This page is the result of an E-Mail received from Walt Kaiser asking me if I knew about the Army MP detachment that worked out of the Hindenburg Kaserne. As it was not in my time frame, I asked him to send some information on it.

As I said we were originally at Finthen Army Airfield living in a Huey Hanger, upstairs where all the noise from the chopper jockeys gathered. We moved from there just before Christmas. ( see picture with circle for our billets at Hindenburg). We had a squad at Hindenburg. SFC Greenwood was in charge, the others were SP4 Andrew Artis, SP4 Tom Mastrovich, SP4 Jerry Saulnier, PFC Donnie Starnes, SP4 Byrd, SP4 Mike Moeller, SSP$ Mike Barnett and Sp4 Irvin Bolton. There were others that rotated in and out of the squad but these were the main ones that I served with. The MP was located in downtown Mainz in a barracks whose names escapes me. I remember that the military and German government kicked us out of the housing so that Turkish workers could be billeted there. That was how we ended up at FAA.

I remember the EM club at Hindenburg and the fact that the Air Force trained dog handlers from several different nations, so it was always interesting in the club. We would be awakened by the Dog guys yelling “heel “and slapping there legs in unison in the morning. It took awhile to get used to it but we finally did. The theatre was outstanding, large overstuffed chairs, a big screen that was canvas stretched over a frame. You brought your own drinks or snacks.

The mess hall to an Army guy was outstanding, bacon and REAL eggs, steak done the way you wanted it and even a newspaper. We were “forced “to get rid of the old Army cots and have inner spring mattresses. We had our own armoury and even took advantage of the on laundry on premises to get those nice sharp creases that MPs need in their uniforms.

As I said before the drive across the Schierstein Bridge each morning was great thanks to the Nescafe factory. I took a case where a couple of drunk GI’s lost control of their large American car and ran up onto the guardrail that kept you from dropping into the river. The car was tottering on the rail and we had to carefully get the drunks out to keep the whole rig from falling into the water.

The MP’s job in Mainz was like a regular police job in the US because of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). Anytime an American was involved in an incident the MP’s were called We also policed the American housing areas as well as supplying convoy escort and field training exercises to show battle readiness.

Hope this is what you wanted and thanks for the walk down memory lane.

Walt Kaiser

Supervising Special Agent

California Dept of Justice, Ret