Reforger Question

Welcome to the wonderful world of "Maneuver Damage!"

I was on three REFORGER exercises (AKA REGURGER to many of us) --

1974, 1975, and 1988. We were given classes on what was and was not possible for use in such situations, and using any sort of non- artificial cover was considered a faux pas.

The reason is that unlike the US German forests are managed by forestmeisters who tend to clearing underbrush and damaged or dying trees and scrub. They account for the bits and do not appreciate others using or stealing it -- there have been nasty incidents with service members held at shotgun point unitl a Manuever Damage officer arrives to sort things out.

The very first REFORGER I was on my lieutenant (a typical second looie, not very bright) tore up a beet field getting my platoon into position. The only thing that saved us from paying a stiff fine was the fact that somebody ordered a troop from the 1-4 CAV to give us protection, and the Sheridans tore the field up worse so they got the bill.

Germans were very skilled at milking this system. The record holder was somebody who claimed 80,000 marks for a chicken which was hit by a vehicle. The charge was for all of the eggs that chicken would have laid, the ones that would have been allowed to become chicks and the eggs they would have laid when they grew up to be chickens.

An expensive game, and Lord help you if you damaged a tree!

Cookie Sewell

...they should have threatened to counter-sue him for all of the arterial damage the cholesterol in all the eggs that would have been produced and consumed might have caused, and the attendant possible medical costs that might have been associated with the care for all of those whom might have suffered...and punitive damages and recompense to their families...and their possible progeny...

...tree-huggers...

Rufus,

It gets worse. On REFORGER 88 we were stopped by the Feldjaegers as a column from the 11th ACR was coming through a small town. While waiting for the column to arrive, we heard a horrible screeching and then a woman screaming. We looked over and a dog had a cat by the throat and was preceding to remove it from the rolls of the living.

By the time the woman got to the dog and chased it away, poor old Schatzie had spent all nine lives. The woman stood there holding the dead cat as the sounds of armored vehicles could be heard approaching. She suddenly got an odd look on her face and glanced to see that the lead vehicle behind the Feldjaeger was an M88 retreiver. Sure enough, just as it passed the dear departed Schatzie went right under the tracks...

Wonder how much she got for it.

Cookie Sewell

...yeah...it does get worse...somebody found some pottery shards on one of our ranges a couple years ago, and now all hell breaks loose waiting on environmental and/or cultural surveys if we're planing on doing anything that will disturb the dirt...dirt that's been in range use since the 40s...

...OTOH, a couple days ago a woman down below was out walking her chihuahua and a great horned owl swooped out of the sky and made off with the little taco-hawker...the reporterette was reminding people how "we're supposed to not let our pets out at night to keep them safe from coyotes, mountain lions, bears and such, but nobody ever said anything about something swooping out of the sky"...at which point even she couldn't help but laugh. They had to cut away...

was she bavarian? one could hope she was rewarded with a splintery, nail covered 10' long piece of 4"X"8" used as a rectal thermometer. civilians.....

i hope i haven't posted this story before, but eben though it happened in the late 60's, the scene is still fresh and bright in my memory. one morning during rush hour in the midst of a very heavy noreaster rain storm. i stood on the charles stree paltform waiting for an inbound subway train. a pigeon was flopping soddenly through the air and decided to give it up. the pigeon landed on the 3rd rail and somehow grounded out. there was a bright flash, a small bang and then there was only some feathers and a small ball of greasy black smoke rising in the rain. a lot of people saw it and many were horrified and some even cried. i thought it was the funniest thing i'd seen and almost collapsed in proxisms of laughter. some horrified overfed drone in a short skirted business suit actual asked me why i was laughing! everybody moved away from me, just like the group w bench story.

Thanks, Cookie! Had a feeling you'd know the answer.

Chris Kansas City

Rufus wrote: : : ...OTOH, a couple days ago a woman down below was out walking her : chihuahua and a great horned owl swooped out of the sky and made off : with the little taco-hawker... : Must have been a youngster. On the other hand, they do resemble a reasonable sized rat...

Reminds me of the video of a Bald Eagle that swooped out of the tree, glided across the road, snagged fifi, and was last seen leisurely crossing the tree line with lunch secured.

The old lady was in tears, and hubby seemed somewhat, shall we say, less than distraught over the fate of fifi.

Hmmm, I wonder what PETA had to say about either incident?

Bruce

Sometimes progress detracts from fun: back in my dad's youth (i.e Early 20th CE) bicycles had lamps which burned acetylene, produced by dripping water onto carbide in a small tank behind the reflector. Much innocent fun could be had by wrapping a lump of carbide in bread and feeding it to one of the many scavenging Seagulls which are sill a damned menace... Tying a couple of yards of fishing line to a breadcrust and attaching a paper dart to the other end was almost as amusing but regrettably non-fatal.

Regards,

Moramarth

And then again, in 1970, a Triumph TR6, driven by a USAF sergeant in the UK, came speeding around a blind bend on the wrong side of the road and ran head on into my families car going the other way. Both cars were totalled, The US serviceman broke a wrist and his nose, my father who was driving our car broke four(4) ribs, all the rest of my family suffered lacerations and bruising. I was riding shotgun, and headbutted the dashboard when it came to meet me. The vision in my right eye was damaged and remains so to this day. I needed skin grafts to the lacerations to(=shredding of)my forehead,not for cosmetic reasons but so that the wounds would heal, and I will carry those scars to my grave. The US serviceman was evacuated to the USA that evening and never faced any charges in a UK court. I received around $1000 (it was £400 at that time) in compensation from his insurance company for my damaged sight and ruined face. I didn't even get an apology. Good luck to the Germans.

The Germans had a much different SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) than the UK did. On the other hand, there were no US Army maneuver units in the UK during the Cold War either which lowers the profile a lot.

In 1974 we had a sergeant in the German National Police Force from Bavaria give us a REFORGER breifing and one of the damage slides was where an M60 tank commander thought (!) he could make it down a narrow street. He took out the outer four inches of three brand-new Mercs and probably was personally responsible for 240,000 marks in damage. We paid them off.

That's one reason the Germans were not happy when the Cold War ended and we started to draw down -- fewer opportunities to cash in.

Cookie Sewell

I lived in Japan, no matter what, if you were in an accident, it was your fault. Even some had cabs get hit by some GI and some of the locals would hop in the back and start complaining about neck injuries. Usually US Embassy would get involved with local commanders and start negotiating payment for damages. IF it was really serious, best bet was to get the GI out of the country ASAP and let base legal go over it.

I was in a company, had one of our employees in a car wreck with a cab, this was in Korea, don't know what final resolution was, but every time he talked to local cops damages were going up and up. When I was there the were trying to get $12,000 out of him. We should have shipped him out as soon as it happened.

It doesn't happen a lot now, but in 50s, and until 60s, moms would push kids in front of cars, then you'd have to take care of them for the rest of their lives. There was a court case with a mom in the 80s that ended up in a Japanese TV series / movies.

We were told do not ever cut a tree down. Think the fine was in hundreds of dollars.

Not all the perils of service overseas were obvious.