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Category: The Green Machine
Nothing like putting something aside for a rainy day! The Marines did that after WWII and that stuff came in mighty handy when Korea lit up 5 years later! Grumpy
FADE IN:
EXT. COF, 618TH ENGINEER SUPPORT COMPANY (AIRBORNE) – 1745 HOURS, FRIDAY NOV. 10
WE OPEN outside the company operations facility, late on Friday afternoon, after three days of searching for the company executive officer’s Humvee, which disappeared without a trace on Tuesday night. The disappearance derailed the company field exercise, and leaders are furious. The shot begins wide, capturing the entire company formation and the building’s facade, before it slowly pushes in closer on the man standing in front of the unit.
As we draw nearer to him, it becomes clear that the FIRST SERGEANT isn’t mad. He’s just (visibly) disappointed. And maybe a little afraid?
FIRST SERGEANT
Ok, 618th, on the command “fall out,” I want you to form a school circle around me, hooah? It’s been a long week, so let’s make this quick and enjoy the long weekend, hooah?
Scattered “hooahs” emanate from the beleaguered paratroopers.
FIRST SERGEANT
Fall out!
BEHIND THE FIRST SERGEANT
The soldiers quickly assemble around the FIRST SERGEANT. Noticeably absent is the COMPANY XO.
FIRST SERGEANT
Listen up, paratroopers. As we all know, someone stole Nasty 5′s Humvee while we were in the field earlier this week. The LT and the CO are currently in the brigade commander’s office.
FACING THE COF, SLIGHTLY ELEVATED TO SEE FIRST SERGEANT OVER THE SEA OF SHOULDERS
FIRST SERGEANT
It’s been a tough three days. We’ve combed damn near every training area on this post.
FIRST SERGEANT
If anyone in this company knows anything about where the LT’s Humvee is, please step forward now. Let’s end this here and now. I can offer amnesty — no harm, no foul, no negative consequences.
BEHIND FIRST SERGEANT, LOOKING OUT ON TROOPS
Nobody steps forward. A few junior enlisted soldiers exchange suspicious glances, but it’s not clear whether they plotted the theft or whether this is just how they act all the time. Really could be either.
CLOSE UP OF FIRST SERGEANT’S FACE
The FIRST SERGEANT pauses, grimaces and shakes his head as if he’s choking on the words that come next.
FIRST SERGEANT
Please.
Several seconds of silence follow. The specialists in the back continue exchanging suspicious glances, and now it’s certain that this is just the way they are. Or is it?
FACING THE COF
FIRST SERGEANT
I’m serious, please return the LT’s truck. If this is a prank, it is no longer funny. Hell, it stopped being funny two days ago. Return it now, and it can be funny again! Please, guys. Please.
The soldiers shift back-and-forth uncomfortably. They sense something bigger might be at play here. The FIRST SERGEANT, visibly nervous, checks his watch — the biggest, chunkiest, most stereotypical rubber impact-resistant watch ever seen on Fort Liberty.
FIRST SERGEANT
You don’t understand what’s going to happen if we don’t find this Humvee by 1800. Any soldier who is man enough to come forward now and admit stealing it — or to tell us who did it — will receive four-day special pass for next weekend as well.
Nobody moves or speaks up. A DISGRUNTLED SPECIALIST IN THE BACK groans audibly.
FIRST SERGEANT
We are running out of time to solve this problem ourselves. I cannot save us from anything that happens next — unless one of you comes forward. Please, guys. It’s Friday of a long weekend. Today was supposed to be a DONSA. My wife has called me six times in the last 30 minutes.
The FIRST SERGEANT’s elaborately shock-resistant, waterproof watch beeps.
CLOSE UP OF CHUNKY WATCH
The watch reads 18:00, because of course the FIRST SERGEANT’s watch is set to 24-hour time. A vehicle engine sounds in the background as a lifted pickup truck approaches.
FIRST SERGEANT
Please! Just give us the LT’s Humvee. If you come forward in the next 30 seconds, you’ll also get out of our next red cycle tasking.
FACING OUT FROM COF, STREET IN BACKGROUND
The doors of the lifted pick-up truck open, and five people get out. It’s not clear how they all fit inside. The BATTALION CSM, two CID AGENTS wearing marked civilian clothes, the COMPANY COMMANDER and the COMPANY XO (who looks like he hasn’t slept since Tuesday) emerge and walk toward the formation.
As the soldiers realize what is happening, they turn around to watch the group approach.
INTERCUT BTWN BATTALION CSM, FIRST SERGEANT, COMPANY COMMANDER and COMPANY XO
BATTALION CSM
First Sergeant, any luck?
The FIRST SERGEANT shakes his head to signal no. The BATTALION CSM appears a little too excited about what’s going to happen next. The COMPANY COMMANDER sports a 1,000-yard stare. The COMPANY XO — wait, is the XO crying?
TRACKING SHOT follows the BATTALION CSM, who is flanked by the CID agents, as they walk to the front of the gaggle formation. (DW note: Not sure if the Imperial March is appropriate for this scene or not, remember to discuss with director.) Camera settles back in FACING THE COF once finished tracking.
BATTALION CSM
How we doing, Nasty Company? You had your chance to do this the easy way. Here’s what is going to happen now.
The BATTALION CSM gestures toward the two CID AGENTS. He pulls out a stack of papers — rights waivers, required for witness and subject interviews. One of the agents appears to mouth the word “sorry” as he stares intently at his feet.
