USAREUR - Cities

27/28 March 1945

U.S. Occupation of the City of Giessen incl. all military installations

15 June 1945

56th QM Base Depot - Establishment at Giessen

1946

EUROPEAN QM Depot, Giessen (change in designation)

Aug 1947

Giessen Military Sub Post, Wetzlar
Military Post Establishment

Oct 1948

Giessen QM Depot (change in designation)

15 Mar 1951

Giessen Military Sub Post
Gained former Marburg Military Post

11 Jun 1951

Giessen Military Sub Post, Frankfurt Military
Post Re-Organization

30 Nov 1952

Giessen Military Sub Post, Frankfurt Military District, NACOM (change in designation)

1 Jan 1954

Giessen Detachment, NACOM (change in designation)

30 Nov 1954

Giessen Sub Area, NACOM (change in designation)

Dec 1956

United States QM Depot, Giessen (change in designation)

31 Mar 1958

Giessen Sub Area, NACOM.
Gained former Kassel Military Post

1 Apr 1958

Giessen Post, Hesse District, USAACOM (designation and mission change)

1 Jul 1958

U.S. Army QM Supply Center, Giessen
Merger of 3 QM Corps, major agencies:
- Supply Control Agency
- Procurement
- Maintenance Activities

1 Jul 1962

U.S. Army QM Depot, Giessen (reorganization)

1 May 1964

U.S. Army General Depot, Giessen (change in command)

1 Jul 1965

Relocation of U.S. Army QM Supply
Control Activity to Orleans, France

1 Feb 1966

U.S. Army Giessen Support Center (change in designation)

1 Dec 1967

Merger: Giessen Post with Giessen Spt Ctr

Jul 1969

De-merger: U.S. Army Giessen Support Center, into:
- Giessen Army Depot
- Support Activity Giessen

Jun 1972

Discontinuance of Giessen Depot Activity

1 Jul 1974

U.S. Military Community, Giessen

post July 1974

In the years to follow, Giessen Depot was reorganized several times, until in 1993, it was deactivated, but not completely closed. In April of 1998, Giessen was re-activated as the 284th Base Support Battalion, then became the U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Giessen in 2006.

28 September 2007

The garrison was inactivated and the colors cased.

I was assigned to the 3rd Replacement Depot in Marburg, Germany in the Fall of 1946. My assignment to the Depot came about by a stroke of luck and being in the right place at the right time.

I disembarked the ship at Bremerhaven and boarded a troop train to the Replacement Depot at Marburg. Upon climbing down from the train, I came face to face with a S/Sgt. that was a couple of years ahead of me in High School in Winnsboro, Texas, where we had played football together on the Winnsboro High Team. He was part of the Cadre at the Replacement Depot, and he informed me that he was going back to the States in a few days. He asked me if I would like to be assigned as permanent party in the Depot. I said sure, and he arranged for an interview for me. I was accepted and remained assigned to the Depot untill I was sent back to the States in Feburary, 1949 for discharge.

I worked my way up through the ranks to become the Sgt. in charge of the Troop Movement Section of the Depot. It was our job to provide the transportation to their barracks for the troops that arrived in Marburg by troop train, and then to transport them back to the trains when they were assigned to units all over Germany, France, and Austria. Sometimes we ran convoys of trucks to transport large assignments of troops to the same place.

The Depot also processed and assigned Officers up through the rank of Lt. Colonel. My rank was S/Sgt, but when I was in charge of a convoy of Officers to transport them to their new assignments, the passenger seat of the first truck at the head of the convoy was mine. Most every time when I would complete calling the roster and loading the convoy of Officers, I would find an Officer in my seat when I was ready to move out. About the only trouble I every had when I told them that was my seat and they would have to sit in back, was with mostly Lts. I've had to tell them that my CO was a Full Colonel and that he expected me to command the convoy from the front seat.

I also was there in Marburg for almost all of the Berlin Airlift. We ran convoys of troops to the airport at Frankfurt to ship to Berlin. I remember we had to give each soldier a copy of their orders written in Russian in case their plane went down in Russian territory. Our planes had, to the best of my knowledge, a 20 mile wide corridor to fly in going in to Berlin, and if they strayed too close to the boundary line, Russian fighter planes would threaten them.

The activity going on around the airport at Frankfurt was something to behold. A solid stream of planes landing and taking off, loaded with men and material to keep the civilian population of Berlin alive. My brother and I have had some good talks about the Airlift, because he was an aircraft mechanic at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station and it was their job to do the maintance and overhauls of the aircraft taking part of the airlift. It has always been a source of regret on my part because I never made a trip to Berlin on one of the planes, even though I could have I'm sure if I had asked for permission to do so.

While working at the Depot, I had the opportunity to meet several Celebrities. Lt. Patton, son of Gen. George Patton, was one of them, as was the Hangman of Nuremburg, M/Sgt. Woods. Lt. Patton went on to become the Commanding Gen. at Ft Hood Texas.

While stationed at Marburg, I met a nice German girl named Elizabeth Blad or Bladd, I'm not sure. I think she lived on Begen Strasse. Would anyone know how I could locate her? My name is Bill Miller, and I could go on forever, but I'll quit here. Thanks.