USAREUR Units - 205th Trans Bn

205th Transportation Battalion (AVIM)
3rd Support Command
Looking for more information from military/civilian personnel assigned to or associated with the U.S. Army in Germany from 1945 to 1989. If you have any stories or thoughts on the subject, please email me (webmaster).

Patch worn from 19.. to 19..

205th Trans Bn (AAM) DUI

205th Trans Bn (AVIM) DUI (?)

(Source: Email from Jesse Barnes, 205th Trans Bn, early 1960s)

I joined the Army in August 1958 with the hopes of going to Ft. Walters and becoming a flying Warrant Officer. I tested and was qualified to apply for OCS, after completing basic, and I was approved to attend a 52 week radar repair course in N.J. but I was so sure I would get into flight school that I chose to attend a basic eight week aircraft mechanic school at Ft. Rucker. When I finished that school I was qualified to wipe the bubble on a helicopter and pick up rocks from the airfield. If you finished that school, the top third of the class was supposed to be assigned to the H-34, U-1A crew chief class or a depot level maintenance school, but there were so many retreads (we had two CBI privates from WWII in my class) and reenlisting sergeants so they give them the advanced schools and us youngsters (I was 19) were shipped to Ft. Dix for assignment in Europe.

I was assigned to the 42nd TAAM Company at Illesheim. In January 1959, after a long trip on the SS Buckner and an all night train trip, we arrived in Nürnberg. Then we were trucked to Illesheim. When I walked through the first sergeant's door I handed him my orders and asked where I applied for the warrant officers program. He said you can't apply for that program from Europe. I guess a lot of G.I.'s applied for schools in CONUS just to get back to the States at that time. Anyway, I was crushed.

After a few weeks the 29th was transferred from one BN to the 205th Trans Bn and I had to throw away my new BN brass and buy new 205th Bn brass. All three pieces still look new after all these years as do my dog tags. There were too many mechanics for the amount of birds sent to the 42nd for maintenance. I used to volunteer for shoveling furnace coal or other details. I guess one of the E-5s discovered I could type and he asked me to help with some paper work. They were weeks behind in ordering modification parts kits for the Otters so I knocked out the paper work real quick and the next thing I knew, I received a PFC stripe. I needed it. Private E-2 pay was 85.80 a month. PFC was worth 96.00 a month.

I am sorry but don't remember any names from that unit. All newly arriving enlisted personnel were restricted to base and were not allowed to own civilian clothing for thirty days. You could not own or bring a vehicle from CONUS unless you had written permission and you were above the rank of E-5 in those days. Anyway, the 2nd and 3rd Otter Company was assigned that base. I believe they were sent to France and later DeGaulle kicked us out of France and I don't remember where they were assigned after that. I know we worked on their birds after I was transferred to the 29th TAAM Co at the Stuttguart airport.

There was also an instrument flight school located at Illesheim. We had a flying club there and I used to fly our J-3 Cub around the base but the Otters and Beavers used to chase me out of the pattern because they couldn't fly slow enough. We worked on U-1A Otters, L-20 Beavers, the H-34 and H-13s from the various aviation companies in the area. I did witness an L-20 doing a maximum performance take off one day and the engine failed when the bird was fifty or so feet up. The plane stalled and fell flat on the airstrip and both landing gears went through the cabin area but missed the pilots. Both lived but as I remember they suffered spinal injuries.

I was told that Illesheim was a secret fighter base during WWII. From the air, you could still make out the grass runways & strips that were grass and used during WWII. Reportedly a U.S. Infantry scouting platoon found the base after the close of WWII. The hangers and most of the buildings were still camouflaged when I was there. When I flew the Cub a few miles away from the base, the field became very difficult to see because it blended into a small stream and the town. I understand that many pilots had problems finding the field so they erected a big steel control tower and painted it bright checker board colors to help the pilots locate the field. There were big high tension power lines off one end of the field. There was no Omni in those days, just IFR (I follow Railroads) and the old ADF system in the Beavers.

After a few months two of us newbie's were transferred to the 29th TAAM Co at the Stuttgart Airport. I believe the CO's name was Captain Tedesco or something like that. He was known by the enlisted rabble as "one cloud Tedesco" because he reportedly refused to fly if there was more than one cloud in the sky. He was later replaced by Captain Johns after I was there a few months. He later followed me up to the 205th as a staff officer. The base Sergeant Major was a real old soldier who wore WWI combat stripes on his sleeve. I understand no one screwed with him, including officers. Sergeant Viviane was the maintenance sergeant while I was there. We worked on L-19s, U-1As, L-20s, L-23s and H-34s.

The TAAM companies had long mobile workshops that were pulled by big tractor rigs. The sides of the workshops would flop down and they could do just about anything to repair an aircraft. We also had QEC engine changes in steel cans for the birds. One day a Czech C-47 that came in with one engine on fire. It was unusual to see an airplane with the red star in a red circle landing in West Germany at that time. The fire was put out and either we or a visiting Air Force unit changed the engine and it was out of there real quick. The other side of the field was the German civilian airport. Once a week a Carville jet transport came in to pick up passengers. That was a big deal for the Germans. They really turned out to witness that real loud but fast jet land and take off.

