Memoir of a Cold War Soldier by Richard E. Mack

Author:Richard E. Mack [Mack, Richard E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, Korean War, Vietnam War
ISBN: 9780873386753
Google: yXSwgpL_324C
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Published: 2001-01-15T04:09:45+00:00

Every company practiced the procedures they would take if access were denied, but while I was there, only one convoy was ever denied passage into or out of Berlin. On every occasion where the Soviet officer on duty asked or demanded to inspect the cargo in trucks and trailers, he was stonewalled with a Nyet. In the one case, however, a two-vehicle convoy with a corporal in charge was prevented from exiting the autobahn into West Germany, at Helmstedt. For three days the corporal denied every request from Soviet officers to inspect the contents of his two vehicles. He and his two drivers camped beside their vehicles, ensuring there would be no inspection. Finally, a high-level State Department official was sent to the scene. He agreed to inspect the vehicles for a Soviet colonel; after peeking into both vehicles, he responded that there were no unauthorized articles aboard. The Soviets were tired of standing in the snow, so they let the Americans pass.

The next day, after the corporal had led his convoy back to Berlin, Maj. Gen. Barksdale Hamlett (West Point, 1930), the U.S. commander in Berlin, called the corporal to his office and promoted him to sergeant. General Hamlet said that for two days the corporal had been, in effect, the chief negotiator on behalf of American rights, and that he was more than deserving of his new stripes for his persistence in defending U.S. foreign policy. A great day for the Army!

Commanders of infantry companies in Berlin had to train their units as integral parts of a combat battalion; this included offensive and defensive operations, communications, weaponry, physical conditioning, transportation, and all the soldierly skills that contribute to unit readiness. Withdrawal and defensive tactics took on special meaning, as the defense of West Berlin would have required a tactical withdrawal to a combined defense line manned by American, British, and French troops.

My family and I often drove into East Berlin on Sundays. There was no wall then, and it was an occupational right under the Potsdam Agreement. We had to face the surly Volkspolizei (East German police) and an almost complete prohibition against buying anything, but we and many visitors from West Berlin visited such places as Treptow Memorial Park, where there were five plots, each containing the graves of a thousand Soviet soldiers killed in the capture of Berlin. For the most part, East Berlin was a drab place, with a facade of new buildings on the main streets blocking the view of old buildings to the rear.

Each of the Sixth Infantry’s three battalions went to the Hohenfels Training area in West Germany each year for field training and an annual readiness test. In June 1957, while I was at Hohenfels, another major event took place in the Mack household. Marge gave birth to Richard E. Mack, Jr., in the U.S. Army hospital in Berlin. When our battalion training test was completed, the battalion commander, Colonel Cleary, gave me permission to return to Berlin to see Marge and our first and only boy.

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