I arrived in Bremenhaven, Germany on the USNS Patch in December 1963, and had orders assigning me to USA Garrison Unit, in St. Nazaire, France... with the M.O.S. for Personel Administration. I arrived there to find out that they were deactivating this base, and had but a skeleton crew with no mess hall or anything else functioning, and no one could figure out why I was sent there ??? Well a Capt. Robinson who was in charge at the time made up things to keep me active, and this lasted until April when I got my orders assigning me to Headquarters 1st Signal Group, Harbord Barracks, Orleans, France, where I served until June 1966.

It sure was great to be a part of an outfit where there was actually a reason to get up... No more mess kits and K rations and cold showers while living in a cold quonset hut.

I have only good memories of Orleans, France; the officers in charge, our CO. Col. Depau, and later Col. Myles E. Standish and EXO. Col Erastus W. Roberts and Capt. Robert Williams, and Sgt. Major Marshall were all quite professional. The staff were a great bunch of guys, and we had many French ladies as secretaries who were always friendly and helpful. The atmosphere and people were just great .

I worked in the Message Center from day one, when I arrived, Sp5 Dan Montague was the Message Center Chief, and I believe he left about 8 months later. Dale Thiesfeld was the driver for the Message Center when I arrived there, he would do the runs to Coligny Caserne and the other bases nearby every day with important Classified Documents and pick up and deliver the mail. He took over the position as Message Center Chief until he rotated to the States in 1965, at which time I took over that position till I left, and Roman May who came after me took over my job.

It involved everything from taking care of the mail, cutting orders and running them off, distributing supplies to everyone in our outfit, and to the other groups, like 275th, 269th, 313th, and 532nd Signal Companies, along with another few I can no longer remember. We also had to be cleared for Classified Documents, for it was a busy time with the war in Viet Nam going on, lots of hot info was being sent through us at the time. The Message Center was always a very busy place, which made the days fly by, a great place to work.

Aside from an occasional train ride to Paris to tour the high lights, a few friends and I would pay a visit to Orleans on a regular basis, the people were kind of withdrawn with GI's, I think mainly because this is what happens everywhere when you have hundred's of outsiders, some of which seem to act as if it is their town and they can do what they please... and I heard of a few French girls who had gotten pregnant and the GI just left with her like that, these things did not leave a good taste in the families of those involved. The few who do not behave will always get more attention then the many who behave. But all and all I was treated great by the French, knowing the language helped I am sure.. It was a great experience and I would have loved to be able to afford to go back with my Wife someday.

There was a small town called Ardon about 6 or 8 kilometers from Harbord Barracks, and about 3 from Maison Fort, where we would take walks down a trail through the woods. On our days off, we would go there and enjoy what they called pizza, but nothing like the one's we are accustomed to, they made them with wild game, rabbit, pheasant and venison, vegetables, and mushroom with lots of cheese of course, but you had to eat their version of pizza with a spoon, it was delicous but different. The French food was one of the things that always come to mind when looking back...the mess hall food was not bad, but the French sure knew how to eat, only problem they gave very small servings, no one pigged out there, you would never fill up on what they served at a meal, and it took hours to get all the courses delivered..they made a day of a meal.

I remember on many occasions my buddies and I would go down town and on our way back we would grab some long sticks of bread, hard as a baseball bat and almost as long, a big chunk cheese ( la veche qui rit), and sometimes splurge on escargots (snails) and some wine, Rose, Cabernet D'Anjou, and we would celebrate...made us forget home if we were homesick...

There was a statue of St. Joan of Arc in the center of town, and someone had given her the title of Joanie on the pony, I am sure the French would not have appreciated hearing that.

Thanks for giving me the oportunity to reminisce of the good old days. I will keep an eye on this site from now on, hopefully some of the old friends whom I have never heard from since I left might be added to your site. Thanks for the opportunity and take care.

I retired from the Army in 1986. I enjoyed the postings about 1st Signal Group. Here is some of what I can immediately remember:

I was commissioned (ROTC) in May 1964 out of Providence College as 2LT/SigC, attended the SOBC course at Ft Gordon in Jul-Sep, and arrived in France in Oct 1964, assigned to the 269th Sig Co as the OIC COMMZ Commcenter at Coligny Caserne, Orleans.

My Company Commander was CPT Moore, XO 1LT George Durenburger, ISG Yamada.

Operations sections and who ran them as follows:
Telephone: 1LT Peter Fielding
Wire: 2LT Ronald Rausin
Photo Lab: 2LT Marshall Moseley
European Data Gateway Station: 1LT David Klunk

Other officers arriving about the same time as I did but I cannot remember how they were assigned. One name I recall:
2LT Edward Dickson

A warrant Officer ran the unit supply and was assisted by a French National named Ramon Dauget(?)

Capt Donald Hughes, who stayed in the same hotel as I did upon arrival was assigned as CO of the 275th in late 1964, replacing CPT Gene Erickson.

I remember our housing was at St Jean DeBraye. Other quarters were at Olivet and another location down the Loire River on the way to LaChapelle Hospital. The Officers club was called Chateaux LeMothe.  Landmarks in town were Joan of Arc (GI nicknames "Joanie on the Pony") and another more obscure statue nicknamed "Dottie on the Potty" because of its appearance, much like The Thinker by Rodin.

COL Miles E. Standish commanded 1st Group. Deputy was LTC Carl(?) Dennis. A Mr Fred Silfies(?) monitored the network and outages. There was a LT Dutszak(?) in S1, a LT Richard B. Gurry in S/3. and MAJ Robert Williams as XO I believe.