BATTALION CSM
These two gentlemen are going to interview every single soldier in this goddamn company. Yes, you have a right not to speak to them. I don’t care. Every one of you will either sit with them in the COF or sign the sheet saying you refused to speak without a lawyer present. The good news is that Trial Defense Services is able to help those soldiers. The bad news for all of them is that TDS is out of the office until Tuesday, and you are under orders not to leave this company footprint until you and your lawyer complete an interview, hooah.
Absolutely nobody echoes the hooah. The COMPANY COMMANDER slinks into the COF. He probably was going to stay there all weekend sending emails anyways.
BATTALION CSM
But don’t any of you think that doing a one-and-done interview will get you out of this either. Every day this weekend, from 0600 to 1900, the XO will be leading the entire company in a “Hands Across America” police line through the Mott Lake training area — including the water. You will either find this Humvee or drown trying.
QUICK CUT to the COMPANY XO, who is sitting on the ground behind the formation hugging his knees and rocking back and forth, shaking with each successive sob. The crying grows gradually louder even after the camera cuts back to the BATTALION CSM.
BATTALION CSM
OK team, that’s all I have. I’ll be with you this weekend because I don’t like my family anyways. You have 30 minutes for chow; someone bring me a Popeye’s chicken sandwich from the Butner Road shopette. Stay Nasty!
Soldiers scatter and begin calling their families to relay the bad news.
FADE OUT
Observation Post is the Military Times one-stop shop for all things off-duty. Stories may reflect author observations.
Davis Winkie covers the Army for Military Times. He studied history at Vanderbilt and UNC-Chapel Hill, and served five years in the Army Guard. His investigations earned the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2023 Sunshine Award and consecutive Military Reporters and Editors honors, among others. Davis was also a 2022 Livingston Awards finalist.
Also he wrote a great book about the Green Machine & his time in it. Grumpy
Patton’s Spearheaders
Battalion History
This unit ranked high among the most decorated separate tank battalions fighting in Europe during World War II. It received the Presidential Unit Citation from Harry Truman, and the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star from the French Government, for its action at Mortain France during August 10 – 13, 1944 — and 22 commendations from higher headquarters for excellent performance in other battles.
“737” participated in all of the five major battles (Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland, and Central Europe). During 299 days of actual combat members of the unit were awarded 2 Distinguished Service Crosses, 22 Silver Stars, 188 Bronze Stars, more than 400 purple hearts, and two Croix de Guerre’s. Three enlisted men received battlefield commissions.
The unit landed at Omaha Beach on July 12 and 13, 1944, assigned to the First Army. After the capture of Saint Lo in France, “737” was transferred to the Third Army on August 6, 1944. Although it fought most of the war with the Third Army, our battalion was briefly loaned to the First Army again in April 1945 to help clean up the Ruhr Pocket that contained 317,000 German soldiers. This campaign started at Brilon and ended in Menden on the Ruhr River.
In five days “737” cleared 42 towns. One of our reconnaissance patrols killed Lieutenant General Joachim Von Kortzfleisch, second in command to Field Marshal Walter Model, when he tried to escape.
At times the battalion was badly mauled by some of the best soldiers in the German Army. The Krauts destroyed 66 medium and 8 light tanks. (A tank battalion has an initial strength of 59 medium tanks, 17 light tanks, and 751 men.)
Combat took a heavy toll in manpower. Our unit had 6 officers and 58 enlisted men killed in action. One officer and 20 enlisted men were reported missing. The names of one officer and two enlisted men are listed on the wall in the Luxembourg Cemetery as soldiers “who sleep in unknown graves”.
These losses were not without glory. When General Patton was observing our troops at the Moselle River crossing he said “that’s the way tanks should fight.”
General Patton sent a letter on 17 Nov 45 to the officers and men of the 5th Infantry Division, to whom we were attached. He wrote “To my mind history does not record incidents of greater valor than your assault crossings of the Sauer and the Rhine. You crossed so many rivers I am persuaded many of you have web feet …”
“737” was the first tank battalion of the Third Army to cross the Moselle and Meurthe Rivers, the first armored unit in XII Corps to touch German soil, and the first armored unit of the Third Army to cross the Rhine River and enter Frankfurt. It ended the war in Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland) after capturing Houzina, Volary and Winterberg.
One platoon of Company “C”, commanded by your webmaster, liberated 118 Jewish girls in Volary on May 5, 1945. These young ladies, with an average weight of 82 pounds, survived the 700 – kilometer Death March that began in Poland on January 29 and lasted 97 days. The Death March story has been dramatized on national television.
Another historical incident occurred in Volary — the last official casualty in the ETO. A Czech-American citizen, Pfc Charles Havlat of the 803rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, was killed when elements of the 11th Panzer Division ambushed his reconnaissance platoon 4 km northeast of the town. This event took place at 0820 hours on May 7, about 10 minutes before the “cease-fire” orders became effective. Your webmaster was at the scene.
German occupation in Kreis Vilshofen was soon interrupted by a reorganization into the 737th Amphibian Tractor Battalion. Our unit moved to Camp Lucky Strike, France, and sailed from La Havre on the liberty ship Timothy H. Dwight. Operation Olympic (invasion of the island of Kyushu) was scrapped by the A-bomb, but the 737 went to Ford Ord, California, and trained until deactivated on 15 Nov 1945.
Our Battalion was attached to three hard-fighting outfits during and after the war:
France
35th Infantry Division
Luxembourg, Germany, Czechoslovakia 5th Infantry Division German Occupation 83rd Infantry Division
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