1963 - At the Augsburg City Hall's Golden Salon, 24th Inf Div Commanding General Cunningham is given a tour by then Mayor Dr. Klaus Mueller.   Behind is Staff Sergeant Reese as dolmetcher (translator).  The Christian-Democratic Mayor was shortly replaced by a Social Democrat.  No wonder.   Look at the opulence.

At Flak Kaserne: checking copy before the daily AFN linefeed.  Spec 5 was an old hand who had come into Germany in 1945, and remembered Europe when it was like an anthill kicked over.  Stanley Rabinowitz is in between - see text.  The author is on the right; I was still trying to convince the Army I was only 10 years old.

 
Berlin, 1963 - two 24th Division enlisted get to see the new Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.  Me on the right.  I was going to shout out, "Mr. Khrushchev, tear down this Wall."  But I figured he wouldn't listen to me.

Berlin, 1964 - The Soviet War Memorial garden in East Berlin.  Altho a German civilian could be shot for crossing the sector boundaries, according to the occupation agreements 20 years before, an Allied soldier could freely pass without challenge.

Augsburg, 1963 - Author interviews a Count of the House of Hohenzollern, a descendent of Kaiser Wilhelm and boar-hunting chum of the commanding general,  So I should have asked, "Isn't it originally your family's fault we're here?"

Grafenwehr training area - observing armor and artillery movements.

My last interview - with the division mascot.  Gulp!   I don't want to ask any awkward questions.

See also:
this Webmaster's vast military history site at nymas.org

I served at Flak Kaserne on the 3^rd floor of the Hqs building of the 24^th Infantry Division from Spring 1963 to Summer 1964.

I remember being hushed a lot - to keep down the noise because we were on the 3rd floor and the Division Commander, Major General Cunningham's office was right under us on the 2nd floor. (The previous CO was General Edwin Walker, whom JFK removed from command of the 24th in 1961 for distributing right-wing literature as troop information.)

I have lots of tidbits, tapes, photographs and memories. Was starting to write some of them down. For example:

Of course, there was a draft then, which meant that soldiers came in many more shapes and sizes than now. Stanley Rabinowitz from Pittsburgh looked something like a cartoon character, lanky, gawky, near-sighted, made you wonder about what Army regs said about minimum vision requirements for active service. But Stanley brought to the US Army a great gift: a polished, sonorous, and soothing voice made for network radio.  If you needed a scene where the Lord spoke down thru the clouds, Stanley could do the voice-over.

After basic training, with my English major and six years of radio & TV experience, I was sent for advanced training to become a helicopter mechanic. The joke was that if I had been a garbage man I would have become a general’s driver.

But while I had managed to get into this AFN affiliation via the 24^th Infantry Division, Stanley had gotten it directly. What else could they do with him?

For all the "Troop Information" and promotion of "Unit Tradition", our thinking was more than a little modified in the move-around Army of the time.   The weekly AFN - Munich radio program Stanley and I and the others in the office produced - began with thunderous drums and a grim-voiced announcer:

"From the island of Leyte

To the rocky hills of Korea

To the mountains of Bavaria

Proudly waves the banner of the 24^th Infantry Division"

Click here to listen

Compilation of clips and programs from the 24th Division Information Office in early 1964 as broadcast on AFN Munich, AFN Berlin and network-wide on AFN Europe, includes:

 

Overview & clips of the radio section of the 24th (5 minutes)

 

Click here to listen

AFN Weekend World's piece on Augsburg Mayor Klaus Mueller getting US Army Award

AFN Weekend World's piece on the medieval social settlement in Augsburg, Die Fuggerei

Victory Division Showcase on tactical air support and ops in the Libyan Desert

Victory Division Showcase about the 24th Hqs city, Augsburg and its past.

 

 

Actually we had a somewhat more jaundiced view:

Klaus Cook from Flak Kaserne. Still need photos of Flak, around the Kaserne and outside the gates,and also need photos of Kriegshaber area around Flak. Does anyone have info on info on SSG Reese and SSG Wegner from G-5 Civil Affairs 24th Inf Div Flak Kaserne. CD Rom was very interesting and worth the money to me. Contact Requested"

This part down are resources for this page, all subject to editing.

Dear Bill,

I was delighted to discover your message on the FSA / Augsburg site.

I served on the 3^rd floor of the Hqs building of the 24^th Infantry Division from Spring 1963 to Summer 1964. I wasn’t in Civil Affairs but rather in the adjoining Information Office.

