Oral History Interview with Jim Welsh, 7776 to 17th taken at the 2006 reunion, Fort Hood.
I took basic training and attended Parachute Jump School at Fort Benning Georgia, having chosen and volunteered for parachute duty hardly a week after entering the Army in August 1943 – a most unlikely-looking prospect – weighing probably 150 pounds, skinny, coming off a drafting stool in the Navy Yard, Washington D.C. and my most vigorous sport and exercise being indoor roller-skating with my girlfriend Nancy!
Nonetheless, I was assigned to the 515th not 551st Parachute Infantry Regiment – a newly-formed unit consisting only of “cadre” (supervisory personnel, Officers and Enlisted Men), awaiting arrival of the full complement of raw recruits and trainees like me/I. I should add: All cadre were qualified Parachutists; some even having jumped in North Africa in the 509’s early action – thus my training was ultra-rigorous and ultra-disciplined with constant tauntings like, “You Sissy, you’ll never be a Paratrooper; You haven’t the guts!” and “Go up to the Orderly Room and sign a “Quit Slip”, we don’t want you!” With training and taunting like this, I eventually became an agile, well-muscled 168 pond US Army Paratrooper qualified (and expected) to “jump from an airplane in flight’ – and back then but not nowadays “pack a parachute”!
Shortly after all had completed Basic Training and Jump School in early January 1944, the entire regiment moved to Camp Mackall, North Carolina for additional field training and preparation for overseas shipment.
One evening (I could look up the specific date, but won’t) someone came down thru the area and into each barrack saying,
“We’re all restricted to the Company Area – some outfit making a training jump, just dropped a number of men in a lake – we are to stand by for possible rescue duty!”
We WEREN’T called out for rescue service, but naturally curiosity ran high – the big question: “Who?”. “What Outfit?” “Did anyone drown?” etc.etc.. Slowly the answer came in – it was the Five Five One!
“551?” “Who are they?” “’Never heard of them!” “; Must be some other outfit!” Expressions like these were everywhere. Nobody had ever heard of a 551 parachute unit!!
But slowly, as the next day wore on, little tidbits (that word again!) began coming in: “They’re not long back from Panama”; “They trained in Jungle Warfare in Panama”; They were scheduled to jump onto some French island in the Caribbean” etc – then followed by words and terms like “Wild” “Undisciplined” ‘’Drunk” “Half-naked” “ machete-wielding” “’kill ya’ in a moment” and the like!!!
Some outfit, eh?
However, speculation and talk of the 551st (we still were not certain whether it, the 551, was a battalion, regiment or some other designation), didn’t linger long – quickly replaced by rigorous training, both day and night. Furthermore, it was but a very short time before the 515 (my unit) was en route to Fort Meade, Virginia as (I thought) a battle-ready, intergrated unit and now part of the 13th Airborne Division.
I was at Fort Meade but a few short days before I (individually) was told to “Fall out in the Company street with all your gear and wait for a truck to pick you up – You’re being transferred!”. Very soon a truck came by with 4 other soldiers riding in the uncovered bed of the truck – being transferred to new units like myself.
After seemingly riding over half of Virginia and Maryland, dropping off the other men one- by-one at their new assignment, I was left alone in the back of the truck until late afternoon, barely before sunset, when we drew into a piney wood area and the truck stopped and the driver knocked on his rear window signaling me to ‘Get off, We’re here!”
Jumping from the truck with my bag of belongings, I Turned around to see just where the long afternoon’s ride had brought me, when my eyes fell in a large painted sign reading:
Welcome
to the
551st Parachute Infantry
Battalion (Reinf)
Around the lettering were nicely rendered and colored depictions of Palm Trees, Lightning Bolts, Machetes and other articles attesting to the unit’s service in Panama – to ME, bringing back memories of “Wild” “Undisciplined” ‘’Drunk” “Half-naked” “ machete-wielding” “’kill ya’ in a moment” and the like!!!
When my heartbeat had come back under control, I picked up my bag and entered the nearby building marked “Orderly Room”.
Greeted unemotionally, I was told the unit had already eaten supper but to go over to the Mess Hall and ask for some food and drink, and that someone would come and get me and show me where I could sleep – adding, “Get as much sleep as you can – we’re boarding ship for overseas in the morning!
As I recall, I got VERY LITTLE sleep of any sort that night – with most of my clothes on, lest I had to run for my life! – and my Trench Knife, unsheathed and under my pillow, lest I had to FIGHT for my life!! MY FIRST NIGHT AS “NOT A ‘PANAMA MAN’ !”
I served with the 551 Parachute Battalion, in the “Champagne Campaign” in WWII – jumping into Southern France. After that I was in the hospital in England, from there back to the 50thParachute Battalion near Bonn, then to the 505th Parachute Infantry in France. Once there I was told to fall out in the Company street with all my gear, the 508 Parachute wanted me back….well I was never in the 508th. But a truck picked me up and I was taken to the orderly room of I Company, 508th. So I am back in Germany, Frankfurt, with the508th as honor guard to General Eisenhower. I spent time at the I.G. Farben building in Frankfurt as well and during President Truman’s visit served in his honor guard.
