The United Sta
tes Constabulary

Army of Occupation
Germany and Austria
1946  -  1953

A Monument to Cold War Vets at Fulda

and

Cold War GIs Held the Line in Germany




VFW Magazine NOV. 1992

Col. Harry Summers, author and lecturer on strategic issues and combat infantry veteran, won the 1991 VFW News Media Award.







A Monument to Cold War Vets at Fulda

By Col. Harry G. Summers, Jr., USA [Ret.]

COLD WAR

As this two-war veteran and syndicated columnist sees it, GIs who served in Germany helped transform the world. And that's well worth remembering in stone.

     "In the nine months since I returned to Washington as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the changes... have been simply in- credible," Gen. Colin Powell told a National Press Club audience in June 1990.  "I've lost a lot of old Army buddies that I have served with for many years..."
     "I've lost the Fulda Gap on the border between East and West Germany where I began my career as a second lieutenant during the height of the Cold War 32 years ago where I returned in 1986 to command the US. V Corps against the very best the Soviets had to put on the other side of Fulda Gap.  Now the standoff at the Fulda Gap, is gone.  Soon the gap will be no more than a tourist stop in a unified Germany."

Pivotal Fulda
     In March 1991, less than a year later, as I stood in a cold rain next to the U.S. 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment's old Observation Post Alpha looking across the Fulda Gap and the now rusting and dilapidated Iron Curtain, the area had not quite yet become a tourist stop. But it well should be.
     Somewhere along these marches, once the border between tyranny and democracy, there should be a monument to those [in the words of the VFW salute to veterans of the Cold War] "who served along the barbed wire borders of East Germany  and Czechoslovakia known as the Iron Curtain, especially veterans of the Armored Cavalry regiments and other forward deployed units who held the line at lonely outposts."
     For centuries the Fulda Gap had served as a major invasion route into the heart of Europe, a route blocked since the beginning of the cold War by soldiers of the American Army. Right after World War II there were the troopers of the U.S. Army's Constabulary. Then in 1958, with the Korean War buildup in Europe, came the men of the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
     Replaced in 1972 by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment fresh from the jungles of Vietnam, the 14th Cavalry along with its compatriots in the 2d, 3d, and 6th Armored Cavalry regiments elsewhere on the border, had by then spent more than 28 years guarding the marches against the Soviet army and its Warsaw Pact allies.

Vigil End
     On Nov. 9, 1989, seven years after the 14th Cavalry Regiment departed, the vigil came dramatically to an end. Instead of Soviet tank and motorized rifle divisions attacking down the "ghost autobahns" from East Germany as feared, there was a 20 kilometer traffic jam of civilian cars, motor bikes and bicycles as the borders were opened and East Germans flocked to the West.
     Within a year, on Oct. 3, 1990, Germany was once again unified. The Cold War was at an end. Sadly, today, that victory, and the sacrifices that made that victory possible, are being denied.
     Now that they no longer have to cower under their desks in terror for fear of a Soviet nuclear attack, revisionist "experts" like Time Magazine's Strobe Talbot claim that "Western policy was based on grotesque exaggeration of what the U.S.S.R. could do , if it wanted" and that fears of a Soviet invasion of western Europe were a "paranoid fantasy." Easy to say, in the wake of the Soviet Union's disintegration.

Making It All Happen
     But that disintegration did not just happen.  George Kennan was right in 1947 when he prophesied that Soviet power "bears with it the seeds of its own decay."  And he was also right [although he would now deny it] that the way to ensure that that decay took hold was to militarily contain Soviet expansion. For one way to forestall trouble at home has always been to divert public attention by fostering adventures abroad.
     Yet in Europe that option was canceled out by U.S. forward military deployments which effectively deterred Soviet expansion. As Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Hill Norton once said, deterrence is all about creating the fearful doubt in the minds of a potential aggressor that any likely gain is not worth the inevitable risk.
     As the late strategist Herman Kahn once observed, there are many doors in this world that are not being opened because someone is leaning against them.  And leaning against the doors in Europe, especially the Fulda Gap "door," were the troopers of the U.S. Armored Cavalry regiments.

Victory of Values
     "The changes we have seen," said Gen. Powell in his address to the National Press Club, "represent the success of the steadfast commitment of the American people to their allies and to their friends.  They represent the victory of values that we hold  dear.  They represent 40 years of American policy, 40 years of American purpose, 40 years of American power."
     Speaking not only for himself, but for the thousands of American veterans of the Cold War as well, he emphasized that, "We can be proud of the role we have played in bringing about the transformation that we see taking place before our eyes."


