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106th
Transportation Battalion |
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| SUBORDINATE UNITS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 806th Transportation Battalion History | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 106th Transportation Battalion History | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
106th Transportation Bn DUI (1950s-1965)  106th Transportation Bn DUI (1966-1990s) |
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Reorganized an redesignated 20 November 1943 as HHD 106th Quartermaster Battalion (Mobile) |
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| (Source: 106th Transportation Battalion, Online Unit History, Biggs Library and Information Center) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 106th Transportation Battalion Wonderful unit history compiled by the Transportation Historian, Richard Killblane, at Fort Eustis, VA. As the historian states, the records for the battalion are nearly non-existent due to the unit's frquent moves during the last 50 years of its existence. The history has been "pieced together" and many pieces are still missing or lost forever. (Anyone having historical information that can augment the history or provide corrections is encouraged to contact the historian at Fort Eustis or myself.) The following is a summary of the extensive unit history. To read it all, click here (it is a BIG file, though - 6 MB+). |
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| Early Years in France, 1955 - 1958 (Bussac, France) Western France, 1959-1963 (Croix Chapeau, France) Northern Germany, 1964-1969 (Bremerhaven, Germany) Rüsselsheim, 1969-1993 (Azbill Barracks, Rüsselsheim, Germany) |
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| The Early Years in France, 1955 - 1958 Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 106th Transportation Battalion (Truck)(Army) was activated at Landes de Bussac, France on 18 March 1955. The battalion was formed by transferring personnel and equipment from the Army Reserve unit, 806th Trans Bn, which was concurrently inactivated (released from active service) as part of the Army's program to return all reserve component units (National Guard and Army Reserve) to the United States that had been activated as part of the Troop Augmentation program in the early 1950s. With its replacement of the 806th, the 106th most likely also assumed the former battalion's mission and facilities. The 106th Trans Bn was one of the truck battalions tasked with the line-haul mission by military truck in the COMZ. These truck battalions were stationed along the Line of Communications (LOC) that extended from the 11th Transportation Terminal Command on the West Coast of France to Mannheim, Germany. The 106th Battalion's responsibility was clearing the ports operated by the 11th TTC on the French west coast and moving the incoming supplies by truck along the French highway to the Ingrandes Trailer Transfer Point. |
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| It is not clear when the 72nd Trans Co joined the 106th Trans Bn. The USAREUR STATION LIST for Sept 1956 shows the unit already located at Ingrandes, with assignment to BASEC as is the 106th Trans Bn. The Unit History does not mention the 72nd. On 4 Jan 1958, LTC Thomas L. Lyons assumed command of the 106th. In July 1958, two companies of the 106th (78th and 583rd Trans Co) were alerted for deployment to Lebanon as part of the 201st Log Comd. They sailed to Lebanon on 27 July 1958. This mission enden in Oct and the two returned to the 106th. |
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| Western France, 1959 - 1963 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(  - this is my project for the next few weeks - hope to have it finished be early Feb 2007) |
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| If you have more information on the history or organization of the 106th Transportation Bn, please contact me. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1st Transportation Company | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Source: Email from Scott Davis) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 152nd Trans Det (TTP-Hotel) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Source: Email from Scott Davis) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 78th Transportation Company | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Source: Email from Don Davis, 78th Trans Co, 1970-71) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I was with the 78th Trans Co of the 106th Trans Bn from February of 1970 to February of 1971 at Rüsselsheim. Being with the 106 was sort of a status position as I felt it. We were over the road drivers. When I got in country they sent me to Worms for assignment to a company. I was a 64A20, light truck driver. They called me and one other fella in to see a staff sgt who asked us to volunteer to drive semi, 64B20. He told us there was a shortage of drivers in the 37th (Trans Gp). I remember my dad saying never volunteer but I figured I'd take a chance. I guess a lot of the GIs there saw us as "special or lucky." I actually had a guy wave me down when I was driving through one of the towns wanting to know how he could get a job like we had. They assigned us to the 106 which had just moved to Russelsheim shortly before we had gotten there. I stayed there, in Russelshiem with the 78th as did the guy who volunteered with me. There were about 4 or 5 other companies driving the same trucks, doing the same mission.
