dugout, behind a water cooled 30 looking out over the
border at some guy standing up in in one of the biggest tanks I've
seen, waving a red flag at three others about to charge down
the embankment towards the river between us. So I said to myself, what
in the hell am I supposed to do?? All I got was the 30 cal, my 45
and my radio. Was I supposed to stop them with that???