Col. Harry Summers, author and lecturer on strategic issues and combat infantry veteran, won the 1991 VFW News Media Award.



Cold War on the Iron Curtain:

     It was America's longest war -  the 45 year containment of Soviet communism in Europe between 1945 - 1990. Contrary to popular belief, it did result in U.S. casualties.  And for GIs literally on the front lines, there has been no recognition for a mission accomplished.
By Richard K. Kolb

  
   "I've been shot, Jess, " he told Sgt. Jessie Schatz as he fell to the ground in Ludwigslust, East Germany, Maj. Arthur D. Nicholsom, Jr., hit squarely in the chest by a round fired by a Soviet sentry waiting in ambush, holds a dubious distinction in U.S. military history:  He was the last recorded American hostile casualty of the Cold War in Europe.
     Part of a 14-member mission based in Potsdam, Nicholson was left to bleed to death by the Soviets on March 24th, 1985, He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery, posthumously awarded the Legion of Merit and his family was presented with the  purple Heart.
     Three years later, Moscow expressed only "regret" for Nicholson's death. Yet between 1980-85, U.S. observers in the East had been fired upon or injured in a half dozen incidents. A French soldier was killed.
     "Historians and political scientists frequently treat the Cold War as an ideological struggle between two political and economic systems," said a Stars & Stripes editorial. But "government officials often have overlooked or ignored the human equation in this confrontation."

     Indeed, individual Americans served, sacrificed and died for 45 years so western Europe could remain free:  They did so with virtually no recognition.
     There is a victory for which there is no battle streamer - victory in the Cold War -  America's longest war, " said U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Gordon Sullivan. Neither the government nor the American public officially acknowledged this triumph.  Amidst the hoopla over the brief Operation Desert Storm, the GIs who contained communism behind the Iron Curtain were lost to history.  "We have neglected those who helped keep the peace throughout the long years of the Cold War...No one threw a parade to honor those men and women, active and Reserve, who brought us victory in the Cold War," wrote Adm. David E. Jeremiah, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "They will never hear the bands play, or march through ticker tape, to celebrate the end of the Cold War."


Eye of the Storm
     Defining the Cold War  is sometimes difficult. Perhaps Charles O. Lerche, Jr. set its parameters best in his book, The Cold War and After: "The struggle along the line of the Iron Curtain in Europe was always the key element in the element in the Cold War...The Cold War was very much a European phenomenon. And "the first battleground of the Cold War was Europe, especially the prostrate remains of Hitler's Germany."  
     Early events in post-war East Europe presaged the opening salvo of this monumental struggle. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin systematically crushed all vestiges of democratic government in eastern Europe. This prompted British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to cable President Harry Truman on May 12, 1945: "An iron curtain is drawn down upon their front."
     That was soon evident to war-weary GI's. Gerald Adamietz, then a member of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 1945, "While stationed in a small village on what became the East German border, it seemed too often we had fire fights with the Russians over minor things. We learned early on they were not our friends."
     Before long, Stalin was warning Russians they would have to "defend" themselves against  the capitalist nations. The U.S. took steps to contend with the unchecked spread of communism. The Truman Doctrine of containment, announced in March 1947, was the unofficial declaration of hostilities against Soviet expansion.
     Next came the Marshall Plan, an all out declaration of ideological war. Nineteen forty eight was a pivotal year. The Czechoslovakian coup, staged by the Russians, brought the communist peril to public light. It was quickly followed by the Soviet blockade of Berlin. Gen. Lucius Clay, then U.S. military governor of Germany, warned Washington: "if we mean to hold Europe against communism, we must not budge."
     America did not budge. In April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] was formed as a bulwark in the path of Stalin's juggernaut. For the next four decades, the nation engaged in, not campaigns and combats, but crises and confrontations in the Cold War's primary battleground: Germany.