As the guy said, they were short on drivers in the 37th. Anyone coming into the company at the rank of E-4 or higher wasn't sent to the driving school in Dachau. They were teamed up with one of the experienced drivers to learn the ropes. I was an E-4. After the required 3,000 shotgun miles they gave me a tractor and sent me to Giessen to pick up a load. Our main mission was delivering commissary goods and, if the truck was running, so were we. There were some real benefits to that! You were never around for an inspection and being on the road was like having your own truck and the Army paying the bills. There was a standing order in Germany that required any US military company to provide us with fuel upon our request or anything else within their ability to provide in order to keep us moving.
The Company was just a starting point. Oh, you could come in whenever you felt the need but all you had to do was call the dispatcher and let him know where you were from time to time. Giessen was the main "terminal". You would go there to pick up a load and bring in empties. There were so many loads going everywhere they would actually ask you if you had a preference as to load destination. They would get you one there or near there every time.
I had been in the company for more than a month and was running with another guy from the 2nd platoon, I was assigned to the 1st platoon. We had loads to Nuremberg. It was late when we got there so we fueled up our trucks and headed for the transportation down town to the transit hotel. Yea, that's right! They put us up in a hotel not far from "the wall"...it was within walking distance. The accommodations weren't real good. There was a room at the very top of the hotel about 12 x 8 and in it was about 12 or 14 bunks with just enough room to make your way. I can't remember the latrine facilities but I guess they had them. Anyway, the guy I was running with stopped to talk to two other guys as we walked across the motor pool. I kinda figured if you are on the road a lot you meet fellas from other companies. After they walked off he asked me if I knew who they were. I said, "No". He said they were out of our company and hadn't spent a night there in over 3 months. They came in to get their checks and went right back out again. I never did get to know those guys. We had two guys that ran the mail. They drove everyday except Sunday and were on the road from sun up to sun down and then some. The guys on the mail run had a great chance of reaching over 100,000 miles in the year and half they were there but they only counted if you didn't have an accident that was your fault. The good thing about the mail run was that you didn't have KP or down time because of your truck. When your truck was down they gave you a different one. A draw back was getting a day off!
From November first till after Christmas we made a lot of "turkey" runs. We would haul 40 foot reefers filled with turkeys. You would think that with all those turkeys running up and down the road there would have been turkey on every table in the mess hall. NOT SO! We had 2 turkeys at Christmas. One was put on the officers table to be eaten and one was put on the NCO table...for looks! We got canned turkey! While we were there we had some political situations connected with Lebanon. Around 3 a.m. we would be routed out of bed and sent to Mainz. They had trailers spotted on a parking lot loaded with combat gear. Our orders were to back up to but not under the trailer and await further orders to take the loads to Rhine Main, back the trailers on to aircraft and go with the load to destination and await further orders. The first "Mainz Alert" lasted about 10 days. We couldn't leave the truck except to go to the "Johnny on the spot". I lost a lot of drive time during that time! Sitting there in a hot truck (it was June or there abouts as I recall) with nothing to do for 10 days will drive you crazy! Of course, "further orders" never came.