About this time the Berlin Wall project took off and things started heating up between the Russians and us. I guess the brass at 7th Army Aviation Gp forgot they didn't have anyway to contact their units if the Russian Divisions broke through. Everyone was used to depending on the German Telephone lines which were of course, not secure. So they had each unit look through the 201 files for candidates for RTTY school. I was snapped up because I had been a radio amateur in high school and my tested code score was maxed out. So I was shipped to Ludwigsburg for code school. I used to set in the back and read a pocket book and take code at the same time. The instructor jumped me about it and I convinced him that my skills were way beyond his class requirements and requested he send me back to Hq for other assignments until they could get me a slot at the ANGRY 26 school at Bad Tölz. So I became a typewriter operator for a month or so. I guess some special inspection was scheduled for our HQ so the Operations Sergeant asked me to start repainting the inside of the building. I was about half way through the project when the weekend came. They told me to paint through the weekend so it would be ready on Monday. The rest of the guys thought I was being punished for quitting the code school. I finished Monday morning early and the inspection went through without a hitch, I guess, because a couple of days later they handed me SP4 papers. Later I tested for and received Pro Pay for my RTTY MOS. I was making $124 then and I thought I was walking in tall cotton.

I still have my Bn brass and the Bn mug with an H-34 on top. I no longer have the rotor blades though. I also have the Hq. & Hq. 205th Bn photograph taken on the Flak (Kaserne, Ludwigsburg) parade ground in the spring of 1961. The C.O of the 205th was Major Malcolm Mitchell. Major Mitchell was a short man and he had a cute daughter that most of the E.M. would like to have dated but he made it clear the she was not to mix with any of the enlisted rabble. The XO was Major "Pete" Peterson. He was a nice man. I remember he had a VW van and one day he received a ticket in the mail from the German State Police. It had a radar picture taken of him. Your could see him through the windshield with his "Peterson" name tag on his fatigues.

A few trivial facts: my uncle, Debbie Barnes, was a CWO 3 and he was an aircraft maintenance officer with an infantry company at Würzburg at the same time. (He is still alive and lives in Lower Lake California) I believe he knew just about everyone in Army Aviation from WWII through the mid-60s when he retired. I also had another uncle there, Vance Hamm, and he was a medic in Kaiserslautern. (We just called it K-town.)

I went back to Ludwigsburg in the late 1980s. My old room was the recruiting office for the unit that was there at the time. They did not know where the 205th had gone or any of it's history. There are several other Flak Kaserne sites on the net with a few pictures but I have never met or heard of anyone that was with the 205th during my time. Maybe they are all just dead by now. I understand that sometimes God's best blessing is to not grant your wish. If I had gone to flight school, I could be buried under a rice paddy. As it is, I completed a thirty three year successful career in law enforcement in California.

I was assigned to the 48th Trans Co (Acft) from fall 1966 to May 1968. The company was a GS support company and part of the 205th Transportation BN that was based in Manheim FRG.

I was an avionics / radar tech the company was assigned to Goeppingen 45 km south of Stuttgart on the airfield on the post run by the 3rd Armored Division. We shared the post with the 144 signal Btn and the 504 admin company and an MP unit.

We serviced GS support for OH -13, CH-34, CH-37, UH1B, OV-10, U1A fixed wing, cessna twins.

I saw your write up on the Internet and would like to share some info you may not have.

I arrived in Germany about 14 Dec 1966 and departed 10 June 1968. Initially I was assigned to the 7th Army Support Brigade at Mannheim. After four weeks in Augsburg transitioning into the CH-34 and OH-13, I was assigned as S-2 in the 205th Trans Bn (Acft Maint)(GS) at Coleman Army Airfield.

About March of 1967 I was TDY to the 7th Med Detachment at Darmstadt and about September I was assigned as XO of the 245th Trans Co (Acft Maint)(GS) at Finthen AAF which is immediately west of Mainz.

All in all it was a very good tour and I was the Army project officer for the retrograde movement of ALL European Command CH-34s.

During my tour, the 205th was a unique battalion. We had three General Support Aircraft Maintenance Companies - 48th at Goeppingen outside Stuttgart; the 245th at Finthen and the 661st which was just west of Munich.Also had the Signal Company at Coleman AAF, the Post Office Platoon at Coleman as well as the Parachute Rigging Detachment at Coleman AAF. Officers call had men from Signal, Transportation, AG and Quartermaster Corps.

Our commander was Lt.Col. Ed Sergeant who was a great man to work for, loved his cigars and would tell me ahead of time if it was going to be a 'one cigar or two cigar meeting'.

RETROGRADE MOVEMENT OF CH-34's

This is my quick and dirty recollection of how we got the CH-34s out of Europe.