"A Dueling Scar Across the Face"
     Though the former West Germany was about the size of Oregon with a population density of Connecticut, it had only two border features that preoccupied GIs on the ground. The fabled Fulda Gap, the point where East butted furthest into West Germany, was an ancient invasion corridor that served as a strategic east-west military passage for six centuries.
     A series of river valleys running north and south, with distinct hill masses, the  "gap" winds like an anaconda, twisting to avoid rivers and forests. A 10 mile long valley north of Rasdorf dominates the hills -  know as the "Three Sisters" - creating a natural line of defense. Fortunately, NATO's "tripwire" was never triggered.
     The other feature forming the Cold War's frontline was  "the most daunting Man-made obstacle since the Great Wall of China." The barrier fence - called "The Scar" by those who patrolled it - stretched 858 miles from the Baltic to Austria. Roadwise, it was the distance between New York and Chicago.
     The barrier's three-mile zone constituted a no-man's land of 45 square miles equivalent in size to Rhode Island. It was a  wasteland in every sense of the word. "It's hard to imagine the dreadfulness of this until you see it," said one awe-struck American soldier.
     The actual border separating the West from the East was marked only with red-tipped [blue-tipped in Bavaria] white poles and old stones. Some five kilometers east of the border was a belt of manned checkpoints. About 500 meters from the border was the signal fence. During the modernization in the 1970s, the wire was armed with 60,000 self-starting scatter guns. Until 1985, the area between the grid fence also was armed with SM-70 anti-personnel mines.
     The "Inner German Border [IGB]," known to the West as the Iron Curtain and the East as an "anti-fascist protective barrier," was erected beginning in May 1952. Five years later, the East German regime made it a criminal offense to flee its tyranny, naming the "crime" Republikflucht. The penalty for attempting to escape communism was a 10 year mandatory sentence.
     GIs referred to the IGB as "the trace."  As author Michael Skinner wrote: "It was one of those rare, perfectly suited military terms, evoking as it does, images of range wars, cavalry sorties from frontier outposts, and long riders, lonely, cold and ever watchful, checking stretches of wire in a dulling and dangerous routine." that aptly described duty on the border during the Cold War.

Manning the Ramparts
    
Holding the line in Germany called for a large-scale U.S. presence. Two generations of American centurions served on freedom's frontier. These foreign legionnaires included regulars, draftees and volunteers. Peak strength was reached in 1962 with 278,000 troops. In all, five million GIs were stationed there from the Cold War's beginning to its end.
     Once demobilization was complete in 1946, only the 1st Infantry Division and the U.S. Constabulary remained  fro five years to face the Russian bear. The Constabulary was one of the more unique U.S. unites. It was designated a light mechanized cavalry division with three brigades of nine regiments. Each regiment had one horse platoon of 30 horses.
     At its zenith, the "Circle C Cowboys" counted 33,224 men. Part of the blitz polizei's ["lightning police"] mission was covering the then-imaginary line separating Russian and Allied forces. It maintained 126 border posts; those in the east were manned by half sections [6 or 7 men] and others by only two troopers. Foot as well as horse patrols linked the posts.
     "Border patrols in our sector consisted of two troopers with only six rounds of ammo -  three for a .45 pistol and three for a Thompson submachine gun," recalled George N. Walls, a veteran of the 27th Squadron, 14th Constabulary Regiment in 1946-49. "We walked six-hour patrols on an unmarked border near Konigshofen. Most of our trouble was with displaced persons or gangs or robbers."
     Eventually, post were abandoned in favor of roving checkpoints and vehicular patrols. The Constabulary spent 10 months on the frontier until the West German police assumed its duties in March 1947. In little more than a year, the regiments reverted to combat armored cavalry and resumed border duty. The last Constabulary unit was disbanded in December 1952.
     "In 1950, the Constabulary had come under 7th Army control," says U.S. Constabulary Association historian Andrew F. King. "But the distinctive 'Circle C'  shoulder patch and designation were kept until the last two unites were absorbed in 1952."
     Activated in Stuttgart on Nov. 24, 1950, the 7th Army came to symbolize U.S. will to resist Russian aggression. Touted as "the greatest peacetime striking force o fits kind in the world," the 7th was "the backbone of NATO's forward shield." At the end of 1966, the 7th was merged with U.S. Army, Europe.
     The 7th's two corps - V and VII - were formed in Germany in the summer and fall of 1951, respectively. Over the next 40 years, 15 divisions -1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 24th, 28th and 43rd Infantry; 11th Airborne; and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Armored - served as their covering forces. Later on, four separate infantry brigades were there. And of curse, the five armored cavalry regiments [2nd, 3rd, 6th, 11th and 14th] rotated duty on the trace.
     Units and operatives of a more specialized nature also saw service "up front.: They ranged from the Army Security Agency to the Central Intelligence Agency. Covert and paramilitary operations could be particularly risky. As Harry Rositzke put it in his history of the CIA: "The Cold War was a hot war fro the operators: our agents' lives were at stake."
     Almost as secretive was the 10th Special Forces Group. some 782 of its men were deployed to Bad Tolz, Bavaria in September 1952, where the unit has remained ever since. Detachment A-1 is still there today. The 10th's intended mission was to infiltrate the East Bloc and assist partisan campaigns behind communist lines.
     May of its seven-men teams were recruited from among East European refugees and men with close family connections to countries behind the Iron Curtain. The Russians branded the 10th SFG a "combine of murderers." One observer labeled it "the nearest thing to a kamikaze outfit in the history of the U.S. Army."

