USAREUR / US Army in Germany -- Always First

Having spent a fair bit of time traversing the web in search of amateur historical research about the 8th ID, 1/39 Infantry, Baumholder MILCOM as well as the whole range of USAREUR / USAFE units and their post-war predecessors, I've found Walter Elkins' site (US Army in Germany) to be unparalleled. I defy you to go there for the first time and spend less than an hour.

AAAO!

Paddy's Gang: About The Redesignation

Summer of 1989 -- there's a post over at the 4/12 Infantry blog.

In May 1986, the CO of 1/39 Infantry . . .

. . . was LTC Bruce Braun.

Paddy's Gang had an HHC, four line companies (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta), and all the anti-armor assets (TOW II) in Echo company. Previously, the Scout Platoon had TOWs, and the move up to Echo Company seems to have occurred in early 1986.

At that time the Commanding Officer of E Co 1/39 Infantry was CPT Ray Nagy, and the XO was 1LT Tim Longanacre. Platoon leaders included 1LT Dennis Krings and 2LT Eric Williams.

Bruce Braun retired as a Colonel and, these days, is Director of the Board on Army Science and Technology within the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences of the National Academies.

According to an Army press release, in June 2003 LTC Williams assumed duties as the Commander, 3rd Battalion, 196th Infantry Brigade, the training support battalion in Guam. And, as of June 2005, LTC Krings holds a recruiting command in Montgomery, Alabama.

All this news is, of course, in the public domain.

If anyone knows where to find Tim Longanacre or Ray Nagy, please drop me a line in the comments.

AAAO

Matt Ginn

Welcome to the 1/39 Infantry Blog

My aim here is to create a web presence for former members of Paddy's Gang. I hope that veterans searching for each other will be able to use this blog as a sort of beacon on the web, in lieu of an official website or similar contact page. Having a stand-alone page ought to make it considerably easier. I also think the blog format will help beat the less friendly aspects of finding people via big commercial sites like military.com.

The blog certainly isn't limited to a given time period or place, although I'm guessing that Baumholder veterans will be more likely to visit. [As an aside, no matter what era vet you might be, I'd encourage you to check out the relevant Yahoo Groups like 8thIDModern].

I don't plan to run this as your usual web diary, chat room or on-line historical record. Instead, I'm just volunteering to be the link man. From time to time I'll post a name, place or event that I remember. If you write in with your name, I'll post it. And if you're looking for someone, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Likewise, feel free to send me reminders -- for example, names lifted from orders and/or unit rosters would be very handy. In time I hope that individual details will accumulate and make it much easier for former members of 1/39 Infantry to get back in touch with each other.

Obviously, the more info I can put online the better your chances of finding someone or being found yourself; however, for the moment, at least, I don't plan to post email addresses without express permission, and I sure as hell won't pass them along for commercial use. I'll keep a record offline. If that means I have to play go-between to put a few people back in touch, well, so be it.

For the present, I'll watch for comms in the comments. I'm caught between three different email addresses and am on my way to a fourth, so despite the comments being a playground for spammers and trolls, I'm sort of stuck with it at the moment.

Looking to the future, if the idea works I'll press on with it, and if interest proves to be limited then I'll let it go in due time. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Now that you know I'm out here, send up a flare.

AAAO - Always First!

Matt Ginn
1/39 Inf (M)
8th ID (M)
Baumholder FRG
1986-1989

p.s. For those of us who were there for the redesignation in 1989, I also plan to open a 4/12 Infantry blog at www.4-12inf.blogspot.com