Paddy's Gang: Up In The Motor Pool...

...there were three people I remember in particular.

1LT (later CPT) George Thomas was the 1/39 Inf Battalion Motor Officer (or BMO) after 1LT Tim Longanacre left that position. I've already written about Tim under Echo Company 1/39 Inf.** Chief Warrant Officer Bill Kalavsky was there in the motor pool as well.

I recall one night down at Graf, mid-winter, typically bitter cold with the ground harder than reinforced concrete and the wind whipping up little storms of fallen snow. These guys were out there at 0200 working on an M-113, ripped wide open, mechanical guts spilling out, the engine swinging on a hoist and casting shadows under the recovery vehicle's spotlight. How can someone fix a track like that when it's too cold to feel his own fingers?

A hard way to make a living.

Remember that truck that Chief Kalavsky converted into a sort of field hotel? It was almost as good as the one Field Marshall Montgomery used in North Africa, the one that's in the Imperial War Museum in London. I bet it was no easier to get into Monty's wagon than it was to get into the Chief's.

George Thomas retired as a Lieutenant Colonel and is working for the government in Virginia these days. Bill Kalavsky had a German wife and I'm pretty sure he's still living there near Baumholder, almost twenty years down the road.

**Tim Longanacre, if you spot this will you please send me a current email? The one you sent isn't working. Thanks -- Matt.

UPDATE: Send your name, company and dates of service with Paddy's Gang -- click here! -- and I'll upload your details on the web beacon and forward any contacts I have on the roster I'm building.

If you were also with 4/12 Inf (M), be sure to check here as well.

AAAO!

Here are a few more fellows who were with us in the late 1980s.

SFC Norman, whose first name I forget, had moved up very quickly through the ranks. Although I wouldn't swear to it I think he had been a teacher before joining the Army and I'm pretty sure he made it to E-7 in four years. He had been with the Berlin Brigade and met his wife in Berlin. SFC Norman was assigned to Alpha Company 1/39 Infantry before being tapped for a job with the S-3 shop.

SGT James Farrell was with Echo Company 1/39 Infantry as an 11 Hotel. Originally from Saint Joseph Missouri, he'd been around the Army for a while, including a tour in Korea. He and his wife lived out in Niederalben at the east end of the tank trail.

I had both of them pegged as potential CSMs, and hope they got there, too.

Am pretty sure that both of them were still there in 1989 for the redesignation to 4/12 Infantry

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

Always First! 1/39 Infantry, Baumholder FRG

Over the years I've heard rumour of former Paddy's Gang vets but can't always seem to make that final link and catch up. Here are three fellows I'd be very glad to speak to again:

SFC Rick Williams
SFC Stanley
1LT Mark Allert

Pretty sure that Rick Williams is a police officer somewhere in the Southeast, and I believe Mark Allert left the service and went back to the East Coast (maybe Virginia?). As for Sergeant Stanley, last time I saw him was in the 1/39 Inf S-3 shop (maybe we were already 4/12 Inf by then). It would have been 1989 or thereabouts.

AAAO!

UPDATE: Rick Williams is Roderick O. Williams in official records. Scott McMurtry had some further news of him at http://1-39inf.blogspot.com/2011/01/lt-scott-mcmurtry-paddys-gang-1983-1985.html. 

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