How did the people treat you during that time - June, July, Aug 45? The Germans were still living in bombed out basements – we still had a mess tent in the field. German kids were hanging around scraping out the garbage cans hoping for food. Mind you, they had had 7 years of war by that time. Very depressing. Frankfurt still smelled like death. And every once in a while, maybe a GI body floating in the river. The Germans were very standoffish to begin with (1945) – total non-fraternization. But currency exchanges went through. Even after non-fraternization, there were no public display of affection – no hand holding, kissing your wife goodbye – none of that stuff in uniform. Course it was hard with a bunch of 20 year old guys running around – how do you enforce that? I would love to go back to Germany. I walked the Philosopher’s Weg in Heidelberg just like my old Preacher had years before.
Then the US occupancy forces started to hire the Germans. I had several personal friends who were HAM operators and I got my HAM radio license DL4MP. I made friends that way and I had German Submarine officers, Luffwaffen who had bombed London (and my wife was from London!) but we had the HAM radio in common. And I didn’t understand how much the Berlin Airlift did to help the relations with the Germans, cause that spread all over German after the Germans realized what we had done for the Berliners during that airlift. I stayed in German houses and rented rooms from them and didn’t worry a bit about being there. A German has my old call letters DL4MP and I have been tempted to email him to check on my old call name. The Americans had 500 Watt transceivers for HAM and the Germans and English had 10 watts.
Our maid, Katya was married to a sculpture artist, Wilfred, and I have several statues he did. They lived in a room in our attic in Karlsruhe and they later immigrated to Canada soon before we left Karlsruhe. I found them again about 12 years ago and reestablished contact. They had gone back to Germany after being very successful artist in Canada.
My wife came over from England in late 46 – the first three graders married got quarters. We had a maid and the quarters had a fireman to keep the furnaces going. We live in blocks of blocks of those grey stucco two story apartments. We had individual friendships with the Germans. We rode the streetcar from Heddernheim (a little west of Frankfurt) into Frankfurt and it took us right downtown. The neighborhood had been taken over by the US for married quarters. No cars on the street in 45 – 46. Commissary bus for the gals consisted of a 2 ½ truck with a ladder up the back and this was even in the winter! The commissary about 30 miles away. The Quartermaster folks had not yet learned how to estimate rations for family use. My wife got over there just before Thanksgiving. The smallest turkey you could get was about30 lbs. I can still see Maggie Chisolm getting of the truck with a 30 lb turkey in her arms, which slid out of her arms, slid downthe very icy street. I can see her running and sliding after it, yelling “come back here you SOB”.
Our quarters were pretty typical for that time. The hot water heater was upstairs in the bathroom for the kitchen. The first floor was living room, dining room and kitchen, with bedrooms and bathroom up. It’s Christmas time, and my wife’s first Christmas dinner and we were going to entertain another paratrooper couple. Bob Chisolm had the most beautiful bar set up in the basement and we all drank heavily in those days. Went house to house Christmas eve and got pretty drunk. I bought a thoroughbred Boxer dog for a present for my wife. Mary couldn’t get the turkey in the oven – we had a bottom drawer for tools and I took that big old pan of turkey on the kitchen floor with a hatchet and whacked on the breastbone of that turkey until it flattened out and it went into that little oven.
Living off-post in Frankfurt , Germany – Heddernheim actually –in late Summer/early Fall of 1947 expecting birth of my first child any day – and, for one reason or another (boredom, I think!) seeking transfer from 7707th Military Intelligence Service Center after a year or so there with a dozen or so wartime paratroopers who’d chosen to remain overseas when all their units returned to the Zone of the Interior (ZI), I, somewhat dazed and befuddled, found myself ( a Staff Sergeant, I think) as NCOIC of the “VHF Radio Relay Teams” of (I’m pretty sure) the 7774 Signal Service Company, stationed in Frankfurt.
I can’t be certain, but I’ve always felt we were NOT part of the regular TO&E of the 7774, for, within the month (my son still yet to be born!) we were in convoy heading for the Signal School in Ansbach as the “7776 Signal Service Company”, Captain William F. Brott, commanding. At Ansbach, we operated as a fully-operational unit (HF, VHF, Carrier, Wire, Mess, Motor Pool etc), participating in training exercises while some individuals attended classes at the Signal School – “Yours Truly” earning the MOS of ‘Radio Repairman”!It MAY or MAY not be important to stress that right up to the early days of the unit’s redesignation as the 17th Signal Operation Battalion, it operated essentially as “mobile radio teams” with equipment mounted and operated from housings (HO17s) aboard 2- and- 1/2-ton trucks towing power units behind – at least the HF (Morse code) and VHF (FM/VHF radio-relay of telephone and teletype traffic), while the larger Carrier “bays” were housed and transported in ugly and awkward “Airstream”-like travel trailers. The major exception to that arrangement was a more-or-less “permanent”, multi-function installation atop Heidelberg’s “Konigstuhl” where personnel and operating equipment to a great extent was moved indoors – other “relay” units, of course still housed and operating out of their trucks and HO17s atop some distant German mountain. A somewhat-similar, semi-housed installation existed when the Company was based in Zwingenberg.