I do remember SSG Reese and SSG Wegner, very serious guys in "Zivilangelegenheiten"

I also remember:

Putting together the weekly American Forces Network program called "The Victory Division Showcase"

(thumping, dramatic music, then)

From the island of Leyte

To the rocky hills of Korea

To the mountains of Bavaria

Proudly waves the banner of the 24^th Infantry Division

Master Sergeant Kaye: very much the Master Sergeant type – till he ran into the back of this PFC’s little VW on a snowy day on the road between Flak and Sheridan Kasernes.

How about Sgt. Stenbach who came from German noble lineage; the mirthful discussion was whether he had to be addressed as Count-Sergeant Stenbach or Sergeant-Count Stenbach?

Lt. Donald T. Laird: treated with reverse favoritism, perhaps because he was the nephew of Defense Subcommittee Congressman Melvin T. Laird (later, Secretary of Defense). Well, he did take me to a superb dinner at the French Officers’ Club in Berlin.

Pfc Stanley Rabinowitz, from Pittsburgh, looked like the original Sad Sack but had the voice of a god. My pleasure to share the daily and weekly Division news reports to AFN with him.

Bill Seekamp, Div photographer: if you went on assignment with Bill you might get a b&w 5x7 with yourself in it. Have some great ones from the Berlin deployment – "exercising rights of access under the Potsdam Agreement" all to avoid another Berlin Airlift.

Lt. Berensen(?) head of Civil Affairs, and section CO Major Hervey.

Also remember being hushed a lot - to keep down the noise because we were on the 3^rd floor and the Division Commander, Major General Cunningham’s office was right under us on the 2^nd floor. (The previous CO was General Edwin Walker, a right-wing, anti-Castro, anti-civil-rights fanatic whom JFK removed from command of the 24^th in 1961 for distributing right-wing literature as troop information. General Walker then had the distinction, at his home in Dallas, of being shot at by Lee Harvey Oswald, seven months before the JFK assassination. – I’m putting together some research on him and other background on the Division.)

Most of us didn’t end up in Vietnam, thank God. I got a European separation and the Section gave me a PIO/Civil Affairs party two days into my civilian transformation thanks to the quiet and efficient Section CO Major Hervey. This draftee attended the party in his blue jeans at the Flak HHC 3^rd floor Hqs. Then it was off to Italy, France, England, Denmark, Sweden...

Let me know if you find any of this interesting or perhaps worthy of posting on the FSA / Augsburg Page. I’ve also got some tapes from the time including some on the history of Augsburg I’m planning to transcribe.

Robert Rowen

President

Library Automation Management, Inc.

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Gen. Edwin Walker, 83, is dead; Promoted rightist causes in 60's; Pace, Eric; New York

Times Current Events Edition, New York; Nov 2, 1993; Late Edition (East Coast); pg. B10

EDWIN WALKER, CONTROVERSIAL GENERAL Miami Herald , TUE November 2, 1993 ASSOCIATED PRESS Edition: FINAL , Section: LOCAL , Page: 4B

DEATHS

DALLAS - Edwin Walker, an Army general who allegedly was shot at by Lee Harvey Oswald and was demoted by President Kennedy for espousing extreme right-wing beliefs to his troops during the Cold War, is dead at age 84. The retired major general died Sunday in the Dallas home that he bought after Kennedy removed him from his command in Germany in 1961 for distributing literature to soldiers.

Walker died apparently of lung disease, said Joe McGuire, an investigator for the Dallas County medical examiner's office.

In Warren Commission interviews, Oswald's wife said Oswald fired through the window of Walker's home in April 1963 with the mail-order rifle believed to have been used to kill Kennedy in Dallas seven months later.

Marina Oswald told the commission that her husband had planned the attack for two months. The bullet passed near Walker's head, and Walker saved the glass as a memento.

In 1957, Walker appeared on the cover of Time magazine as a hero after he led federal troops integrating the schools in Little Rock, Ark.

In fact, Walker commanded the troops only after Gen. Dwight Eisenhower refused his resignation, historian Don Carleton, author of Red Scare, told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"He did not want to carry out that order," Carleton said. "He did not believe in racial integration."

After being pulled from Germany, Walker resigned his commission and demonstrated against James Meredith's integration of the University of Mississippi.

Media coverage of the Meredith protests prompted Walker to file libel lawsuits against a dozen media organizations, including The Associated Press.

Although a jury initially awarded Walker $500,000 from The AP for the 1962 report, the Supreme Court later reversed that ruling.

In that decision, the high court held that public figures were the same as public officials, meaning that the media deserved protection for mistakes made without malice.

