Carmine Matarozzo on left and Richard Garcia on right side

On the cold morning of November 25, 1958, I boarded the troop ship General A.M. Patch, at the Brooklyn Naval Shipyards.  It was loading with troops and equipment heading for assignment in Europe.  Some of us would go to Germany, others to Italy, France and other European counties.
 
I had just arrived in New Jersey from Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas where I had taken my basic medical training on how to care for combat related injuries.
 
I came to Texas on board a train that departed from my home town of Oakland, California where I had been home on leave after my basic training at Fort Ord, California. 
 
We pulled away from the docks or the Naval Shipyard at 7 AM and the ship moved sluggishly as she maneuvered through the cold winter waters.  Soldiers and crew lined the rails as we steamed down the Hudson river and out of the New York harbor.  
 
As it made it's way past the grand old lady and headed out to sea I could not help but wonder what it was going to be like for me to  be away from home, family and country for the first time.
 
About one hour later we saw the Queen Mary in the distance as she was coming out of the harbor and before our eyes she when pass us as if we were standing still.  What a beautiful and majestic ship she was.
 
Everyone seemed to be a bit depressed and excited also but we had been ready for the day for several months.  We did not all know our final destination other then the country we would be going but Germany was the ships final destination but my final destination in Germany was still a mystery.
 
Soon the Patch was out in the Atlantic ocean and she began rolling and pitching.  By midnight many of the troops had become seasick.  The Atlantic, true to her form was bleak, relentlessly rough and cold.
 
We had been informed that in order to keep from getting seasick we should make all attempts to be at every meal, eat and drink everything.  Many of the troopers would rather gamble and miss there meals and they paid for it, spending a good amount of time hugging the commode.
 
On Thanksgiving Day we were treated to a feast of turkey, sweet potatoes, dressing, cranberries, the works in celebration of Thanksgiving.  My first major holiday away from home, the first of many.
 
The monotony of waiting was broken by several training classes that were given us about venereal disease, how to act in a foreign country and most importantly, not to fight over the women of Europe.  The statistics we were told was that there was seven women to every American soldier.  I could not wait to get to Germany and get my hands on my seven women. 
 
Most of the time was filled with kitchen work, swabbing the deck and anything else that they had for us to do.  Mostly we sat around, in our cramped bunks, writing endless letter home to family and girl friends and talking with other soldiers.  Sometimes we spent time on deck, when the weather permitted.
 
The winter weather was not kind and the waves came crashing onto the deck and being in the hole became more desirable for us then getting freezing wet. 
 
After a total of eight wet, cold, stormy and miserable days we could see the White Cliffs of Dover.  It was a relief to be in calmer waters again. 
 
We finally anchored in Bremerhaven, Germany.  It was another Naval  Shipyard but this time we were heading for our new home,  where ever that was going to be.
 
The thousands of soldier disembarked the old tub and were assembled in a large warehouse.  Names were called and people ushered here and over there.  Finally my name was called and I was assigned to a railroad car that was on a spur near the docks.  I was assigned a seat and  told to be there whenever the sergeant came alone to make a check of personal.  I  would be told when to get off the train and to have everything ready to jump when told to.  I kept my dufflebag handy. 
 
I do not remember what time the train's engine was hook up to the passender car but it must have been during the night.  I cannot remember any of the sites alone the way, but very early the next morning, I, along with several others where hurded off the train in the town which would be our home for the  better part of the next two years, Fulda, Germany.
 
With one other man from the ship, John "Dufflebags" Gause we were both assigned to the 501st Armored Medical Company and for both of us it would be home for two long years.
 
These are but a few of the fond memories I have of those day, from July 1, 1958 until May 19, 1961 and these memories cannot be diminish or take away from me.  As I write about those memories and those times I am trying to preserved these events for the future and for my family in their future.  I want them to know that I, Richard Garcia, served with honor, pride and I did my best to make my family and my country proud of me.
 
Of my time in Germany I can honestly say that I left a hell of a lot behind there.  Friends, I would never see again but would always remember, wonderful times and a terrible ordeal, but most of all I remember that I can there as a boy and left as a man.
 
I miss my friends, Richard Elias from Utica, New York, Charles R. Hawkins from Mansfield, Texas, Marvin Rash who's home was always Fulda, until his death it was alway Fulda.  Carlton Tatum from North Carolina whos only mission in his military career was to take care of his fellow soldier and good friend, Dave Landon, also from North Carolina.  There was Kelly Arena, Texas, John Thornberry, Illinois, Kenneth Stutzman, Illinois, Augustus Cooley, home state, unknown.   Billie Magee, from Mississippi, who died to early.  There were others with names lost in time, but there was only one, that I will never forget, Joseph Earl Delaney, Charleston, South Carolina.  
 
Fifty years later, I was lucky enough to reacquaint myself with several of these men and we got together to talk stories and Remember When.
 
I had wanted a life that was wider and deeper than my own Pacific shores could offer.  To make my way in a big world, to see more, to learn more and to be more.  It wasn't just a dream, it was a reality and I lived it.
 
Like so many other boys of that generation my military services was a special kind of schooling, studies beyond textbooks in the world of reality.
 
I matured from a young eighteen year old boy into a mature man with a unique knowledge of myself and of he people that I had met.  At times the price had been high and painful, it was the price of not being prepared for the world outside of my family and school friends.
 
I left behind a hell of lot in Germany, friends I would never see again but would always remember, wonderful times, a terrible ordeal but most of all I left behind my youth.  I love all of the boys.
 
Richard Garcia
 

I remember one year in Fulda we were each given a small Christmas tree to put in our barracks.  We have one empty stall that face the road and Tony's so we put it in that room.  Only thing was we were not given any decorations for the tree so we had to make due.  Some of us put or Christmas cards from home on the tree.  Other put small personal items on it.  We decide that we needed more but where to get them.   The mess hall had a tree that must have reach to the ceiling and lots of lights and ornaments and we figure they would not miss a few.  Each day as we when by the tree we would snatch something to put on our tree.  I cannot remember who it  was but he took an ornament,  or tried, and as he walk away the tree moved toward him almost falling over so he let go and the tree uprighted itself.  That was the end but in all we did have the most beautiful tree at the 501st, 14th Cav and Downs Barracks.
 
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF MY BROTHERS AND I THANK GOD THAT AFTER SO MANY YEARS I HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET YOU WITH YOU ALL.
 

The following story if from Jim Grooms. He sent it to us in response to a request from a school teacher in Fulda who wanted some stories about men who served in Fulda. He wanted to have them published in the Fulda Newspaper

I served in the 501st Armored Medical Co. from 1956 to 1959,  and as a 17 year old boy away from home for the first time I enjoyed every minute.    During the Christmas season we would take gifts to the towns children and our company would sponsor children for Christmas.  We  would pick up the kids by bus and bring them to the base and take them to Christmas dinner at the mess hall. Although it was not allowed the soldiers who were sponsoring children would go to town and buy the kids gifts out of their own pocket beside the gifts that the army would provide. It was a great way to make friends, and it helped me get through a lonely time. If this is printed in the Fulda paper I hope that someone who went to the base for Christmas during that period can remember it and respond to the artical. A lot of time has passed since those days. I am now 70 years old and have 2 children and 5 grand children   Jim Grooms