I was in Frankfurt, Phillips Kaserne,with the 7774 Signal Group and assigned to mobile radio teams in 1947. Wasn’t there for more than a week and got packed up and headed south for Ansbach to the Signal School. The 7774 was then designated the 7776 Signal Service Company. There we did training and those that needed it went to the Signal School at Ansbach. Abe Abromowitz was in charge of the Signal School at Ansbach. I attended radio repair school, 0648 Radio Repairman designation. I was put in charge of the VHF Radio Relay section AN-TRC 3 & 4’s. The crew was really smart – either 5 or 6 teams, each with truck, equipment, generators. We were stationed at the school but would go out into the country and do training sessions on top of hilltops. While at Ansbach, we took part in maneuvers at Grafenwoehr. As the NCOIC, I traveled from site to site visiting my teams. The men, once they set up, stayed in place, monitoring the teletype and telephone transmissions. You just existed on that hilltop. About 1/3 of the unit were of Pacific Islander descent – Asians, Hawaiians and they were brilliant but very quiet.
The entire unit left Ansbach and went to Zwingenberg, north of Bensheim and Heidelberg. Again more training exercises and whatnot were held. The Berlin Airlift began about this time in June 1948. It was a day to day job to put up Koenigstuhl, another site at Zwingenberg, down around Stuttgart, and another site near Frankfurt, maybe Feldberg and several more sites. The men got these sites set up and then I, as the NCOIC, would travel from site to site. LT Downey would travel with me and he was a great fellow. He always quizzed me on what was the next town. We were tied up to a carrier unit and we couldn’t hear the traffic, but we kept the comms flowing. We lived like a bunch of Indians up on the hilltops through the winter, winter of 48 to 49. One of my jobs was to carry the rations up to them. On a personal side, on Koenigsthul I was the acting OIC. I wrote orders, bailed men out from the Constabulary. The German taxi drivers would see me coming in Heidelberg – they knew me - Konigstuhl #1. It was a nice life.
Phillips Barracks typical kaserne, two story grey stucco buildings, with barracks upstairs, MAJOR Turner’s (Battalion Commander) office was to the left of the big double door entry. Motor pool was out in the back of the kaserne. We were only starting to get our own individual cars at that time. We actually had a USEUCOM lottery to be able to buy a car. I finally bought a Renault in Karlsruhl. The billboard advertisement on the Autobahm was for $695 dollars – and the price was raised to $715. I ended up with a little green Renault and traveled all over Germany in that car.
I was married at the time but my wife had gone back to England from Ansbach. The Harmonie Club was a beautiful NCO club in downtown Heidelberg – Top 3 Rocker Club we called it. High class place. I had dreamed of running a place like that in the States. Bob Chislom and I went down there one night, but got there too late to eat. But since we soldiers were not allowed in the German restaurants, we found a German gal who was willing to go and get our food. So we waited for her in her room, and when she got back, with her MP escort, and so we got a Delinquency Report (DR) for being in female quarters. Nothing was done, by Major Turner, Alex. He got promoted soon after coming to the 7776, to LTC. He was a big man, blustery, a disciplinarian, but a real warm heart if you knew him. Very demanding for perfection and I think he carried an awful lot of the feelings for the old 17th in his heart. He drilled into us where the 17th came from – the history of the Battalion. He was so glad to get it back, and let us know the 17th had an illustrious history and heritage. That sticks in my mind 60 years later!
MAJ William F. Brott, was commander of 7776 before MAJ Turner took over.
On 5 June 1950 the 7776 was redesignated as the 17th. Same people, same beat up equipment – now the 17th.
After giving up with VHF section, I got assigned as SGM for the 776 as well as SGM for Phillips Kaserne. They created a position of Warrant Officer Unit Administration Officer. I went to the first class for about 4 weeks but when I came back, they already had a Warrant Officer, Mr Haskell. So I was assigned as the Personnel SGM for the Battalion. It was at this time that I realized that the AF guys who had been on the same hilltops as my VHF team were getting awarded the Berlin Airlift Medal. I showed that to LTC Turner and he said he would send it in. He did but nothing came of it.
WO Haskell was the Personnel Officer, great fellow. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge had sponsored a bill to try to enlist German Displaced Persons (DPs) into the US Army, after 3 years of service, they would be entitled to US Citizenship. I was asked if I wanted to work as a recruiter for the DP program and since I was already upset with the 17th for the personnel warrant issue, I went to school at Bad Toelz, to learn about the Alien Enlistment Program. I spent about a year doing this, until 1952. I went home after 8 years in Europe.