Friends and Neighbors
Lieutenant-Colonel, from my old neighbor Dave Davidson:
This uniform is from a neighbor I had as a very young lad, He seemed old to me, but I was maybe 45-50...I was like 8-10 years old, he had given me many brass items to buy on my shirts and play with I very much realize I lost in the back yard and in the woods, etc. We would be playing Anything-War… And upon his passing of his wife and then him, this uniform came to me, Via my Mom....who had gotten apparently it had been in his will I got this!!!
How cool is that, and there came to be some stories and legend for this man, and I remember him as an insurance salesman or something, I had been over once or twice to ask him the story of his military carrier, but much of it has been lost to time, I did see the picture of him with General MacArthur and some Celebs, from like recognition - event.
It was said it had been 'Macarthur's Aid', and was left behind when the General left Corregidor, but has no POW Medal on the uniform, so I think he was his aid maybe into post-war or the Korean War if so.
These uniforms were being phased out about that time, Army Officer, Summer Dress Whites....for several reasons. His sons both served too I think and had gone on to become officers, that would have been the very late 60's and someone said they served in Vietnam- again I cannot remember other than they wore wonderful fellows. He had served against the Japanese, and in the Philippines was as I remember it.... possibly Europe. His CIB was missing, But-I know he had one as I got it when I was a kid I seem to remember- all kinds of his prior lower ranks- he fixed me up with- and-I put on everyone's shire when we played- can’t believe he did that he had to know I will be...well a little kid without regard to what he had done to earn them.... do regret that now.
Say-What! Ya, His Ribbons bar set, on its cloth backing has a clutch back, that appeared in the late wartime, on it, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Bronze Star with Oakleaf (indicating 2ns Award), the purple hart (That led to him meeting the nurse that became his wife. Good Conduct medal, American Defense Service Medal (2nd Award), American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Asia Pacific Campaign (with 2 Campaign Stars) WWII Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal... and Philippines Liberation Medal...that tells a lot what he was recognized for.... what went unnoticed one wonders…He was a wonderful man as I knew him. RIP. Dave.
These uniforms were being phased out about that time, Army Officer, Summer Dress Whites....for several reasons. His sons both served too I think and had gone on to become officers, that would have been the very late 60's and someone said they served in Vietnam- again I cannot remember other than they wore wonderful fellows.
*Class A’ MP Uniform, From my Friend Tom Mullens:
Tom Mullins, my very good friend, gave me his Class-A Uniform; it is in the “Vietnam_MP Section " now.
Sergeant, Cyrus Lee, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd AD at the Fulda Gap, Germany 1980-82:
Sometime after meeting my friend Cyrus, I stopped by his home, and I eventually got a bit of a story about some of his military career, and some of the events of his Army life, a story of a special few of US Soldiers, had obtained some camouflage clothing from there German Allies, and there position at the Fulda Gap and their position as a reconnaissance outfit on Germany's border.....during the Cold War. This interesting story of this uniform shows the only unofficial utilization of the Bundesgrenzschutz camouflage uniform with US troops in the Cold War. Ok, as he tells it’
I enlisted in the U.S. Army in early 1979 when I hit the end of my savings while trying to find a job as a teacher in Portland, Oregon. Later on, in my life, I would find from my brother that it was the worst time in Portland’s history to look for a job, that he, a lifelong resident, could recall. He was sure about that! First, I poked around at the Navy, as I had been in the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps in High School. I was looking to follow in my Fathers Footsteps in the Aviation field.
But what I really wanted was to get to Europe and go through Germany. Collecting German wartime material was a major interest,t and I had spent a summer in France. Never got to any ‘Battle Sites’, but loved driving through the countryside, loving the Europeans, and their Country. I walked into the Army Recruiter and told him I was interested in Germany and combat arms. They took me to lunch, and told me I was in luck and could get me right in, as a combat infantry soldier, and stationed for 2 years in Germany!…… And I signed on the dotted line.
After Basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Infantry training at Fort Benning, Georgia, I was winging my way across the Atlantic in a Boeing 707 filled with soldiers and their dependents. Landing in Frankfurt, I was in-process and assigned to the 3rd Armored Division. The 3rd Brigade was garrisoned at Coleman Kaserne in Gelnhausen.
Our Battalion was to be in the ‘Opposition Forces’ (OPFOR) rot the giant REFORGER (Return of Forces to Germany) named Cursaider ‘80. Hosted by our Allies, the Brits, we loaded our vehicles onto flat-cars and headed to I was a ‘Specialist Northern Germany, home of the BOAR or British Army on the Rhine. I was a Specialist Fourth Class, assigned as a ‘Track Commander’ of one of the M113 Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs). It was Fully-Tracked and made of Aluminum Armor to be light, and Amphibious, it could traverse all terrains, and keep place with its counterpart the M-60A-3 Main Battle Tanks, “Track” B 3/3 Carried an M2 Browning .50 Calibre Machine Gun in a small cupola, and carried a Dragon Wire Guided, Anti-Tank Missle System on it, and carried and Infantry Squad in it. Our job in OPFOR was to act the part of the ‘Red Army’ was the mission.