Russkie Hordes Across the Wire
     If WWIII had erupted in Germany, all U.S. forces there may have had to been afflicted with the kamikaze mentality. AS it turned out, only a relatively small number of GIs directly faced off against a not much larger Communist force. Though Soviet troop strength in East Europe peaked at 600,000 in 1956, it was the satellite border police most often opposite GIs.
     For instance, in East Germany, the Group of Soviet Forces - Germany [GSFG] placed its 8th Guards Army [65,000 men-strong] behind the Thueringer Wald hills, Likewise in Czechoslovakia, Moscow's five divisions remained behind the scenes. Few Russian troops appeared along the inner German border beyond the early years.
     That was left to the Volkpolizei [VOPO], or People's Police, later renamed the Border Command, which became part of the National People's Army {NPA] in 1961. During the 1980s, the Border Command had six regiments positioned in the southern sector of the West German border. Its elite commandos were known as the "GAK."
     According to communist propaganda, "frontier troops stood guard on the dividing line between socialism and capitalism" defending against an "enemy who operates just below the threshold of the hot war." A secret order, Regulation DV-30/9, Para. 4, required an "ambush sentry" to shoot "frontier violators" if necessary. Guards who killed or wounded refugees were rewarded with medals and /or promotions.
     So all incidents with escapees would be on their territory, the eastern wire was well back from the actual frontier. Only recon troops, usually in pairs, patrolled the geographic limit. These roving border police patrols continuously monitored the entire fence system.
     Matters along the Czech border were a bit different depending on the time frame. Mines and electrification were long absent from the fence there. And tensions were minimal in the early years, but heightened later on. Czech Pioneer Service [PS] members patrolled the border backed up by 10 divisions of the People's Army.

Korean War and NATO Buildup
     During the first few years of post-war duty in Germany, the U.S. Army was essentially one of occupation concerned with the prospect of a resurgent Nazi movement. But with the advent of the Berlin Blockade in 1948-49 and the war in Korea [1950-53], the emphasis shifted to combating the threat posed by Stalin.
     Consequently, the reactivated 7th Army and its two corps redeployed for combat. The lone "Big Red One" and the armored cav regiments were reinforced by four divisions as part of the U.S. commitment to NATO. The 2nd Armored, 4th Infantry, 28th [Pa. NG] division arrived between May and November 1951.
     "Our job in Europe was to keep the communists from committing aggression; making certain our airfields stayed in friendly hands," wrote C.A. Brown, former master sergeant in Co. I, 172nd Inf. Regt., 43rd Inf. Div.
     Christopher T. Bucksath of B Co., 1st Bn., 6th ACR [1949-52] had his tour extended in Germany for one year because of the Korean War. "While on patrol duty,
 he remembered, "we lived in squad tents equipped with potbellied stoves and canvas cots. We manned primitive observation posts or patrolled in jeeps. Winter weather conditions were particularly unpleasant."
     Members of the 1st Infantry Division worked with the cav on the border. One of the forward-most units was the 26th Regiment at Bamberg. Two recon battalions patrolled the border 24 hours a day and manned OPs. "The Big Red One backed up the armored cav regiments on the border by manning strong points," said Frederic A. Butterworth, a crewman with the 63rd Tank Bn. [1949-53]. "My unit rotated one platoon of tanks at one of the positions covering the Fulda Gap for two weeks every month," he recalls. "On occasion we made a 'show of force' along the border."
     Fred Carley, a vet of the division's 1st Recon Company [1952-54], relieved the cav at Coberg and had an interesting experience. "Mistakenly passing the barrier one snowy day," he related, "we looked over and saw East German ski troops bearing down on us. Needless to say, we turned tail and crossed back over the border pronto!"
     John Pepitone, vet of the 28th Infantry Division [1952-54], remembers the border well, too. "We spent 10-day patrols
along the Czech border," he said. "There were no markings, and piano wire was sometimes stung across roads. We even captured enemy guards and they us. On May Day 1951 there was a big push on the border."
     Always in the thick of things was the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment. It was known to have a tough reputation, and its members experienced some tense moments.
     "When I arrived at my barracks," says William J. Peterson of F Co., 2nd Bn. [1950-53], "the CO said, 'I want five of their asses for every one of ours. You are the first troops the enemy will see, there is no one between the Commies and you; expect to die.' That was my first exposure to the Cold War."
     He added: "During my three years with the 14th ACR, we were always on alert. In May 1951, we were moved to within 10 miles of the border. Our base camp for patrolling was only two miles from the frontier."
     Ralph McGinnis arrived the following year and filled a slot in the 1st Bn. He was one of the first blacks to integrate the 14th ACR. "My colonel told me that if we caught a communist across the border to strap him to our jeep hood and we would get a 30-day pass," he says.
     Philip S. Krum did a stint with the 14th ACR from 1954-57. "On May 1, 1951, the alert sounded and we moved out to the border to confront communist units with tanks already in position," he remembers vividly. "It really wakes you up when you are looking down the tube of a Russian tank with 120mm cannon. And it put a tingling feeling down your spine when you reached the warning sign, '50 Meters to Border.'"

