people in military bases in France in the sixties

Jamey Jarman --

Ask your dad if he knew an airman named Joe Swindle, stationed at Evreux 1959-1960, when your dad was there. Joe came in often to Hqs EUCOM at Camp des Loges and was in several plays and musicals I directed there for the military. He was a good actor and especially funny, mouthing and mimicking recordings behind him (Like Eartha Kitt's "C'est Si Bon") I think he did some of that at the clubs at Evreux, too.

Frawley Becker

Hello Frawley, use the new Bing search engine to get good views of Voluceau
http://www.armees.com/forums/uploads/11096705...

I've tried posting before but nothing appeared (for me). I was stationed at Fontenet, France, from 6/55 to 8/56. It was an ordinance depot and I was signal in post communications. Winter in '55 was cold! cold! cold!....and in spring I've never experienced such mud. It was like glue! We lived in old German buildings that still had German signs warning about the water and labeling the buildings. There was a runway that stretched across the camp that came from a huge opening in a hill where fighters were apparently kept to defend the submarine pens near La Rochelle. Well, I'm going to post this right now instead of continuing to write. Hope this time it works. Would enjoy hearing from anyone who was there.

Elie --

So was that French Fire Station (sapeurs/pompiers) next door to Voluceau, and are those green-roofed buildings (and the Quonset hut) in the b.g. part of Camp Voluceau, as I suspect?(There was just 1 photo, correct?)

Frawley

Only one photo, that is the old base which was taken over by the firefighters; don't know how old that photo is; the French are not known to redecorate! Bing is still very young search engine but worth using.

All the best, ELIE

Hello,
I not be not, but me try to have the maximum of information on the camp of Fontenet.
I live at 1:50 am by car of Fontenet.
The Americans of St Jean d' Angély/Fontenet Angély/Fontenet have create the cub of St Jean d' Angély's water polo.
If you have photos of this time(period) it interests me!... Thank you in advance Jean-Pierre MERCIER

Hello Karl Kramer
, I not be not, but me try to have the maximum of information on the camp of Fontenet.
I live at 1:50 am by car of Fontenet.
The Americans of St Jean d' Angély/Fontenet Angély/Fontenet have create the cub of St Jean d' Angély's water polo.
If you have photos of this time(period) it interests me!... Thank you in advance Jean-Pierre MERCIER

Nice hearing from you, Jean. I'll look for photos. I know I have some but they're packed away and have been for fifty years. I've been in Bordeaux, and, in fact, caught the US Army train there that took me to Bremerhaven where I boarded a troop transport for New York. The train was empty in Bordeaux but as it traveled thru France it was full by the time it reached Bremerhaven.

Dear Karl Kramer
Saw your last communication with Jean Mercier. I was interested in your statement about catching a US Army train from Bordeaux to Bremerhaven. It surely must have been a French train, since the French had control of the trains in their country. That would have been the SNCF.(Syndicat National de Chemins de Fer) Did the US army "buy out" a whole train? Or, more likely, simply purchase a certain number of tickets, picking up G.I.'s along the way (La Rochelle, Poitiers, Paris, etc.). In that case, there would also have been French civilians on the train. What caught my eye was your use of the expression, "caught the US Army train".
I am a published book author working on a novel that (largely) takes place in and around Paris between 1959-1961. Some of the chracters are American military stationed at Hqs EUCOM outside Paris. Later on, one of them, a sergeant, will be transferred to a base in Germany (haven't decide which one yet). I may ask you for information on Bremerhaven further down the line. If you have e-mail, and are comfortable using it for this, we can communicate directly that way. It would be faster and easier for me. Your call. Here is my address. frilobus@sbcglobal.net Many thanks! Mille mercis! Vielen Dank!
Frawley Becker

