In late 1971, First Platoon of B Company was sent to the Wildflecken Training Area to perform demolition in some barracks planned for renovation, and to install the boilers that would be hooked up to warm those barracks. The work included some intense jackhammer time, and a lot of muscle manhandling boilers. After we got into scheduling the work, it became apparent that the boiler replacements would go on for another eighteen months or so. The project was turned over to the local 54th Engineers for completion, rather than having 79th folks there for that length of time.
Ansbach Projects
March - June 1972
Second Platoon of B Company was sent to renovate an old (1938) barracks at Katterbach Kaserne in Ansbach to serve as the 1st Armored Division NCO Academy, while First Platoon was assigned to renovate a really old (1700's) building at Hindenburg Kaserne in Ansbach for use as the 1st Armored Division legal office. Working around the division headquarters created some special challenges for the engineer troops doing the work. Almost everyone knows engineers get pretty dusty doing demolition and construction, and lime plaster can really do a job on boots and a set of fatigues. It didn't help that the 79th troops had to live in the NCO academy during the projects. Nevertheless, everyone survived and B Company received two 24th Engineer Group Outstanding Construction Awards for the two projects.
Reisenbach
August - November 1972
Much of B Company First Platoon got something of a break after Ansbach when they were sent to renovate a remote signal site in the mountains northeast of Heidelberg. Radio Relay Reisenbach was built in the 1950's, and got little maintenance for about 15 years. These were prefab buildings, intended for about ten years, which they had already doubled. It looked like when a building got bad, the occupants just moved folks into another, and let the first go. After things got too crowded in the last building, they closed down the site and left two guards to take care of it for a year. In that timeframe, there was considerable additional vandalism, including driving a truck into one corner of the building, and taking an axe to interior fixtures.
(It appears that the units that operated the Reisenbach site before 1970 fondly recall their time there. Their reunion website has a number of pictures of what the site looked like then, and now. Reisenbach Reunion Group )
From parts of two buildings, the 79th was to make one building suitable for a combination barracks and dayroom, replacing all electrical and plumbing, as well as replacing the perimeter fence. Since the site was so remote, all concrete was produced with a 16-S mixer. We also demolished several blast walls and hauled away the debris. The end result of the renovation was better than anyone could have expected, and B Company won a 24th Engineer Group Outstanding Construction Award for the project.
The project was also notable because our engineers had to live in a local German gasthaus since there were no US facilities available. Tough duty. Actually, it was tougher than it sounds. It was a very small village, a good distance from any reasonable towns, and there was not much for our guys to do. Then there was the food. (Nothing gets soldiers' attention more quickly.) German breakfasts just weren't what our fellows were looking for, and even wiener schnitzel and spaetzle for supper gets boring after awhile. Three months was about enough for our guys. You wouldn't believe that now looking at the stories the previous occupants tell (see website link above).
Hohenfels Steep Grade
Summer 1972
The fellows at Reisenbach didn't know what they were missing. They could have been at Hohenfels with some of their vertical construction brothers supporting one of the 79th's big earthmoving projects. At Hohenfels, one of the narrow tank trails had a very steep incline, bottoming out at a creek crossing. It had proven to be very difficult for either tracked or wheeled vehicles to maintain their brakes and stay in control down the steep grade. More than a few soldiers had been killed over the years. B Company's earthmoving platoon significantly reduced the grade by placing a whole bunch of fill over a box culvert built by one of the vertical construction squads. The fill was tall enough that German authorities reportedly later argued that it should be designed as a dam because of the water it retains during exceptionally heavy rains. Traffic on the upgraded tank trail was safer and much improved, and the project won another 24th Engineer Group Outstanding Construction Award.
Tank Ranges 12 and 80
1973
C Company's project at Tank Ranges 12 and 80 was a whopper in its own right. They had significant support from HHC in the form of surveying control and soils lab work. The folks from A Company operated a quarry near the range, providing gravel for C Company's new tank trails. C Company occupied both their vertical construction platoons, and all the earthmoving assets in the battalion. A pretty big job for a group of young fellows, and they did it safely, taking care of each other. Tragically, we lost a B Company earthmoving soldier who drowned swimming in an old quarry near Graf after an especially hot day on the range.
Grafenwoehr Maintenance Complex
March 1973 - July 1974
The Maintenance Complex was the biggest project B Company had taken on in a long time. Planning started in the winter of 1972-1973 with LT Kenneth Clow as the Project Officer. By the time B Company moved to Graf in the spring of 1973, CPT William Gay had assumed command of the company, and LT Sidney Allison took over as the Project Officer. LT Allison was promoted to CPT and reassigned, and in the fall of 1973, LT Lee Davis took over as Project Officer and finished the job.
Just about nobody from B Company (or the rest of the 79th, for that matter) was left in Karlsruhe. Both B Company vertical construction platoons were involved at the Maintenance Complex site, and the earthmoving platoon was working with C Company on the upgrade of Tank Ranges 12 and 80. The early work on the Maintenance Complex involved getting the building foundations and structure in place, and a whole pile of grading and paving. The paving equipment came from the 24th Engineer Group's Equipment Platoon, and labor was provided by the 79th. Concrete paving went on dusk-to-dawn for months. There were also hundreds of yards of concrete-paved drainage ditches, sludge traps, and oil separators that had to go in, as well.
I'll leave it to the Webmaster to tell the story of how the Maintenance Complex project turned out, since he was there. In response to the observation that the NCOs were not very visible on the jobsite, I can only recall that there were not many there in the first place. In the post-Vietnam draw-down, the Army was having a hard time convincing career soldiers that they should stay in, especially after twenty years. Europe came lower in priority than Asian assignments, or apparently than stateside duty for that matter. B Company had First Sergeant Givens, a number of earthmoving NCOs, and several experienced vertical construction leaders like 1st Platoon's SFC Crawford out on the line. They were good NCOs, but they were spread plenty thin. In general, things got done because some special young fellows like Mike Bridge and Gary Burdett got picked to be acting NCOs. They took the challenge, and stepped up and got more done with fewer resources than anyone could reasonably have expected of them.
