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38th
Transportation Battalion |
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| Battalion History | |||||||||||||||||||||
 38th Transportation Bn DUI |
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| Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), 38th Transportation Truck Battalion was activated in Munich, Germany on 1 June 1951. On 1 April 1953, the battalion was redesignated HHC, 38th Transportation Battalion (Truck). During this period, the 38th was assigned to V Corps. |
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| ORGANIZATION - 1954 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| [1] STATION LIST, 31 Dec 1955 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| On 20 February 1959, HHC was again reorganized and redesignated as Hq/Hq Detachment. Prior to 1965, the 38th Trans Bn was under the command of the 10th Trans Gp. With the inactivation of the 10th and the activation of the 107th Trans Bde as part of COSTAR in 1965, the 38th Trans Bn was reassigned to that command. The 38th Battalion left Coleman Barracks, Mannheim, Germany and arrived at Fort Eustis, Virginia, on 20 September 1968. One of its subordinate units, the 100th Transportation Company, also left Germany and relocated to Fort Eustis. |
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| If you have more information on the history or organization of the 38th Transportation Bn, please contact me. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| (Source: Email from Laurence (Larry) St.Onge , HQ 38th Trans Bn, 1959- ; 66th MI Gp, ) | |||||||||||||||||||||
I was assigned to Hq, 38th Trans Bn, Taukkunen Barracks, Worms, Germany about Jan 1959. The CO was LTC Hamilton Rebentisch. He was replaced a year or two later by LTC Phillip I. Klein.
The Bn Adjutant when I first arrived there was Major Thomas G. Haake. The Personnel Officer, for whom I worked, was CW2 Kendall E. William.
As I recall, the 34th Trans Company was co-located with the Bn Hq in Worms, there was the 377th Heavy Trans Co at Sandhofen Barracks, and I've forgotten the others.
The 38th Trans Bn was a VERY active cargo hauling outfit using mostly 5-ton trucks for over the road use supporting 7th Army. Also, of course, we had numerous deuce and a half trucks, jeeps, 3/4 tons, and so on. The Bn under LTC Klein was one red hot sharp outfit. Klein was a stocky, very powerful guy, one of the strongest men I've ever known. During an extended field stay in the Lorsch Woods near Worms, LTC Klein caught a couple of outpost guard points asleep. He took their tripod mounted .30 caliber machine guns, then called a Bn formation in a clearing at first light. He had about 900 troops, the entire outfit, clustered in that probably one to two acre clearing. He called attention, picked up a machine gun in each hand, held them out to arm's length, and walked all around the ranks chewing behinds. This was amazing! Many of us husky young studs tried to duplicate this later and could not. A tripod mounted air cooled Browning weighed probably 60 pounds and to hold two of them out like that while addressing the troops for something like ten minutes was something to see and marvel at. Anyway, the 38th under that guy was the best unit I every served in during 25 years in the Army! We might have been truckers but we were soldiers first! Also damned well taken care of by that same LTC Klein. I was with 38th Hq about 2.5 years, made SP5, and was transferred to Hq 10th Trans Group, Karlsruhe, about 1962 to be promoted to E6 and become the Personnel Sgt of the newly activated or formed 125th Trans Bn co-located with 10th Trans Group. The 125th subsequently took over the Transportation Companies of the 24th Infantry Division which were located at Augsburg and Munich. I made many TDY trips to those locations trying to get the records straight and get a handle on the very poorly maintained 24th Div records.
We did a lot of field time in the 38th, especially under LTC Klein. He, by the way, died just a couple of years ago as an 0-6 in his mid 90s. A grand old man.
