AAAO! New Year's Eve, Paris, 1989

Nate Smith is a National Guard LTC these days, living in Colorado and commanding an Infantry battalion that's part of a mostly active duty brigade. But back in 1988 Nate had only recently moved from Paddy's Gang to another Infantry job up at 2nd Brigade Headquarters.

At the end of December '88, with neither OPORD nor a hotel reservation, we piled into his Chrysler econobox along with our fart sacks and some snacks and headed off from Baumholder to Paris for the New Years celebrations. Made the customary somber detour to the US war graves cemetery at St Avold, and then rolled on to hit the bright lights of Paree just on nightfall in the Quartier Latin. Spent most of the night in the cafés of Saint Germain des Prés, not far from Hemingway's old place down on rue du Cardinal Lemoine. Out on the street when midnight arrived, the girls were kissing strangers like it was the liberation all over again. . . .

We headed up to Normandy the next day on a lightning trip (like Patton had previously made in the opposite direction, although we may have done less damage along the way), slept rough in what had been the drop zones for the 101st Airborne and visited Omaha and Utah.

Of course, Utah is where the 39th Infantry Regiment landed during the Normandy Campaign. And Greg Lukanuski's uncle is listed on the monument there at the beach -- that is, the 4th Infantry Division memorial if I recall correctly. More on that later, I hope.

When I was clearing S-1 for my European out, I ran into a tall black guy who was also leaving the Army but going to Paris instead. What a story that must have been! All these years I've wondered how he ended up. And some day I just might find out, too.

By the way, you can add you name to the roster while you're here!

Two Guys from E Co 1/39 Inf, 1986 . . .

. . . were SP/4 Bobo and SP/4 Lespinasse, both fellows with French names.

Bobo came from a small town in Texas. I say "small town", but it was probably bigger than Baumholder FRG, with its population of 5000 Rheinlanders plus a half a dozen cows still living in a small hof down the east end of the Hauptstrasse. Anyway, Bobo was an 11 Hotel like most of the rest of the guys in E Co 1/39 Inf. If memory serves, he meant to go back home and study criminal justice when he got out of the Army. A quiet, serious guy. Married I believe.

I never got Reggie Lespinasse's whole story, but I think his family had come from the Caribbean, maybe Haiti, maybe the Virgin Islands. Still had a faint accent, and word was that he spoke good French. He'd been around a fair bit and was always a big hit with the ladies, especially out in the clubs on the economy away from town. Last time I talked to him there was some question of him marrying a European girl. Was she German or French? Whichever it was, I don't think she was from the immediate area. Perhaps one of the bigger towns over in the Saarland. Anyway, one fine rare sunny day we were cleaning out the tracks in the new washrack, the one closer to Lager Aulenbach that had the POL separation system, and you could see that Reggie was thinking real hard. Turned out to be about this lady of his, a big decision for anybody. Sorry to say that I never learned how it all ended up; I moved on down to A Co 1/39 Inf not long afterward.

But someone out there knows. . . .

UPDATE: I just wanted to bump this one in hope of improving search results for Darryl Bobo, Reginald Lespinasse, and Donald Peters, good old 11H hands from Baumholder days.

Platoon Sergeants, Paddy's Gang 1986-1987

I remember a couple of Platoon Sergeants who were there in Baumholder with 1/39 Inf, circa 1986-1987.

In E Co 1/39 Inf, SFC Brom had one of the anti-armor platoons, third platoon if I recall. SFC Brom was gone by the time of the redesignation, but there were still some fellows left from the platoon when the unit became E Co 4/12 Inf.

Down the hill, past the DFAC and the lower motorpool, SFC Allen L. Valentine had third platoon, A Co 1/39 Inf. SFC Valentine had been an 11F recon specialist in 'Nam, a trail watcher. I'll have to write more about him later.

And a hundred meters down the street to the west, over in the second HHC building next to 2 BDE Headquarters, SFC Lizenby (Clyde?) was there in the 4.2" Mortar Platoon. He was a tobacco-chewin' man, kept a big old coffee can on his desk for a spit jar. Still there when 2LT Ted White became Mortar Platoon Leader.

AAAO