The Cold War

part1

 Revised: May 27, 2008

1 October 1957

Reorganized and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 143rd Signal Battalion (organic elements constituted 30 August 1957 in the Regular Army and activated 1 October 1957).

Historical document [pdf] and it's transcription.

Based out of Edwards Kaserne in Frankfurt äm Main, Federal Republic of Germany.  The Battalion was tasked with providing communications support for the 3rd Armor Division, Spearhead, based across the street at Drake Kaserne.

Drake/Edwards overlay for GoogleEarth.

Edwards Kaserne

Edwards Kaserne was named for 1Lt. Vernon L. Edwards of Baker Company, 6 AD, 68th Tank Bn.  The Distinguished Service Cross was awarded to 1Lt. Edwards  posthumously for his work at the Han Sur Neid River Crossing. [source:  http://www.super6th.org/tank68/tank68_8.htm .]

The Human Dimension—Combat at Han-Sur-Nied

When only [300] yards from the bridge, the [1-317th IN] skirmish line was hit by high explosive shells from a detachment of sixteen 40-mm. antiaircraft guns…. The armored infantry froze in their places or tried to reach the shelter of the ditches alongside the road…, while projectiles…, fired with almost sniperlike accuracy, swept…their ranks. The 231st Armored [FA BN] turned its howitzers on the enemy…, but as the German gunners were blasted—arms and legs flying into the air—others ran forward to serve the weapons.
 
…[1LT Vernon L.] Edwards' [platoon of the 68th Tank BN] started across the bridge. The first tank crossed successfully. The second stalled on the bridge when the platoon commander was hit; for a brief while the tank stood there, [1LT] Edwards' body dangling from the open turret. The third received a direct hit and burst into flame, but was backed off the wooden bridge by its commander after he had ordered his crew to leave the blazing tank. During this effort…[1LT] Daniel Nutter and [CPL] Charles Cunningham, B Company 25th Armored [EN BN], ran forward to cut the wires leading to the demolition charges. [1LT] Nutter, at the enemy end of the bridge, was killed just as he completed his task. [CPL] Cunningham, who had cut the wires at the western end…raced across the bridge, and returned with the body of his commander.
 
Who [ordered] the final charge probably never will be known. Perhaps it was [LTC Sterling S.] Burnette, who had been standing erect in the open urging his lead company on and…was mortally wounded. [CPT James A.] Craig and a few men rushed the bridge, crossing the 100-foot span "faster than they knew how" amidst a hail of shell fragments and tracer bullets.… [CPT] Craig disposed his little force…and through the afternoon held the approach to the bridge against German tanks and riflemen.
 [source: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/3-90/ch1.htm]

 

1958Photo of Sgt. Elvis Presley with Spearhead Patch showing

Sgt. Elvis A. Presley was assigned to the 3AD, stationed in Friedberg.

1960's

While the 143rd Signal Battalion was not directly involved with the events in Berlin, they affected every soldier overseas, and are therefore significant:

13 August 1961

The Berlin Wall 

Under cover of darkness, the East German forces blockaded West Berlin and guarded the construction of the Berlin Wall.  Only 2 access points were left, each with elaborate security measures.

23 August 1961

Sign between the borders: You are leaving the American Sector! Named sequentially after Checkpoint: Alpha at Helmstedt, on the East/West German border, and Checkpoint: Bravo, at the Berlin end of the autobahn corridor across East Germany, Allied Checkpoint: Charlie was created on Friedrichstraße.  Allied Checkpoint Charlie May 1990
Sign between the borders: You are leaving the American Sector! Allied Checkpoint Charlie May 1990

1960's-1970's

The gateway to Edwards Kaserne, with its rearing horse statue, can been seen in the Elvis Presley film GI Blues (1960:This photo taken by SGT Leslie Robinson in 1990, shows how things had changed, yet stayed the same. Paramount).

A 1963 photo of the Edwards Main Gate is posted at the The 3d Armored Division Museum and Archives site at  http://web.archive.org/web/20050417054616/http://www.3ad.net/kasernen/edwards_kaserne.htm ..  This photo taken by SPC Leslie Robinson in 1990, shows how things had changed, yet stayed the same.

Throughout the Cold War Era, the 143rd Signal Battalion participated in various large scale Field Training Exercises (FTX). Besides Caravan Guard and Centurion Shield, the most famous of these was REFORGER: Return of Forces to Germany, a joint exercise combining US troops with their European counterparts.  Wikipedia link.

From Grafenwöhr to Höhenfels if 3AD, was there, the 143rd was there as well.

 

SSG Walter Wilfong's Photo's

Walter Wilfong has photo's from 1970-1971 here.

Col. Joe Ricker's Pix

Project Partnership

C Co. 143rd circa 1978/1979

Part 2