About 3 weeks later we got another call for another Mainz alert. Same deal. This time we were aloud to go to the recreation hall at the PX. It was just up from the parking lot about 50 yards, same parking lot. That's the Army for you! I was involved in 3 of those alerts. I think that was all they had...THANK GOD! The best job we ever had was driving to Holland to pick up containers at the harbor. We would go to one of two ports, Amsterdam or Rotterdam. We had to stop at the border to change cloths and process paper work. Since Holland was neutral we had to drive in civilian cloths while there and change back into uniform when we crossed the border. I've no idea what was in the containers. I remember one of the sergeants who had been assigned as mess hall sergeant wanted to switch to platoon sergeant for drivers. It was about Christmas time. In fact only 2 days before Christmas. He got assigned to NCO a run to Amsterdam to pick up containers. As I recall there were about 6 or 7 of us making the run. I pulled an empty and so did a couple of other guys. Three bobtailed there. The sergeant was determined to be back in company for Christmas. Since you couldn't drive up there and back without getting fuel we had to stop at a civilian designated fuel station. I don't know what the arrangements were with the owner but he closed at 10 at night maybe even earlier. Anyway I was down to a 1/4 tank of fuel. It was already getting dark before we left the port and the sergeant wanted to drive all the way through. I told him I didn't have a prayer of making it. He gave me an order and I said OK! The 3 guys that had bobtailed just made it back to company. They were now pulling loads. One of the guys that pulled and empty bought fuel out of his own pocket and one was lucky enough to have some un-used Esso stamps. I wasn't so lucky. I ran out of fuel half way up that hill, over by Cologne, with the skull and cross bones and warning lights at the top! I was not a happy camper! We also got assigned to haul radio towers. That was great duty. They were light weight and you usually ran in groups of about 3. They were never put up near military bases which meant you stayed in the truck and ate a Guest House. I was there for part of 2 winters and in that time I never seen one snow plow. They had little dog houses every so often as you were going up the hills that had sand in them just incase someone couldn't get up the hill. Traffic packed the snow down. I remember coming down a mountain one day on a snow packed road and checking my mirrors. All I could see was the side of my trailer. It's a funny feeling when your trailer is challenging you to a down hill skiing race. I grabbed another gear and accelerated to avoid a jackknife.
We even got stuck hauling wrecked duce'n'halfs. They were priority #1 loads. They never bothered to tell us why. We would pick them up at Karlsruhe and take them to Bremerhaven. I have no idea how they could wreck so many trucks! On one of the trips three of us picked up loads at 7 pm. We stopped at Giessen to refuel to make the trip. It was already past 10 so we called battalion and told them we were going to get some sleep and leave early in the morning. They said OK. We were on the road by 5 or earlier and met a bunch of guys coming back. Sgt Page was in charge. He flagged us down and chewed us out because we weren't there on time. When we got back they wanted to give us each an Article 15 until we told them what Battalion said. They asked us to prove it so as luck would have it the dispatcher at Giessen over heard the conversation. As luck would have it he ETS back to the states two days later. They made a special call to him at his parent home to verify our story. The reason the wrecked trucks were priority #1 is that they were holding a freighter (The Callahan) to haul back to the states. What we found out was that the guy that told us to get some shut-eye was a Spc. 4. The next time I seen him though he was a PFC.
I guess the company wanted to get their evens with me because not long after that my fuel pump went out as I was leaving the holding area at Karlsrue. With at least five of our trucks coming past me every day and talking to at least one of them each time and having called in three times a day to tell them where I was at it still took them five days to get me a fuel pump and then only because I told them it was my last call to the company. The next was going to the IG. Their excuse was that they couldn't find me. We had a young mechanic who wanted to drive so bad that he reenlisted for that end. They sent him to Vietnam where after only a short time in country his truck, which was loaded with JP-4, hit a land mine. Enough said.
Rüsselsheim post was a half city block consisting of our barracks, battalion building, maintenance garage and a small PX...very small, about 12x12. I understand that after we left the military there built up considerably. I also hear that there now is little or nothing left. I have a lot of other memories but I'm sure you want to keep this to the things others who were there then can relate to so I'll let it go at this, except for this parting comment. The 78th at that time was a family and some of us still are. I brought home five friendships from that year in my life that are with me today. One was the best man at my wedding and even though the marriage didn't last our friendship has. I was also best man at his wedding...his didn't last either. At least every other year he and I visit even tough it's 450 miles away.
One of my friends lives in Connecticut so I haven't seen him since Germany but the others have had several reunions in the past several years. One became a farmer, one a railroad engineer, I became a civil servant and the others remained truck drivers. I still feel something special every time I see a semi and I see a lot of them. My year in Germany remains one of the happiest I've ever had. |
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