Satellites in Revolt
    
After years of Soviet repression, many captives behind the Iron Curtain had had enough. But when 300,000 East Berliners went on strike on June 16-17, 1953, the Kremlin's mailed fist came down even harder. Two Russian divisions crushed the strike, killing 600 East Germans and wounding 1,800. Some 19,000 people were jailed.
     Three years later, in October 1956, the Hungarians revolted. More than 200,000 Russian troops devastated Budapest, the country's capital. In its wake, the Red army left 5,000 dead and 20,000 wounded Hungarians. But they paid a price: 3,500 Soviets were killed.
     When it was all over, 63,000 Hungarians were exiled to Siberia, 190,000 fled to the West and 280 leaders were hung. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles correctly predicted: "People are going to accuse us that here is one of history's great moments, with the Hungarian fellows ready to stand up and die, and we had been caught napping and doing nothing."
     Donald Nipper was in Germany with the 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment at the time. "We went on full alert for about a week in October 1956 when the Hungarians made their bid for freedom," he recalls. "Escapees arrived daily and we did what we could for them. It could be dangerous. Shots went over our heads on occasion."

Berlin as Flashpoint
    
Hungary's uprising resulted in the greatest loss of life during Europe's Cold War, but the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 brought the U.S. and USSR closest to all-out war. "The Soviet threat to vital U.S. interests was in actuality even more direct and dangerous than anyone in Washington at the time realized," wrote author Robert Slusser in The Berlin Crisis of 1961.
     Not since the NATO buildup of 1951 had the Pentagon rushed so many troops to Europe. An additional 40,000 ground forces were sent to bolster the 7th Army. They included the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which arrived in November 1961, 19,000 individual replacements and 16,000 support troops. By June 1962, U.S. troop strength had reached a post-war peak of 277,342.
     Though media attention focused on the city of Berlin, activity was equally tense out on the border. Half the 7th Army was always on alert, required to be ready for combat in 30 minutes. GIs remained spirited. One said, "Someone has got to be here -  and if the Russkies want to pick a fight, no one on this side is going to roll over and play dead."
     For those on the razor's edge, it was for real. "I was extended seven months during the Berlin Crisis," said L. W. Newport, Jr., 2nd Medium Tank Bn., 1st Cav, 3rd Armored Division. "We were on constant alerts. Russian cars continually spied on us when we were training near the Fulda Gap."
     Joseph J. Sidote, HQ Troop, 1st Recon Squadron, 14th ACR, had an unnerving experience while walking the fence in 1963. "I confronted two East German border guards and a huge German shepherd and found myself facing machine pistols," he remembers. :Instinctively, I pointed my M-14 at them. We exchanged words, and finally when my partner showed up they left. But not before throwing a clump of dirt at me. That standoff seemed like an eternity."
     Jim Barnes, a scout with 1 Troop, 3rd Bn., 14th ACR spent the early '60s patrolling the trace. "Things were definitely eventful along the border during the Berlin Crisis," he said. :In 1962, my unit actually captured two Soviet personnel. And tragically, we witnessed the deaths of five East Germans attempting to escape on different occasions."
  
