TARGET!
CEASE FIRE.
Driver, move out.

Oh now that is funny!

In addition to what Pat said;
There was some rumor when we were moving that Wickham had planned on putting the new 3rd Ranger Bn at Campbell but because 1st SOCOM stationed them at Benning instead, Wickham directed Sudeth to find him a unit to put at Campbell.

Once we got to Campbell, the cable guy came to put cable drops in the team rooms. Since we had knocked down walls to make the team room area big enough, what used to be three rooms was now one. The cable guy was putting a drop in each space there used to be a seperate room. When we asked why he was doing this he said the contract was to put cable in each of the rooms in the RANGER battalion barracks.

Bill

Another instance of our visionary planners and well-spent tax dollars at work. :rolleyes:

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Wickam Reward to Ft Campbell
 

I was part of the move to Ft Campbell in '88.

Was intel support guy for 3d bn '86-'88 (with 5th Group MI Company), and we understood that we would eventually go to Ft Bliss, TX. At the time A-1-5 was there and ran the Group's Desert Training Program (DTP) out of Donna Anna Range Camp.

1st Bn was moved to Ft Campbell, however I don't recall when nor why.

As summer of '88 approached we got word that 5th Group was relocating to Ft Campbell. 3d Bn was to remain at Ft Bragg, and would later become 1st bn/3d Group. I was one of four intel analysts who supported 3d bn ... was one of two who was single at the time. The two married guys got to stay at Ft Bragg.

Nobody was particularly happy about the move. Didn't make any sense to move us from one wooded post to another, when we still had to ship our vehicles westto the desert for training.

Word later was that GEN Wickham, before retiring, had promised Ft Campbell and surrounding community a brigade-sized unit.

Ft Campbell later grew on me, and I ended up raising my family and retiring here

You sure about A-1-5? That was my company.....

I was one of the first 5 guys on the ground at Ft. Campbell, 1986.....

Thought it was A-1-5
 

My memory is fuzzy, as I get older ... I thought at the time that A-1-5 was out there. I may be mistaken. We did have guys out there, though. I do recall that during one of our DTP trips (I think in '89), 5th Group ran a display for one of the post special events.

Might have been an A-Team.... we were pretty much stood down until families moved, houses were purchased, kids placed in school, etc etc etc

I was single and sat on my arse waiting to go back to work and dodging every flipping lawn mowing detail I could....

Didn't Want to Move
 

I really didn't want to move to Ft Campbell. I was single at the time and loved being at Ft Bragg ... was close to home (Virginia) and to the beach.

It was my understanding that 5th Group had been offered Clarksville Base - nice area and isolated - but that it was turned down. Not sure why, but the rumor at the time was that some of the 'powers that be' wanted 5th Group to be seen.

It pissed us off that we had to take part in 101st Abn Div parades and change of command ceremonies, and post runs. Were you part of that 101st change of command (where we were the last unit in formation ... next to the post dentists) where we stood in formation during that massive thunder storm? The one where we had to "pass in review" and march through the resulting foot of mud before the post reviewing stand? That was fun.

101st tried to impose 'blue book' rules on 5th Group ... How to set up LBE (2 ammo puches, 2 canteens, no 550-cord), until COL Bowra put a stop to it.

The memories ..

Memories in DEED! Well. . . I never had to march in the parade -- for one of two reasons (1) when we marched to the parade ground I seemed to bounce when the SGM looked my way . . . But I did always get to / have to watch from the bleachers. The parade I remember, we were last in the order of march, that is true. But it was a nice touch that the Division Band switched to The Ballad as we "piss in your shoe". LTC Shaw was leading as the Deputy Group Commander.

I thought is was because of all the deployments 7th SFG was doing in Central America. There wasn't any Per diem left for 5th SFG to buy MRE'S for the Desert:D

5th Group
 

Amusing thing at the time ('80s-'90's) was the reaction you'd get from someone when you told them you were in 5th Group. Was most often a scrunched face and "ew!"

Not alot of fun being a desert unit. Nowadays, however, who isn't?

As in . . . Why TF would ANYONE want to go THERE?!!:D ("Be careful what you learn to do, someone might make you do it":()

LTC Michael Shaw the 3/5 Cdr when I arrived. Great guy! I remember the CofC ceremony (1988 or 1989) with MG Peay, the outgoing 101st CG. The entire division was standing tall in battle rattle and we stood out there on the far left flank, laughing, telling jokes, scratching our butts and watching 101st guys fall like flies. We were wishing that the powers to be had not accepted the invitation to dance in the ceremony.

5th Group won the D&C and Best Looking unit award for that CofC. HAHA, too funny as we were in Berets and everyone else was in Turtle shells. Was there ever a doubt about who looked the best?

We did do one (?) division run (SLOW) but I do not remember doing a second. We did our own thing after that, or maybe it was just my team/company what abstained.

Fort Campbell was a nice place, too much Divisional influence though on a unit they had no control over.

I remember doing a Div pass in review during "Week of the Eagles" in 1991 (?) in the POURING rain punctuated eventually by thunder and lightning...which had no noticeable impact on the length of the G.O.'s speeches. From where I was standing you could hardly see the reviewing stand. Any time the formations had to change position there was an audible groan as new areas of cold, wet uniforms hit skin. We did the pass in review and all I remember is that, as a cherry 2LT, I had an itching feeling in my back as we slipped and slid across the parade field in ankle deep mud... wondering when the guy behind me was going to fall and stick his bayonet in my back.

Which unit on Ft Camblell did NOT have to pass in review?... 5th SFG (naturally formed in a mass formation (on the left flank) so as to minimize the drill and cerimony gyrations...). IIRC, they were also already formed up on the parade field when the rest of us yahoos marched on (also minimizing the amount of D&C required)

At that time I remember thinking a.) Do G.O.'s have any common sense at all? b.) Hey those berets look cool. c.) SF is a better place to be than "Division"..

And the headline in the local paper said "The 101st Lightning Rods" IIRC.

Old Guy, thanks for jogging the memory.

A/3/5th
 

A/3/5th didn't do anything above the battalion level during 93 & 94.

You have to be on post to play.

And on the 5th Group Guys at Bliss. All we in 3rd battalion called them was 5th Group Forward, knew they maintained the desert jeeps at Bliss and the only ones we ever saw was Nicewander (sp?) and one of his A/Is teaching survival.