I left in late 1964 after a five year tour. I subsequently applied for Military Intelligence, was accepted and went back to Germany, to 66th MI Group, Stuttgart, as a special agent late 65 or early 1966. I was assigned to the VI CIC Region at Flak Kaserne, Ludwigsburg. That unit was just changing it's title from VI CIC Region to 6th MI Company. As you may know, a MI Company in those days was the equivalent of a regular Army battalion. The "Company" commander was LTC George Krelo and we had Field and Resident Offices in Heilbronn, Ludwigsburg, Augsburg, Munich, Garmisch, and Berchtesgaden. I was an E-6 and just out of the agent's and DAME courses at Ft. Holabird. Within a few weeks of my arrival, Krelo called me and told me he was transferring the current Technical Chief (TC), CW2 Burton Staats, to be supply officer and I would now be TC. We had an active technical program with electronic countermeasures missions all over the southern half of Germany and we did very frequent electronic "sweeps" for 7th Army and 7th Army Support Command. These command sweeps included the General and senior staff offices, command trains, staff cars, conference rooms, quarters, etc., to hopefully detect bugging by the very aggressive Soviet intelligence services. We also did technical monitors of classified conferences sometimes carried out in gyms, movie theaters, and so on. In those days, the Status of Forces Agreements between the US and Germany gave the US the authority to arrest and detain German and other foreign nationals, do clandestine surveillance missions, and so on. I won't get into details about any of that but we did conduct and/or support many of our own missions and also provided services for the German intel agencies primarily the LFV. Anyway, my TC slot was an 0-4 position and I held it for three years as an E-6, E-7, WO-1, and CW2. Krelo got special dispensation to retain me when I made WO even though that almost always meant an automatic transfer. I returned to the US in 1968 assigned to the MI Resident Office in Leavenworth, KS. Was there about a year and then sent to eight months of Vietnamese language training at Biggs Field, Fort Bliss, TX. Went from there to 2d Bn, 525 MI Group, RVN. I came back from Nam May 71 and had the Grand Junction, CO Resident Office for a couple of years and was reassigned to be the one man RO at Dugway Proving Ground, UT in 74. I stayed there until 1980. The 525 Group was reconstituted/relocated or whatever they call it to Presidio, SF, CA, so I was again in the 525 Group. My last CO there was LTC Russell Cooley, also a great guy, the initiator of the OPSEC program, and a true genius in counterintelligence. Went from Dugway to South Korea in late 80, was only there a couple of months, and was pulled back to a special unit in D.C. which I won't discuss at all. Retired effective 1 Nov 81 and there we are. |
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| (Source: Email from Jim Hickenbotham, 34th Trans Co, 1965-67) | |||||||||||||||||||||
I was with the 34th Trans Co, 38th Bn, 7th Army and drove a 2.5 ton truck. During my last 4-5 months in the bn. I was relocated to Boeblingen. At that time I did not realize that the unit was headed to Nam. My ETS from Germany was April 1 1967 and the unit went to Nam in September that same year.
My unit picked up and transported supplies all across Western Germany. We also supported the 8th Infantry stationed an the same base in Worms, Taukkunen Barracks. We would go to Grafenwoehr and Wildflecken.
I continue to stop in Germany from time to time traveling with my job as a labor leader and will travel to Worms and remember the good times. The base has been turned into a mall with hotel, shopping center and the works. i would love to find out what happened to my old unit! The last I heard was that upon their return from Nam they ended up at Fort Campbell. Kentuky.
My friends and I used to travel to Lapenheim (?) to a resturant run by a black gentleman by the name of Mr. Wheims who had retired and married a german lady and we could go there and eat soul food especially on Sunday. Last year when I was in Germany again I ran into another gentleman who had stayed in Germany and he advised me that Mr. Wheims had passed away.
I could go on and on as I love Germany!! I recenlly retired from the Reserves as 1st Sgt. The guys would not believe it :-) (80th Division, Salem, VA.) I hope someone will be able to offer me some information regarding my old unit.
There were also two additional transportation units on base, the 513th and 594th Trans Companies, if my memory serves me right. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION I think that the relocation regarding the 38th BN from Worms to Panzer Kaserne, Boeblingen, Germany, could have taken place late 1966 or early 1967.
Also after looking in what little info I can find, I did receive a Safe Driving Certificate for driving 15,000 miles without an accident from the timeperiod 16 Dec. 1965-Jan.21 1967. This was with the 34th Trans Co. and the 4TH Trans. Bn. - confusing, I know. Martin W. Shaffer, LTC, TC, commanding.
I know that the time spent in Boeblingen was almost like being in a holding station, as all we did was go to the motor pool and p.m. the vehicles and back to the barracks and play cards. And of course have alerts every other morning.
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