Twilight Years
    
Within five years of the showdown over Berlin, Moscow was enforcing its control over the destiny of Czechoslovakia. On Aug. 20, 1968, 500,000 troops from five Warsaw Pact nations, spearheaded by 7,500 tanks, crushed the uprising in Prague. Casualties were light in comparison to the Hungarian revolt, but the Czechs were thereafter saddled with 80,000 occupying Soviet troops.
     Five Soviet divisions were deployed three miles from the West German border to prevent inadvertent spillover during the invasion. The Russians continued to extinguish all lingering embers of resistance until March of 1969.
     Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment was on alert. George L. Franczak was a member of the regiment's 1st Squadron in early 1969. "I was assigned to a listening post atop a steep hill five meters from the border," says the vet.
     "As part of a  three-man team, I eavesdropped on our 'comrades' for 48 hours at a time. We rotated shifts in and out of a cabin every four hours in freezing cold. As a form of harassment, Soviets threw snowballs at our LPs in the middle of the night. In one instance, we were called to alert, and armored units from both sides faced off at the border."
     Throughout the '70s and '80s, the mission," continued unabated. "That mission," wrote Michael Skinner, "was patrolling the border. Every day, like grizzled horse soldiers, troopers of the armored cavalry squadrons mounted up and 'paced the trace.'" Beside driving in jeeps, the cav also rode the line in helicopters - Mainly OH-58 scout ships and unarmed AH-1 Cobra gunships.
     The Iron Curtain was mostly quiet, but there were tense moments. In September 1975, Vietnam vet and free-lance chopper pilot Barry Meeker made the headlines when he picked up three dissidents inside Czechoslovakia in a rented helicopter. He was fired upon by Czech border guards and injured, but made it safely to West Germany.
     It's to the credit of ordinary GIs that incidents never escalated. William Hunt, with 2nd ACR's 1st Squadron in the late '70s, recalled: "There were spots along the border you had to walk to because the jeeps could not get there. Often we would run into soldiers from the other side walking their section not 10 feet from us in some cases."
     Even just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, troopers maintained a fine edge. SSgt. Anthony Sink of the 2nd ACR, said, "This is dangerous stuff. I don't care how many times I do it, walking up and down the border at night gives me the willies."
     A fellow unit member, Spec. Daren Flippo, summed up the mission best" "You never see the Soviets patrolling out here, so sometimes you wonder what we're doing. But then you see people who are willing to risk killing themselves to get over the border. Then you know it's a mission worth doing."
 
Curtain Comes Down
      At the time the infamous Iron Curtain was razed in November 1989, 425 members of the 11th ACR faced 4,900 East Germans along the border. From that point on, they no longer carried M-16s; only .45 pistols. Three months later, on March 1, 1990, and after the last gasp of Stalinism was wiped out in Romania, the Cold War ended for America's GIs: patrols ceased and border camps became training facilities. The wire was torn down.
     The West had clearly won, largely because of the GIs who held the line in Germany for  four decades. Gen. George A. Joulwan, commander of V Corps in 1989, said it best: "We've deterred a war here fro 45 years, which is a damn sight better than fighting in one."
     East Europe was fee and the Soviet Union itself was dissolved. VII Corps, along with the 3rd Armored and 8th Infantry division, was deactivated. "This clearly marks the end of the Cold War," said Army Chief of Staff Sullivan.
      "We won the Cold War," said Maj. Gary Cavender, former executive officer of the 5th Bn., 8th Infantry, the first battalion withdrawn from Germany. "Young soldiers coming into the Army now will never understand how it was."
     And neither will the American public. As the political parties quibble over "who really won the Cold War," those who actually did are being lost in the historical shuffle.
     Isaac Oaks, a veteran of the U.S. Constabulary and the 14th ACR, probably speaks for many vets:
     "After personally witnessing death along the Iron Curtain, and spending more than 10 years in Germany during freezing winters while being scared out of my wits, I would like to say it was the American GI who won the Cold War, not the politicians."

Paying a Price
  
   American lives were lost in waging the Cold War. If those killed in the back alleys of Berlin, those shot along the Yugoslav border and killed in Greece, those murdered by terrorists in Germany and those blasted out of the sky are included, America suffered at least 200 killed in action.  Also, some of the 53 stars chiseled on the CIA memorial in Langley, VA. no doubt represent losses in East Europe.

