By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 7, 2019 | Any veteran of military service will tell you: it’s not unusual for you to be assigned for additional duty.
Years ago when a commissary officer in Germany, the Northern Area Command of the U.S. Army in Europe (USAEUR) ordered me to report for temporary duty to the Frankfurt Bahnhof (rail station). I was met by a Transportation Corps sergeant who routinely ferried troops by train to the Bremerhaven port for return to the United States. The sergeant said “Sign here,” and suddenly, I was responsible for and, on behalf of the U.S. government, signed for the entire train, from engine to the last passenger car.
It was a German steam locomotive with about eight cars, including a dining car. The sergeant showed me to a stateroom, said sit back and enjoy the trip, and that he (as he did routinely) would take care of moving the troops to the port. “Just enjoy reading your book,” he suggested.
It was an overnight trip. The next morning, I learned that there had been a problem overnight. The troops being returned to the states were not soldiers who had successfully completed their tour in Germany. All these troops on the train had been disciplined for some infraction, and were being returned in a group to the United States to be thrown out of the Army. They were accompanied by Military Police watching over them.
While I don’t know the details, there was an incident during the night. It seems that when the train went through a tunnel on the route northward, many of the mess trays had been tossed out of the rail car windows by these guys. Why it happened, we never learned. But somehow, certain military equipment (the trays) could no longer be accounted for.
The upshot was to be a “Report of Survey,” the military term for an independent investigation as to what happened. Remember me signing for the train? That included the mess gear, and in effect, I was responsible for the disappearance of the trays.
Once in Bremerhaven, the train pulled alongside a troop ship, and the soldiers, under guard as they had been all along, boarded the ship to return home. The sergeant told me as we departed: “You’ll be hearing from someone about those trays,” and I was relieved of signing for the train. I then caught a return train to my post in Giessen, Germany.
For months and months, I heard nothing. Then I got a letter saying that the Report of Survey investigation was underway. Eventually, my tour in Europe was over, and my wife and I and newborn son flew back home (on one of the earlier 707 jets — a speedy way across the Atlantic.)
Several years later, back home in Georgia, finally came a document from the USAEUR. The investigation had taken quite a long time, as much as three years. But after due deliberation, there was little that the Army learned except that, indeed, there were missing trays. We can imagine that if any of those returning troops had been questioned about seeing someone throw a tray out the railcar, the soldier would surely have said: “I know nothing……..”
And I certainly didn’t. Nor did the sergeant.
But finally, USAEUR had done the required investigation. And happily, I didn’t have to pay for those mess trays. I was finally through with another of those military “additional duties” that enlivens life.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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