For the Men and Women the served with the 14th ACR and it Supporting Units at Downs Barracks in Fulda

Following are some stories from M Sgt Jesse Simmons of A Co. who after all the years still calls his self a

Hey, Jim, were in Fulda early enough to know about the two Baker brother's? One worked in the Battalion Maintenance Shop and the other one was a cook for one of the units; and here I don't remember if he, the cook, was a member of the Hq Company or A,B,C,Tank or Howitzer. These two guys had acquired an old Cadillac, 1940 era and the thing would run sometimes and sometimes it wouldn't. But when it did man it smoked the place up. Anyway, back when we were preparing to turn our M-24's in and draw the newer M-41's these two dude's decided that they would swap out one of the caddy engines from a 24 and put it into the car and put the car's old engine in to the 24! It Worked! Man that Cadillac ran like a dream and had more horse power than the law should allow. It was real smoothe sailing for them, one brother rotated back to the states and was assigned to a unit in Ft Dix, NJ; the other brother was still riding high around Fulda in his refurbished Caddie. Then one day---an inspector open the hatches covering the engine compartment of a 24 from Fulda and there were two engines all right, one nice and clean like it was from the factory, the other however, was real nasty and wasn't completely hooked up to the tank, it was just sorta laying in the hull where an engine was supposed to lay. Well, to keep this saga from becoming a tome in itself, the flag went up and the investigation came to Fouled and specifically wanted to see the reported Caduca. They found it, the car and their missing US Govt. engine. The brother at Ft Dix returned to Germany and met his brother in Frankfurt am Main, and there the saga ends, with the brothers being found guilty of grand theft, etc, etc. The Caduca went off to have the US Government's engine re-moved and re-installed into the tank, I never did learn of the cars disposition, probably junked out along with it's junky engine. I guess by now the Baker brothers have finished pulling their time. One was a SFC the other a SP5 or 6.

The Motor Pool was in pristine condition and all the vehicles looked like that had just came off an assembly line. I mean to tell you that every screw driver, nut and bolt, rag box, trash can would have passed a food service inspection. If you will remember, the vehicles in the Motor Pool were lined up from front [the gate entrance] to the back fence; Hq, How, C,B,A and then Tank. This was the final day of the inspection and old Tank Company had all their s*** in tight pile. We, Alpha, had an old 2.5 ton truck that we used for everything. We had loaded it down with all our excess and such and dispatched it to Marburg, the laundry, and told the driver not to return until after dark, this he did, and they pulled that piece of s*** inside our maintenance garage and over a pit, closed the door and forgot all about it. The next day, the final day of the IG, was in full swing up there right next door to Alpha. The inspector's were looking for anything they could possibly find on those M48's, because we were to get the new M-60's after the inspection, so they were doing their best to find fault with old Tank Company. Well, along about mid-afternoon, the IG himself came up to the MP, for the first time, to see how everything was going. Someone had opened the door to our maintenance bay where the old truck sat; filthy, hadn't been washed in a coon's age. Well, naturally the IG sees this old truck sitting in our bay, and says to his escort from Bn Hq, "I don't think we have seen this one yet." Well the inspectors were pulled off of Tank Co and put on Alpha's old dirty truck. When one of them lifted the curtain and saw all that crap loaded in the back of the truck he immediately told the IG, who had a look, and told the Bn Hq escort to have that truck brought down to the Bn Hq's at once. The IG brought the Bn CO out to see this mess and when the truck arrive down at the Hqs it was unloaded. Now, let me inject some needed information in here at this time. Shortly after being assigned to Co A in 1956, we went to the field, practice for a up coming test. I had a section of scouts and had given them instructions where to set up and the like. One of the men called to me to come to where they were, upon arriving they directed my attention to a machine gun position wherein was a complete M-1919A4 with tripod, T&E Mech, Pintle and by golly a Range Card. However, no unit identification could ascertained on any of the equipment. I plotted a coordinates and recorded the Serial Number of the gun and instructed my people to take it up to the Co CP and give it to the First Sergeant and that I would give him a report shortly. Well, as the truck was being unloaded in front of the Battalion Headquarters, what should suddenly appear coming out of the back of the truck? Yep! One each M-1919A4! The same gun that I had turned in and reported finding almost three years previously. Well, needless to say the IG went straight up into orbit. The Bn CO was relieved My Company Commander was relieved and we even got a new First Sergeant. The notes in my notebook were all that saved me from the block. I carried one on me for the rest of my career. How's that for a Cavalry yarn? Jesse Simmons A CO 14th ACR 1956-60