     And what about the thousands killed on maneuvers and in training accidents in Germany -they should be counted, too. From the last quarter of 1979, when the Defense Department began keeping such statistics, through Sept. 30, 1991, 1,415 uniformed Americans died in accidents in Germany. Multiply that figure over four times for all the uncounted deaths in previous decades and the total is substantial.
     Freedom-seekers also paid a high price. Some 191 known civilians were killed at the Wall and Wire -  many shot by communist border guards. Sadly, GIs watched helplessly in some cases because they were prohibited from providing assistance to escapees unless they made it to the West.
     No monument stands to those killed in the struggle between East and West. Moreover, veterans of the Iron Curtain have not been accorded the recognition and respect they deserve. Consequently, some have come to believe they are regarded as second class veterans.
     Nilo Filidei was a scout with the 10th Recon Co., 10th Inf. Division as well as the 3rd Recon Squadron, 7th Cav Regt., in Germany from 1955-58. "I was stationed for 28 months in Germany  -  70% of the time in the field plus as a recon scout, on Czech border patrol and in some covert operations," writes Filidei. "We spent more time on 'lock and load' at the height of the Cold War and Suez Crisis than most troops recently did in Desert Storm. Yet I am a 'second class' vet."
     Donald Wechveth was with the 4th Armored Division as well as a ground surveillance platoon attached to the 2nd ACR, 1967-68. His experience was typical of many border watcher: "We spent 30-day tours on the trace," he says. "Of my 18 months in Germany, nine were spent on the border. Three-man teams did two nights of radar surveillance and one day of patrolling.
     "I carried a loaded rifle day in and day out. We were shot at , and had one overflight by a defecting MiG pilot. Alerts were commonplace. At the time we were sworn to secrecy. But now I think service in the 5K zone rates a medal."
     Others have proposed an all-encompassing medal. "Our veterans have earned a Cold War Victory Medal," wrote P.J. Budahn in the Army Times. "And their kids need it...Imagine: a kid looks at a parent with a new awareness and asks, 'What did you do in the Cold War?'  At that moment, a new American is ready to learn about service, patriotism and sacrifice."



 VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS

ARMY OF OCCUPATION

1945-55   
REBUILDING AND PROTECTING

Cold War GIs Held the Line in Germany

BY: GUSTAV BERLE

In the ten years following W.W.II, US troops occupied Germany to help reconstruct that shattered nation and guard against the expansion of Communism.  Yet this vital mission, carried out by more than a million GIs, has gone largely unheralded.

    On May 7,1945, Gen. Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower succinctly summed up the end of W.W.II in Europe: "Germany surrendered unconditionally its forces on land and sea and in the air. Germany has been thoroughly whipped."
    On the heels of Nazism's defeat loomed a task almost as large: the rebuilding of an entire nation. The effort to revive the economies of Western Europe, especially that of Germany, was as important as physically shielding borders from invading armies.  Those objectives were assigned to the U.S. Army of Occupation in the Cold War's early years.
    U.S. occupation of Germany between 1945 and 1955 had two distinct phases. First came the eradication of the last vestiges of Nazism.  Then, with the onset of the Cold War, containing Communism became primary mission. Though this period in Germany did not witness combat, it gave birth to a unique unit, produced a dramatic airlift and saw the creation of the Atlantic alliance.

Setting the Stage
    On April 6, 1945, the 69th Infantry Division had formally raised the U.S. flag over Germany at Ft. Ehrenbreitstein.  In 1945 the overriding concern of the Western Allies was to ensure Germany would never again wage war.  American GIs, like other Allied soldiers, settled down to the often mundane task of helping the former Reich become nominally self-sufficient.
     Hundreds of U.S. military government units went into action, some within days of the occupation. What they found was abject poverty and millions of homeless refugees. The Yankee occupiers-the Amis-did their best to relieve the suffering of German civilians in many individual ways. But first there was the matter of demobilization and rotation.
     When the war ended, 68 U.S. Army divisions and 2.6 million GIs were in Europe. Within a year of the massive redeployments, however, only three infantry divisions-1st, 3rd, 9th- and 278,000 men remained in Germany.

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By the end of 1946, even the latter two divisions had departed.
     The relative tranquility of the occupation lasted almost three years. New troops were rotated with regularity and hundreds of thousands of non-combat forces made the acquaintance of the former enemy from the safe confines of military compounds.

Securing Order and the Border
     Yet internal security had to be maintained. To achieve that end, the U.S. Zone Constabulary was created as an "instrument of law enforcement" and "a covering force to meet and engage a hostile armed force pending concentration of the major elements of a tactical force." Germans called Constabulary embers the blitz polizei, or "lightning police."
  