Hueys heavily damaged in combat (RVN basket cases) were flown to Corpus Christi NAS for re-manufacture. In early 1967, the total weekly production of Corpus Christi and the Bell Plant at Ft. Worth was keeping up with combat total losses.

This allowed the US Army to implement its program to replace the United States Forces (including Coast Guard) in Europe CH-34D models with re-manufactured or new Hueys, I think UH-1H models. The program was initiated in late summer of 1967.

I was XO of the 245th Transportation Company at Finthen. The 245th was General Support, heavy aircraft maintenance. By luck of the draw (probably because of my exceedingly good looks, military bearing and because I was a bachelor) I was named 7th Army Action Officer for the retrograde movement of the CH-34s.

The plan was to route about 485 CH-34s through one of the three 4th Echelon Maintenance Companies. We had THE LIST of Choctaws in Europe. Referring to the master list (which had TBO times), we would tell the using unit which helicopter (by tail number) to deliver to which maintenance company; the 661st at Schleisheim, the 48th at Goeppingen or the 245th at Finthen. The using unit's pilot would fly the helicopter in with its crew chief, pilot returning to his unit. The crew chief was instructed to drop the engine and transmission using ground equipment available at the 4th echelon companies. At times the crew chief stayed TDY for a week or so and other times he returned to his unit in a couple of days. It was good duty for them, TDY with quarters on the economy.

Our technical inspectors would look over the aircraft and its records to determine if there were 25 hours of flight time left before any major repairs were required. If that criteria was met, the owning unit was notified and one of their pilots w/crew chief flew the aircraft to Bremerhaven. I think a lot of them came back by Beaver with the fixed wing pilots landing on the golf course near the docks. Others returned by rail and I feel certain brought POVs out of the port.

If the birds required an extensive amount of man hours, part of the program was to ground them and cannibalize the airframe.

The aircraft were unloaded in Baltimore and I think National Guard pilots were used to ferry the helicopters to Davis-Monthan AFB.

This program placed a huge man power requirement on the maintenance units. The using units did not want to give up their good helicopters as they were required to maintain combat readiness with less helicopters as the bulk of the Hueys were not scheduled to arrive until the Summer of 1968. A few CH-34s were flown from the using units directly to Bremerhaven, but that was the exception. The test pilots of the maintenance units were getting a lot of flying time as almost every H-34 that came in had its blades pulled so we could get them inside a hanger.

An off shoot of this was the CH-37 (Mojave) helicopters were also in the program. With their R-2800 engines they were a white elephant. I think there were 12 in Germany and if my memory is right, six of them were scrapped because of the huge number of man hours required to bring them up to ferry standards. I know a TI on one of them showed 3,000 man hours required on the sheet metal alone. We parked that one on the grass right outside my window and started stripping it. The unit IP offered to give me 25 hours of instruction so I would be qualified in it -- I passed on that.

The using units were very reluctant to give up their unauthorized stock of spares, but a gentle nudge was usually enough. I remember one trip to Fulda to bring back some clamshell doors before that unit's annual IG. If you are giving up your H-34s, may as well give up the extra clamshell doors. And anything else that is unique to the bird.

One procedure was initiated which I think spread Army-wide. When the using unit delivered the bird to the 4th echelon maintenance unit, the radios were not inspected. Naturally, the losing unit did not send top notch avionics if they could help it. We found UHF sets that did not work. But, this was not part of the initial TI and the test pilot found this glitch when he tried to transmit for take-off clearance for his test flight. We instituted a program where all avionics were removed, inspected and repaired as necessary (IRAN) then placed in floater stock in our avionics rooms. As the helicopter was readied for a test flight, the UHF and FM radios were installed. When the glitches were fixed and the aircraft was in the final stages of prep for flight to Bremerhaven, one Nav radio was installed and tested. That change in procedure matched what the airlines were doing and helped morale in the three heavy maintenance units. It was disheartening for men to work many hours/months on a helicopter, feel good about repairing it, feel the excitement of a test flight and then be disappointed because the pilot could not talk to the tower.

The work schedule was tremendous, flight hours were high as we were flying twice weekly round-robin flights Finthen-Goeppingen-Schleisheim-Goeppingen-Finthen with stops at Coleman for liaison with battalion headquarters and the fifth echlon maintenance depot.

I don't know when the last CH-34 left Germany. I rotated in June of 1968 and had not seen any replacement Hueys

564th Bomb Sq
over Hanau in WWII

Illesheim AAF
Christmas Menu 1957

42nd Transportation Company
Charles V. Carney
Capt. TC, Commanding
Illesheim Army Airfield
Illesheim, Germany

I have three old group photos of the men of the 245th, I am not sure what year they are from.

I was born in 1961, but my family had already lived over in Germany where my Dad (Albert Kapler) was serving.

One photo shows the men in front of the a hanger which reads 245th TC - AAHM. The other two there is a flag stating the 245th.

If anybody can help determine the timeframe these group photos were taken, please contact the webmaster.