Frawley: Glad to help! My email is stg0936@gmail.com if you want to go that way. I insist it's ur call. Re: The Train. When I arrived in France we had come by French train that began in Germany. Changed in Paris, then went thru Orleans, Le Mans (the same day of that terrible Mercedes crash), Poitiers, Niort and into St. Jean d'Angely. I expected to return to Germany the same way. So, leaving Fontenet by 3/4 ton army truck and riding to Bordeaux was a surprise but when we arrived at the train it was an even bigger surprise. The train was a very long one in army-brown and on each car (all European-style) was printed "United States Army Transportation Corps" with the logo of the Transportation Corps enblazoned. On the train I saw a couple of MPs and there were some civilian porters stationed on the train who might have been German. I would have expected such a train in Germany considering all of the troops there. Plus, the occupation had ended only a few months earlier but seeing the train in France, so far to the southwest, was a really huge surprise. We never left the train until it pulled up to our barracks at Bremerhaven! Another thing that I noticed as we headed Northeast were the surprised looks of the Frenh as we went thru towns and cities.

Karl Kramer wrote:

Nice hearing from you, Jean. I'll look for photos. I know I have some but they're packed away and have been for fifty years. I've been in Bordeaux, and, in fact, caught the US Army train there that took me to Bremerhaven where I boarded a troop transport for New York. The train was empty in Bordeaux but as it traveled thru France it was full by the time it reached Bremerhaven

.

When I arrived in Bremerhaven in Dec 1957, I took a train to Paris, and then all the way to Angouleme, for my assignment to Braconne. If was a French train, with cars reserved for US Army.

Jim Finn wrote:

<quoted text>When I arrived in Bremerhaven in Dec 1957, I took a train to Paris, and then all the way to Angouleme, for my assignment to Braconne. If was a French train, with cars reserved for US Army.

Hi: I arrived in Bremerhaven six months ahead of you on the USS Patch. We had a potential Asiatic flu epidemic and had to stay there for a week under quarantine. I then took the same train with the stopover in Paris then on to Rochefort where I spent the next year and a half.

I know Angouleme, Jim. When I traveled from Germany to France there were only three of us heading to St. Jean d'Angley so no reserved cars were necessary. The army train from Bordeaux probably had French engines (steam) but the entire train was pure army. No civilians. It was like we were totally isolated from the French. Of course that doesn't count the soda and beer vendors at the stations. I recall the MPs coming down the aisles and stepping into the compartments to take the beer away from us and destroying it. Some of us hid our bottles behind our backs and we pulled it out as soon as they moved through the car. Didn't matter because I think the vendors knew what was happening. They'd push their carts a little behind the MPs along the track replenishing the needs of the thirsty GIs. It was very funny and we'd buy more simply as a protest against the heavy handed MPs. After all, we were headed back to the ZI and getting out! Nice to bring all these memories back.

Richard: I'd ride our laundry truck to Rochefort. Thats were we'd have the post laundry done. I'd work night switchboard and then ride the duece-and-a-half to Rochefort eating French bread and drinking wine and waving at folks on bicycles. Then there was La Rochelle and the submarine pens at La Palice. Did you ever go swiming at Royan?

Karl Kramer wrote:

Richard: I'd ride our laundry truck to Rochefort. Thats were we'd have the post laundry done. I'd work night switchboard and then ride the duece-and-a-half to Rochefort eating French bread and drinking wine and waving at folks on bicycles. Then there was La Rochelle and the submarine pens at La Palice. Did you ever go swiming at Royan?

Hi Karl: What years were you there? Know the Sub pens, because I worked in an Ord. Co. and we would have to take vehicles to the moter pool over there. Been to Royan but didn't go swimming. I got a horrible sunburn at another beach south of there.Did you know that the final scenes of "Das Boot", the German movie were filemed at La Rochelle?
R

R: I was at Fontenet in June 1955 and left August 1956. Was Signal but the post was Ord., the 601st as I recall. I read somewhere, or maybe I saw the port towers that clued me into La Rochelle being where the scene was. I had an in with the motor pool sergeant because I'd connect him to PTT so he could talk with his girlfriend in St. Jean d'A. Did the same thing with the mess Sergeant. The mess hall would bring me steak and eggs about 11pm when I was working switchboard. I'd hear the tapping on the window at HQers and open it and there would be my food. Then later, I get a light on the "information" line and it would be the mess sergeant, so I'd plug him in. That was the only way he could reach an operator because he had a restricted line. Dialing "O" would only bring a busy signal. Great fun! Oh, that's how I'd get to Royan. I'd check out a 2 and 1/2 ton truck, one of those big Reos, and in civilian clothes, tear up the road to the coast. God, to be nineteen again, huh?