   In May 1946, most of the 1st Armored and 4th Armored divisions as well as elements of the seven mechanized cavalry groups then in Europe were redesignated as Constabulary units. This elite 35,000 man mechanized police force initially composed nine regiments, and was responsible for a zone the size of Pennsylvania. Terrain varied from craggy mountain passes to marshy moorland, from river fronts to divided towns and villages.
     The Constabulary's 32 squadrons and nine horse platoons [30 horses per platoon] patrolled the U.S. Zone's perimeter and conducted search and seizure operations -  known as "swoops" - for hidden arms caches.
     VFW member Stephen Traynor of Enderlin, N.D., was among the first to join the Constabulary. "As I was a farm boy, Volunteered for the mounted troops and was sent to Sonthofen, Bavaria to train troops in police work of all kinds. Unfortunately, Constabulary service is little known even among fellow vets."
     Reduced in size by one-third within a year of formation, the Constabulary in 1948 was reorganized tactically into the 2nd, 6th and 14th Armored Cavalry regiments {ACRs}. The ACRs were deployed along the border to guard against increasingly threatening Communist movements in Eastern Europe.
     With the activation of the new U.S. Seventh Army, the Constabulary was phased out in November 1950 with the exception of the 15th and 24th Squadrons which remained on duty until December 1952. [A recon unit of the former 4th Regiment also was stationed in Austria.]
     By then the Allies had helped create a German border guard and custom officer force, numbering 26,700 supported by 1,250 trained police dogs. The longest single border separated West from East Germany, and proved the most troublesome.
     The Russians organized East Germans into a 45,000-member border police that kept day-and-night watch over the "Iron Curtain." Ultimately, the fenced-off, booby-trapped border cut off virtually all avenues of escape from the East. But before the barrier was completed in 1952, many refugees found freedom.
     Recalled Past Commander-in-chief Norman Staab [1986-87], a member of the 1st Infantry Division's 16th Infantry Regiment n 1950, "I saw the exodus from the East. They come on bicycles and in wagons. They walked with backpacks. When the border was closed some continued to make their way to the West. They risked their lives for freedom...the experience has helped me realize how wonderful it is to be an American."
     GIs stationed along the frontier often unofficially aided many of the 2 million refugees who eventually escaped across the border, including some 3,000 East German Border Guards who deserted.
     Meanwhile, GIs helped construct a new Germany literally from the ground up. The wirtschaftswunder-German economic miracle - was made possible in part by thousands of hard-working Americans, especially members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
     One small example: the 175th Engineer Heavy Equipment Company spent three months clearing land near the village of Weingarten along the Rhine River, earning the people's ever-lasting respect. The town's mayor expressed that gratitude when he said, " Without the help of the American engineers, Weingarten could never have built its community vineyard. We were happy to have American soldiers as our guests."
     Such endeavors went a long way toward winning hearts and minds. In villages across Germany, bonds of friendship between former enemies were cemented for  generations to come.  In villages across Germany, bonds of friendship between former enemies were cemented for generations to come.
     VFW Adjutant General Howard E. Vander Clute, Jr., who served as an engineer with the 7822nd Service Complement Unit [Detachment D] at Munich Military Post between 1951-53, says, "As engineers, we derived great deal of satisfaction from knowing that we contributed to the reconstruction of a future ally during a critical period of the Cold War."

West Germany was divided into British, French and U.S. sectors after W.W.II for occupation purposes. GIs patrolled an area about the size of Pennsylvania. During the blockade of Berlin, three air corridors served as lifelines to the city's isolated inhabitants.
Medal for Humane Action, was awarded to personnel who participated in the Berlin Airlift for 120 days or more between June 26, 1948 and Sept. 30, 1949.


Cold War Heats Up
     While nation-building progressed, tensions with communism mounted. In 1948 two pivotal geopolitical events occurred that affected the Allied occupation of Western Europe dramatically.
     In February of that year, the coalition government of Czechoslovakia was overthrown in a Communist coup. Soviet leader Josef Stalin's intentions in Eastern Europe were made clear for the world to see: only Communist regimes would be tolerated there. Western security emphasis quickly shifted from guarding against a scarcely existing Nazi danger to a very real Communist one.
     Four months after the Czech coup, on June 33, the Soviet enforced blockade of Berlin was launched, igniting the first major direct confrontation of the Cold War between Moscow and the West.
     Designed to force the Western Allied into submission on many controversial economic and political demands, the Berlin Blockade lasted from June 26, 1948 until May 11, 1949 when

{to be continued}


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Credit: George Thompson.