I read the story about the fellow who was short changed in the wrestling bout for a championship, I had a little experience with that myself, though on a different venue. It was either late 1958, or early 1959, and I am just guessing now; but there came to our Battalion one (1) E-6 promotion quota. The first in a long long time. I was selected to go before the promotion board; and it resulted in myself and another E-5; and they promoted him because he was married. It wasn't long after that, when another E-6 promotion slot opened and I took that one; and as it turned out I was the first promotion in eight years to E-6 in Company A. I never did know why that was, but was just glad to have made it just the same. I made E-7 three years and a month later, and then E-8 three years after that promotion.

The promotion board for E-7 occurred while I was at Leonard Wood working with BCT, and the change in stripes was to occur. The change involved 5 stripe E-6 to change to 4 stripe and E-7 would be the 5 stripe; so there was a big push for the ONE E-7 slot open for promotion. At my appearance before the board a question by the Sergeant Major asked me what fire support weapon did a Battle Group Commander have organic to his unit. Well, I had never seen a Battle Group TO&E and had no idea it's composition; but I knew enough to know that he would have 4.2 inch Mortar's and 106mm RR's; so I answered that he had two fore support weapons organic to his Battle Group; naming the Mortar's and RR's. The Sergeant Major smiled at my answer, and I thought I had blown it wide open. When in fact I was correct and the only one that said that the Commander had two weapons systems at his disposal for direct fire and/or indirect fire support. I was promoted at Thanksgiving dinner in my company's mess hall by the Regimental Commander himself accompanied by the Sergeant Major. And, you know the old E-6's who were having to change their stripes from 5 to 4 wouldn't even speak to me at the NCO Club when I had my "wet down." When I made my E-8, I was at Ft Carson, and had to explain my entire activity from the time I would be at home in bed to the time our unit would move from the cantonment area to the field; here I was the only one who "Checked my track's against their loading plans" and I was one of three promoted. Interesting as I look back on those sort of things; I have determined that those boards all had one thing in common; that was their interest in knowing the person being evaluated took nothing for granted and checked and knew his unit's capabilities. Well, enough of bending your ear. Let me know about your preferences. Jesse

Once while sitting in an almost empty Mess Hall with three other GI's, one being Stanley Stroud of A Co. and I don't remember who the other guys were an incident happened that I will never forget. The entry/exit door to the NCO Mess was at the back end of the Mess Hall. Stanley picked up a plastic napkin holder and threw it at the door way that was some ways away from our table. As luck would have it Sgt. Karsten of A Company and a couple of other Sgt's walked out of the door. The napkin holder bounce off from the table and hit Sgt. Karstins in the head. Since the Mess Hall was about empty he came over to our table and said "which one of you men hit me up the side of my head with this napkin holder, I think that you all done it". He was from the South and in his accented voice it really sounded funny. He looked at Stanley and said "is that your field jacket. Stanley told him that it was his uncle's field jacket but the name was the same, referring to the name tag on the jacket. Sgt. Karstins took all of our names and I was called in to the CO's office of A Co. The CO was a Captain and he asked me what happened in the Mess Hall concerning Sgt. Karstin. I told him what Sgt. Karsten had said to us trying to imitate Sgt. Karstens Southern Draw. It made the CO so mad that he kicked me out of his office and no one ever hear any more about it. That would not be the last run in with Stanley Stroud and Sgt. Karsten. He next story I will add later. Stanley was one of those guys that things were always going on around him. As the saying goes "S--T Happens and if it does it normally happened around Stanley.