Loading the train to Hohenfels

In January 1978 we loaded our mechanized infantry battalion vehicles on a train to make the journey to the Hohenfels training area. Our kaserne was in Goeppingen, FRG,  a small town southeast of Stuttgart in southwest Germany. To avoid traffic, we rumbled in the early morning through the silent streets of the city to the railhead. When we arrived we saw a long row of flatbed rail cars for the vehicles and passenger cars for the infantry.

In the motor pool of the 1/26th Infantry, Goeppingen, Federal Republic of Germany, in 1978. Lt Whitehead, Platoon Leader, is on the right.

That is what we were, infantry. I was the Weapons Platoon Leader for Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment of the fabled 1st Infantry Division, known as the Big Red One. The joke that we heard too often was “If you to be one, be a big, red one.” 

This being January in Germany it was cold, so we were ready to get on with the business of loading the train so that we could go sit in the warm passenger cars. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was commonly called West Germany in the days when there was an East Germany and a wall through the middle of Berlin. The 7th Army and US Army in Europe, with over 200,00 troops, was comprised of the V and VII Corps, with two Armored Divisions (the 1st and 3rd), two Infantry Divisions (the 3rd and 8th) plus the 1st Infantry Division (Forward). We were the trip wire on the Russian Front if the Warsaw Pact horde was to pour across the border.

At the end of the train was a loading ramp. The first M113 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) in the 1st Platoon  of Alpha Company edged up the loading ramp and on to the last flatbed car in the train. The drivers head poked from a hatch at the top left front of the vehicle. The vehicle commander, in a hatch at the top center of the vehicle, was exposed from the waist up. Both wore helmets, which they used to communicate with each other by intercom over the roar of the diesel engine positioned to the right of the driver. A ground guide stood in front, ready to lead the vehicle forward.

With over 100 armored vehicles in the battalion, and dozens of wheeled vehicles, there were close to a hundred flatbed rail cars stretched into the distance.  The Alpha Company APC had to drive the length of the train. I noticed that the tracks of the vehicle hung 6 inches over the side of the flatbed on each side.

Loading the train was a job for the enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. The officers were spectators. When the APCs reached their designated spot on the railcar, the crew pulled out the tie down equipment. The men worked with speed and confidence, demonstrating that they had done this before. A large wooden block was positioned at the front and the rear of each track. With hammers and large nails, the blocks were secured to the rail car. Crossed tie down cables in the front and the rear completed the task. 

When the troops had completed their work, I wondered if we could leave the cold night for the warm embrace of the passenger cars. But we were not finished. The train load had to be inspected by a sturdy, middle-aged representative of the German Bundesban. His blue coat and hat signaled his position and responsibility. From one end of the train I watched as he walked beside the rail cars, accompanied by our S-4 Supply Officer. His pace was neither fast, nor slow, but methodical. I wondered if he was going to inspect the tie downs of every vehicle. Indeed, he was, and he did.

When he finished, the signal was given, and we boarded the train. When we got to Hohenfels, there was snow on the ground.