any BUSMVA members alive?

That’s what the in the Book, 110 miles behind the lines book 2 had! I believe by the later 1970’s they stopped playing at the RTO? No more Draft and no more troop ships, by this time you would fly into the airbase in Frankfurt. Then take the duty train to Berlin. By the time I departed we could pick to fly out Berlin or the duty train! I picked the freedom bird, is what we called the Pan American Boeing 727 to Frankfurt.

I remember very well the music, when the duty train left.
1. “Das ist die Berliner Luft”
2. “Auf wiedersehn, auf wiedersehn”
I grow up a few 100 meters away from RTO.

When I arrived in June 1969, we were shipping people home via a Pan Am 707 flight to JFK from TXL.  One of my duties in Transportation Corps that summer was to be PFCIC of a German bus driver and a German truck driver with the baggage and a bunch of wild GI’s who all outranked me, at least in time in grade.  The homeward soldiers were out-processed at Fort Hancock.

The Pan Am station manager was an old-timer and so I followed his suggestions when we had any issues.  I think everyone got home.

When my time in the Army ended in Berlin in August 1971 the first 747 services were in use and so we had the flight from Tempelhof to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to JFK and then a “limo” ride to Fort Dix.  The 707 route was much better, but I understood the economics.

That’s ironic that you had to get home to NJ from out processing.  I was out-processed at Fort Dix and so took a bus to NYC.

There were two of us in the shipment who were from the West Coast, both of us a bit older, and both of us having worked intelligence jobs.  We had the same idea: we weren’t going to rush home and it had occurred to both of us that we’d like to do some sightseeing because we might never get back to NYC again.  So we took the bus up to NYC.

I’ve written before in other places about my train trip from Grand Central Station to Portland Union Station.  It reminded me of what a great country the U.S.A. is.    It also has a lot of elbow room, as the attached Montana scene shows.

I did miss Berlin.  It’s like leaving a movie theater half way through the show.  In the next year I was driving a motor pool car and my boss told me that I was making him nervous by looking in the rear view mirror so much.  My (new) wife would catch me daydreaming and said that I was back in Berlin.

At the Oregon Department of Transportation there were a lot of veterans.  We kidded each other about what terrible shape the country would be in if we were called up for duty, but enjoyed hearing the many different service stories.  Most of the top people were WWII vets.  The funniest experience was at a Ports Commission meeting when the governor dropped in unscheduled.  I saw him in the doorway and without thinking I  jumped up and stood at attention.  And so did the commissioners!  They were all former Navy men.  The governor was, too, so he said “at ease” and chuckled and then said that he kind of liked that.  He’d been an EM in WWII, so it was a new experience for him.

I left Berlin in September 1967.  No RTO, took a PanAM 707 from Tegel.  We stopped in UK and in Newfoundland and finally in NYC.  Then on to Ft. Dix and out.  I went back to NYC and flew home to Southern California.  I missed Berlin (I’ve been back 8 times) but I did not miss the Army.

One of my jobs at the RTO in 1969 was to escort the bus trip with a German driver and a baggage truck out to Tegel for the Pan Am 707.  Sometimes the flight was scheduled to land in a secondary UK market, like Manchester, and sometimes in a secondary German market like Dusseldorf.

The Pan Am agent was an old-timer, so when I wasn’t sure how to handle something I leaned on him for advice.  As that was their only flight from Tegel, he must have had time for coffee.  Air France also had one flight from Tegel to Paris with a Caravelle.  There were a few charter flights and that was it.

im active

what we gonna do

• This reply was modified 9 months, 3 weeks ago by Obat Ampuh.

hello all

I am…  LOL  I’m in NC

And I know a few other old Berlin hands who are still upright and breathing.

Perry Fuller – lives in NJ

Ray Tougas – lives in Virgin1a

Ed Webb – lives in California

And my daughter was born there!

Let’s have a reunion!

Yes, we are still alive and kicking in 2024! 30 years after BBDE inactivated…where are the young bloods at? (1990’s troops 😉

A Co, Combat Support Battalion

1993-1994