ADDITIONAL INFROMATION
Shortly after our last communication, I saw a note from a Reid Gantt, who I believe took command of a signal unit from a friend of mine in France. I wrote him a note and rec'd a nice informative reply. Thanks for providing the means of re-establishing contacts and reviving memories.

269th SIGNAL COMPANY (Co HQ at Harbord Barracks with facilities at Coligny Caserne and Maison Fort)

COMZ HQ Command Telecommunications Center at Coligny Caserne.

Switchboard w/Mainframe and Wire Section at Coligny Caserne.

Command Photo Lab and ID Card Section at Coligny Caserne.

European Data Gateway Station at Maison Fort.

Detachment A was unique because of the detachment commander. Having been an enlisted man, he understood us pretty well. He was like a strict, but very fair father figure. He even smoked a pipe! He expected clean barracks, shined boots and brass, but was rather lax about haircuts. His hair was pretty long for the Army. If you conformed, you got to stay at Poitiers. If you didn’t, and there were very few who were dumb enough to transgress, you were immediately shipped out! It was easily the happiest unit in which I ever served. On the rare occasions that we had to go to Ingrandes, to get our 2½-ton truck serviced, we entered the dark side of the moon! Our company HQ was a very unhappy place. Ingrandes looked either like a U.S. Army base or a concentration camp. The first sergeant was a terror and morale was very low. We couldn’t wait to get back to Poitiers.

In November of 1967, Colonel Miles Standish, commanding officer of the 1st Signal Group, decided to inspect all five signal companies, and their detachments, in the group. We had always had weekends off, since I arrived in Poitiers, but the inspection meant that we had to work a half day on Saturdays to get ready for the inspection. We also had to get extra short haircuts. When the big day came, Detachment A was ready. The 313th Signal Company came out #1 in the inspection, and Detachment A came out number one in the company. Our reward was that many of us were sent to a new base in the north of England. Close to half of our detachment made it to Burtonwood, England. Ingrandes eventually contributed a few people as well, but they were a totally different breed from our Detachment A crowd. All were draftees, and I remember how glad I was to see them rotate home. It’s funny what a good commander, fair treatment, and a beautiful city could create.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
My AN/GRC-26 was just a back-up for the comm center. In the eight months I was there the comm center only went down twice. Because we actually only sent messages two days out of eight months, I don't recall where the messages were going. Our radio rig was on the 1st Signal Group net, so we had our net control station in Orleans. All we ever did was to make hourly checks with Orleans. When we had an alert, we had to contact them too.

The problem is that the French knew about the alerts so their radio unit in Poitiers used to jam our transmissions during alerts. It was very frustrating. I recall that the French Air Force used to buzz our base as well. We sat high on a hill, so it was easy for them. We didn't exactly feel welcome!

I joined the Army because I thought the Navy drafted. I lived in San Diego and knew that sailors were really looked down on here, so it's ironic that the French treated us that way. I used to buy my civilian clothes from Sears and Wards catalogs, since I was into mod fashion and didn't want to look like a soldier who bought his polyester clothes at the PX. Because I dressed differently, and had rather long hair for the Army, the people downtown usually asked me if I was English or German. It was only the rare occasions when I had to be in uniform that I got the dark looks.

Yes, the 313th had several detachments. John Runion, from the Caserne Aboville Group, was promoted to buck sergeant and sent to be detachment commander of St. Nazaire. I know that they had a telephone exchange and an AN/GRC-26 radio teletype rig.

When I arrived, in April of 1966, Braconne had just closed. They sent the signal people there back to 313th HQ in Ingrandes.

The 313th still had an active detachment in Captieux, which was down by the Spanish border.

Those are the only detachments I can think of.

Got drafted in May of 1964 when so many were burning their draft cards and skipping to Canada. Did hard basic at Ft Leonard Wood, Mo and was subsequently sent to the 2nd Armored Divn 142nd Signal Company at Ft Hood, Tx. Did not have any AIT or signal school training yet, so I did rotten ass details and KP and guard duty for about a month or six weeks. Finally I was sent to the NCO academy at Ft Hood to the CW operators course (I was a mere E2).

Prior to being drafted I was a railroad telegrapher and also worked teletypes on the railway to be exact.. Hired out on the old Great Northern Railway at the age of 16. I aced the radio school at Ft Hood. Very soon afterwards, after a brutal 16 hours on KP, stopped by the orderly room to see if I had any mail. All I heard was "Hey man, you are going overseas".. Cool.

To make a memory or a long story short.. Did the troop ship thing (USNS UPSHUR), then a troop train from Bremerhaven to Metz. Got rescued by Cpl Dobbs at the Metz depot, a 3/4 ton I think. I wound up in Toul as a member of the 532nd Signal Company.

Did about 10 days in Toul then was put on a train to Mannheim. Sgt Clark then sent me to Miesau where I was mostly on convoy duty running that ANGRY 26 (AN/GRC-26). Got shipped to Pirmasens later, but the website mentions only three at USAADM - that is wrong... at least during my tenure there, for awhile at least. My self and Andy were on our own.

Then a Comm center was installed and my two person detachment became a horde of 10 or so. Was sent to Pirmasens in Dec (around Xmas) 1965 and finished my tour there. For some silly reason we had to go to company HQ at Toul every so often in our radio rigs (Deuce and a Half with the Angry 26 Radio kinda sorda van mounted on the back. Cabled secure on the bed of that deuce and one half with big antennas tied down and a large trailer with a large generator behind.

Guess I talk so much but very much like the website.

I am retired from the railroad now, did 43 years with the Great Northern.