Fake Quad-Gun configurations were added to some of our vehicles, while the infantry troops were supposed to ride standing up in the back, to simulate how the Russian troops sit in their BMP vehicles. Like, the Russians are such chumps that they would do that? And the BMPs have 76mm guns and better armor to protect them, complete with rifle ports! It was a great month hanging with the Brits in garrison, and for me, I met a guy from Manchester, John “Ski” Milejski. I ended up traveling and being good mates for many years!
One thing that got to me was the British use of camouflage combat uniforms! I wheeled and sealed for some of those, and started to ask our chain of command why we didn’t wear these? I had come to Germany with a set of ERDL camouflaged ‘Cammie’ uniforms and wore them on occasion, this is another story (They had been phased out following Vietnam), But when I was in, the Fatigue Greens was the gig, cammies were not unknown, as we wore it on our helmets all the time.
We were told back at the NCO academy that we were supposed to improvise and overcome stuff like this, in the field, one instructor used brow nad black Kiwi shoe polish for making his camouflaged uniform. During a session with the USAREUR Command Sergeant Major, we were told new camouflaged uniforms were under development. When I got back from the NCO-Academy, I was assigned as a new squad leader, with 3rd Squad, 3rd Platoon, the “Third Herd” of B Company.
I decided I needed to do something to make my mark, so on a Saturday visit to the Frankfurt Flomarkt (a sort of Flea Market), I was able to buy a whole duffle bag full of German Border Guard Camouflaged uniforms from a rags merchant. The Camouflage pattern was very nearly the same as the Tan and Water pattern of the WWII period! (That is excellent camouflage), and that these might give my guys an edge in the coming MILES exercise.
MILES is like a giant laser-tag game for soldiers, where you shoot blanks through your weapons, and that activates a laser in the barrels plug on the end, and that activated whoever your shooting at’s Miles harness - detectors, and yours and his start making all kinds of squealing noises until you remove the key from your weapon, and the “Umpire” reset the system, preventing soldiers going back into the fight. A pretty cool system for the 1980s.
I issued the camo uniforms the night before, and when we hit the patrol course the OPFOR guys bitched that they couldn’t see us! (The Point). I also did some crazy shit, like not move along the main routes or access roads, I had my guys way out in the woods. Instead of direct assaults on sentries, I had my ‘Daniel Boone Guy’, he was from the Mountains and knew how to hunt, go sneak around behind them, and go commando on them, clear the area of the mines. On the last bunker, the highlight of our show, we low crawled, really slowly,y till we were just about on them, like a wild animal and its prey, we just rose out of the weeds, and the game was over. Again, cries went out over not being able to see us! The NCO in charge bitching-we cheated, that Lee’s troops wore camouflage, it was unfair!
From that time on, through the rest of my time with B Company until I was ordered to a staff NCO job facilitating battalion training, my squad wore the BBS Camouflage every time we went into training. We were written up in the “Stare’s and Stripe’s” Magazine for the use of the camouflage by B3/3 during the training course.
During the training rotation in Grafenwohr, I decided to paint up our track. We masked up and painted an SS Totenkopf under the driver’s hatch. Again, my guys had a morale boost that no other squad had. The officer corps worshiped the German Military of WWII, as they had fought the Russians and well they lost; it was against enormous odds, and now they were allies!
So if it was German, it was good! We often had locals toss us beers as we road marched through the German villages and towns, meeting the Veterans who lived there. Eventually, though, pressure from higher command came from up the chain of command, not originating in our Battalion, and my Platoon Leader called me in and told me, Sergeant Lee, you have to lose the ‘Jolly Roger’. I took the hint and went back and told the crew, and so we painted it black. You could still sorta see it, but we complied with our orders (There was black in the paint scheme).
My active duty time came to an end in 1983 when I took a European separation. My wife was working for the Department of Defence Schools, and so that Summer we took a 3-month European camping adventure, which we still refer to as” Endless Summe,r” that took Kim, our first German Shepard Elsa, and me around the edges of Western Europe in a bright green Peugeot 104. After that, I started work as 3AD’s Class II & Class IV Supply Warehouse Supervisor. Other jobs came along with a lot more European Adventures, but that is all other stories.
The 3 photos, at the bottom, are his, and show a very special group of fellows: As I remember it, he said: Mostly we wore West-German jackets. 'We never wore a Boonie cap or trousers made from that 'camo'. I had a cap, but most of the time you wear your helmet (M1C rebuilds) in the field, and those had the standard US. camouflaged cover.
One day I talked about putting this into the collection, and I thank you, Cyrus, you did, and for sharing this interesting story, and thanks for the pictures of that time in your life. He mentioned he just wanted the uniform represented right; it is his story, so hopefully, I have it right.
Note that these photographs were from Cyrus Lee, from his time in Germany, and used with his permission.
