Posted by Terry Wheeler

(Source: Email from Thomas C. (Cartter) Frierson, 45th MID, 1962-63)

Thanks for your history of the 532nd. Those early '60's were a time of constant change for intelligence officers. I arrived in Straubing in August 1962 after completing the Infantry Officer Orientation Course at Ft Benning and Intelligence School at Ft Holabird. I had been in Berlin the previous summer when the Berlin Wall was built in August, 1961. So it was very interesting to learn that I would spend my active duty stint on the Iron Curtain as a combat intelligence officer, writing the weekly intelligence summary for the 11th Cavalry Regiment. Half our unit was in uniform and were under the operational command of the Cav. The other half were linguists who lived in the various Border Houses your report names. I visited some of them with the 45th unit commander, Major John Shevis, Jr. The 11th Cav under Col. George M. Seignious (recently deceased) was an elite force and it was very rewarding to serve with them. Citadel has named a building after retired Brig General Seignious.

I had been commissioned into the Quartermaster Branch but assigned to intelligence duty. I did not remember that the 45th MI Detachment had only came into being after I reported for active duty, and I had forgotten the history of the 532nd and the 66th. We were too busy doing live intelligence gathering on the border to pay much attention to the high level turf wars. Besides, we learned in 1963 that the 11th Cav was bound for Vietnam via Ft Dix and the 45th was phasing out as our active duty tours ran down. I was one of the last officers of the 45th MID to leave Straubing. I see where Lt Fred G Myer signed my security debriefing statement the week I departed Straubing for CONUS. Maurice Rawlings and Dick Durant were two other enjoyable officers in the unit.

We had close liaison with the Passau and Nuremberg colleagues and our nearby border houses and were in close touch with the German border police, the Bundes Grenschutz and the Bundeswehr authorities operating in Bavaria. There were only a handful of refugees from Czechoslovakia to interview, but their harrowing stories were memorable. One family escaped in a glider, flew over 100 kilometers to reach our border, crossed uneventfully and landed safely on the Danube flood plain near Straubing.

The 45th MID was a great bunch of guys. Unfortunately I have lost track of them. Except for the fine web site of the 11th Cav Aviation Company at Mansfield Kaserne in Straubing during the early '60's I have found very little on the Internet about this exceptional front line unit and virtually nothing else about the 45th MID. In August 1963 the 11th Cav commander, Col Kennedy, presented the 45th MID a VII Corps Award for superior service. Those of us in uniform proudly wore the Allons crest of the Black Horse regiment and participated in all field training exercises conducted by the 11th Cav. Those of us in uniform worked under operational command of the Regimental S2, a very competent and enjoyable Captain Crause (sp?). On his staff was Sgt Smolensky, who had been liberated only a few clicks from the post by Patton's troops when Germany fell. I also flew many border patrols in L-19s and a few in H34s as an aerial observer.

I'd enjoy hearing from others who served there during those times. I still have a copy of the unit history updated to cover 1943 - 1963 chiefly by the illustrious 1st Lt. Edward Rataj before our Roundout unit was recalled to the United States. We forget many details in the intervening years, but the words like "red drop" and "handicap black" reopen a whole stream of welcome memories of a time when we were the ones who stood in the gap in a high state of readiness and uinit proficiency as the eyes and ears of NATO on the Iron Curtain. We will never know to what degree our vigilance and strength kept the Cold War from boiling over. By the grace of God it never did. I have a treasured piece of the demolished Berlin Wall in my office.

Source: 532nd Military Intelligence Battalion http://www.usarmygermany.com/Units/Military%20Intelligence/USAREUR_532ndMIBn.htm#45th