After completing Field Artillery Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Shkurti was sent to Germany not Vietnam. Outdoor Recreation Center. The chow halls tried to replicate moms home cooking with menus of grilled hamburgers, roast beef with gravy, French-fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, buttered corn and asparagus, ice cream, vanilla pudding and cherry pie, Lair said. At the end of his service, Shkurti was an executive officer with the 6th Armored Cavalry at Fort Meade, Maryland. Your message has not been sent. He attributed it to where he happened to be standing in a formation. Youre in the hot seat. David Hollander produced the compilation. After the defeat of Germany, the relatively small American force in Europe was preoccupied with the administration and reconstruction of their former foe. Brutal tactics were the norm during the Vietnam War, and no one suffered more than the Vietnamese themselves, both in the North and the South. Deliver vital engineering solutions, in collaboration with our partners, to secure our Nation, energize our economy, and reduce disaster risk. Germany I would have been called a coward by others from the small town I grew up in, so I never considered not volunteering. We had an Infantry MOS Soldiers on one of our Sheridan Tanks. Then, there was the shopping. I worked in an air-conditioned office and wore khakis, starched shirts, spit-shined shoes and a belt with a shiny brass buckle. It was still no guarantee you wouldn't be sent to Vietnam and in some cases even be sent to do something else besides what you trained for. Along with its allies, the US had liberated Germany from the Nazis. Situated in a remote area with the enemy about 300 yards away over the border, Shkurtis unit was constantly in harms way. They were the rear echelon. Thanks, your message has been sent successfully. WebHere are our top 13 places to see while youre stationed in Germany: (click on any city name below to learn more) 1) Prague, Czech Republic. After graduating from Ohio State University in 1968, William Shkurti said, I knew I was going to be drafted so I enlisted. The Office of History, Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Army Center of Military History jointly published this book,Building for Peace: U.S. Army Engineers in Europe, 1945-1991 written by Robert P. Grathwol and Donita Moorhus. The conventional wisdom was that everybody carried a rifle, patrolled the jungle and faced death daily, but thats false, said William Shkurti, who served as an artillery officer in a remote area about 300 yards from the Cambodian border in fall 1970. "I've done my own searches on Google and so forth, but I cannot find anything," Hitt says. Another difference was the sense of solidarity he felt. He says it was completely random, some bodies had to go to 7th Army and his lucky number came up. In the early years, dances were held on the streets of Berlin in summer months and in winter, the US Army organized Christmas parties for local children. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. A new compilation pulls together some of those old records it's called East of Underground: Hell Below. 7th Army in particular suffered heavily, especially with loses of combat arms NCOs Then Given the popular conception that being drafted during Vietnam was a guaranteed ticket to the combat zone, Ive always found it amazing how many of the people I know who served in the Army or USMC during the Vietnam War never actually went to Vietnam. The mood around the country was not good for the military, not like today with cheers and applause for returning members. In November Thornton journeyed to Da-Nang, Vietnam, with his wife as a keynote presenter at the Asia Pacific Mediation Forum. In Germany the U.S. military was protecting West Germany against the threat of Russian invasion, but it wasnt imminent, Shkurti said. The family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where they have been for the past 40 years. I can only speak from my own experiences. Anyone who served in the military during the war faced the possibility of being sent to Vietnam, though. Because he was one of the last there in that formation and those three went to the ROK. They were clerk typists, cooks, drivers. So there was a great need for personnel outside South Vietnam through out the entire period, and the refusal to mobilize the Reserves and National Guard only exacerbated the problem. He also wrote the liner notes, which reveal a surprising fact: The U.S. Army spends an estimated $200 million a year on music, and is the largest single employer of musicians in the country. They also ate pretty well. I know that was very dependent upon where you called home, but that was my reality, Thornton said. One colonel joked, If we ever really got attacked, the V.C. Those aircraft were used for military airlift, medical transport, and cargo transport operations in the United States and internationally. Involved in the Vietnam War From the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991, Army Engineers played a key role in providing the facilities for arming, supplying, training, and housing American soldiers and airmen and their families in Europe. Adopting a variety of organizational arrangements, including an engineer command from 1966 to 1974, USAREUR and its engineers attempted to find the most efficient and effective means to use the scarce resources available for construction and maintenance. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Air Force used C-123 aircraft to spray Agent Orange to clear jungles that provided enemy cover in Vietnam. Vietnam Era Draftees Stationed in There werent enough NCOs (non-commissioned officers), not enough support or spare parts. Its easy to forget how large a US military presence in West Germany and Korea was maintained during the late 60s and early 70s aside from the forces fighting in Vietnam. From the end of World War II until the end of the war in Southeast Asia, the Army component command in Germany, the U.S. Army, Europe (USAREUR), managed military construction in the theater with its own Engineer organizations. More military personnel played support roles than combat ones. To access the menus on this page please perform the following steps. VA decides these claims on a case-by-case basis. As the Soviet system, like the Berlin Wall, collapsed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it appeared that American and allied forces in Europe had accomplished their mission without war. The book became the first volume in aCenter of Military History series, U.S. Army in the Cold War.

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