I was stationed at Fontenet from 1960-1962. I remember playing water polo at the pool in St. Jean. I started a web site at www.apo259fontenetfrance@wetpa int.com, I would love to have you involved.

Charlie. Would like to visit ur site but this address, www.apo259fontenetfrance@wetpa int.com, doesn't seem to get me anything. Please advise. Tnx.

Karl

Steve wrote:

Hi Daniel,On a whim I started googling for Army brats whose fathers were stationed in France during the 60's and came across your entry.We were stationed in France from '62 to '65 specifically at such bases as Joan d'arc,Toul,Nancy..in fact I went to school at Joan D'arc and my father Sgt. Hicks was working on that post.I used to be able to visit him from time to time at his office after school.We lived in base housing eventually,the place was called "Regina Village" as I recall..does that sound familiar?There were some old German pill boxes on the hill behind our house that we used to explore all the time.It sounds like we are contemporaries,heck we may have even known each other,I believe I was there for my 3rd thru 5th grade.We were sent stateside in '65 and man you are right,what a culture shock.I was used to everything being in French and to see only English everywhere was amazing.Hope to hear from you,maybe we crossed paths back then.I have not returned to France since we left but would like to bring my family there someday to show them where I have been.Give me a shout back and that goes for any other Army brats who may have been there in the same time frame...I do remember this cute little Blonde girl that lived a couple house's down LOL. <quoted text>

Hi Steve, I ran accross your post today while looking to refresh my memory of being a GI in France. Obviously I am a bit older than you because I was a PFC stationed in Toul in 1961-62. I was a mechanic then an ordinance supply specialist, a fancy name for parts room operater, for the 525 Eng. Co.(DT) The DT stands for dump truck. Our barracks were at Jeanne d'Arc hospital/barracks/school and our motor pool was just down over the hill. It is possible that the "Five Deuce Five" was already gone when you lived there. I arrived there in January 1961 and the company was de-commissioned about 1 year later. My renewed interest in taking my mind back to those days is because I just purchased a 1952 Citroen Traction Avant 15CV. You might recall it is the one that looked like a "shrunken down gangster wagon" with what looked US Army stripes/chevrons on the grill. It is the exact same year and model I owned while in France 1961-1963. I am trying to remember just where the school was located. Was it in one of the wings of the hospital or was it a separate building up by the hospital? I know the pill boxes of which you speak. Did you manage to get down into them and wander through the underground passages like us GI's were forbidden to do? Drop me a line --- cerbie@excite.com

Karl Kramer wrote:

R: I was at Fontenet in June 1955 and left August 1956. Was Signal but the post was Ord., the 601st as I recall. I read somewhere, or maybe I saw the port towers that clued me into La Rochelle being where the scene was. I had an in with the motor pool sergeant because I'd connect him to PTT so he could talk with his girlfriend in St. Jean d'A. Did the same thing with the mess Sergeant. The mess hall would bring me steak and eggs about 11pm when I was working switchboard. I'd hear the tapping on the window at HQers and open it and there would be my food. Then later, I get a light on the "information" line and it would be the mess sergeant, so I'd plug him in. That was the only way he could reach an operator because he had a restricted line. Dialing "O" would only bring a busy signal. Great fun! Oh, that's how I'd get to Royan. I'd check out a 2 and 1/2 ton truck, one of those big Reos, and in civilian clothes, tear up the road to the coast. God, to be nineteen again, huh?

Hi. I was in Braconne12/59 to 6/59. I have fond memories of Royen, also Lourdes. At the beach you could always tell an American from a distance. If he was on his feet, he would be throwing a ball around, French couldn t throw worth a damn, but they could kick.