Walker grew up on a Texas ranch and returned to Dallas because of its strong conservative community, said Darwin Payne, a former Dallas newspaper reporter who teaches journalism at Southern Methodist University.

Walker was known to fly the American flag upside down as a sign of distress over what he perceived to the communist leanings of Kennedy and other government officials, Payne said.

Walker was active in the John Birch Society and ran for governor against Gov. John Connally in 1962.

"He was not a good speaker. He was a poor campaigner and finished last in a field of six, which was a surprise because he had so many ardent followers in the right wing. So that tarnished his reputation," Payne said.

Walker never married. Survivors include a nephew, George Walker.

PHOTO

Edwin WALKER

Miami Herald © 1999 The Miami Herald Publishing Co. Dialog® File Number 702 Accession Number 7072421

How about Sgt. Stenbach who came from German noble lineage; the mirthful discussion was whether he has to be addressed as Count-Sergeant Stenbach or Sergeant-Count Stenbach

Most of us didn’t end up in Vietnam, thank God. I got a European separation and the Section gave me a PIO/Civil Affairs party. I came back in my blue jeans, thanks to the quiet and efficient Section CO Major Hervey.

A RESOLUTION

1- 1 Urging the United States Secretary of Defense and the

1- 2 Secretary of the Army not to change the designation of the

1- 3 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart; and for

1- 4 other purposes.

1- 5 WHEREAS, on February 10, 1995, the United States Secretary

1- 6 of Defense and the Secretary of the Army announced plans to

1- 7 redesignate the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort

1- 8 Stewart as the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) sometime

1- 9 after October 1, 1995; and

1-10 WHEREAS, this announcement is part of the United States

1-11 Army's plan to restructure its overall organization and

1-12 downsize from 12 to 10 active divisions; and

1-13 WHEREAS, the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) is one of

1-14 the Army's six heavy divisions and has a proud and

1-15 distinguished history as a prominent military defense unit;

1-16 and

1-17 WHEREAS, this division was organized in 1921 as part of the

1-18 "Hawaiian" division and has stood as a front line defense

1-19 for this nation and its allies in all parts of the world;

1-20 and

1-21 WHEREAS, the 24th Infantry Division earned the motto First

1-22 To Fight since this division was the first American unit to

1-23 respond to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December

1-24 7, 1941; and

1-25 WHEREAS, since these earliest days, this division has

1-26 provided front line troops throughout the Pacific, Korea,

1-27 Europe, and most recently in Saudi Arabia and Iraq; and its

1-28 unique history warrants its continued recognition and

1-29 designation as the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized).

1-30 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF

1-31 REPRESENTATIVES that the members of this body urge the

1-32 United States Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the

1-33 Army not to change the designation of the 24th Infantry

1-34 Division (Mechanized) given its distinguished record as a

1-35 victory division throughout its proud history.

-1- (Index)

LC 8 2475

2- 1 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the House of

2- 2 Representatives is authorized and directed to transmit an

2- 3 appropriate copy of this resolution to the United States

2- 4 Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Army and to

2- 5 each member of the Georgia congressional delegation.

THE 24TH INFANTRY DIVISION IS INACTIVE, IT WILL BE REACTIVATED ON 5 June 1999, at FORT RILEY, KANSAS. IT WILL BE AN EXPERIMENTAL INTEGRATED DIVISION (ACTIVE COMPONENT/RESERVE COMPONENT).

The Honest John was a nuclear tactical weapon capable of carrying a 1-Kiloton nuclear warhead to a range of 40 km. Thus was born the nuclear role of The RCA. The role of the 2nd SSM Battery was to train replacements and reinforcements for the 1st Battery. The SSM Batteries would remain in service until 1970, when the Canadian NATO Brigade Group’s role in Europe was reduced in scope, and the Brigade Group was repositioned to CENTAG.

From one 24th vet:  My period was an interesting time and encompassed the Berlin Wall Crisis, the Cuban Missle Crisis, and Kennedy's assasanation. The Kennedy matter initially prompted a full blown alert, but quickly cooled down. The Berlin Wall was by and large "a fait accomplie" at the inception of my stay with major "breaks" having been quickly repaired. The Cuban crisis from beginning to end was a "wooley bugger". Everything was locked and loaded, work hours were dramatically extended, dummy heads were schucked for the real McCoys, and dependents together with knowledgeable local cognoscenti hooked it as far away from the "Fulda Gap" with all the gas they could get their hands on, including milk cartons and snap caps. I suppose semi "witch hunts" prompted in no small part by the misbehavior of some of our British cousins should be mentioned.