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Show NORTH COUNTY NIWSfAMRS Pat17 Time well spent in Germany Ihundty, April 24, 2008 Edltor'i note: This lithe second and final story in a series about Dean Ellason, of Alpine. Eliaaon'i firtt assign-ment assign-ment In Germany wot In Kai- serslautem. West Germany, a on asslMtant chemical officer. ri n Kaiserslautem, I reported to Major General Gen-eral Shoemaker, commander com-mander of the 32nd Air Defense Command and LJ an extremely congenial man. In my experience in the military, congeniality seemed to get better with rank. His aide was a major from Utah, and a member of the Kaiser-slautern Kaiser-slautern LDS ward. When my new boss, Major Gale, asked where my home was, I answered, an-swered, 'Utah." He said, "Oh, no, not another Utaha" His previous assistant had also been from Utah. We found a nice apartment apart-ment in a small village near Kaisereslautern, fairly close to Ramstein Air Base, eager to have German neighbors. As it turned out, however, this town had a reputation as having one of the few government-sanctioned "red-light districts in that part of Germany. Ger-many. We soon found another apartment in another beautiful little town. There were remnants rem-nants of an old castle within walking distance, and we often had picnics at that site. Two of our children were born at the Landstuhl Hospital, near Ramstein AFB. Our evahiatkxKeam would go out, unbeknownst to a unit, and initiate an inspection. The missile sites were set up similar to a prison yard, with double fences and guard towers, tow-ers, manned by military police 24 hours a day. I would lob a tear gas grenade over the fence of the unit, then time how soon the unit responded to that chemical attack. I would then check the actions of the specialized nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) team for proficiency In testing for chemical agents. After our mock "assaiiM," my team would write up our reports and do an exit brief ing with the battery commander and his staff. I was later transferred to one of our subordinate units as a chemical staff officer. My assignment was to Inspect NBC readiness of our men in our headquarters and in the outlying firing batteries. My two assistants and I conducted regular inspections and training. train-ing. When I visited our missile site near the town of Pfort-zheim Pfort-zheim (pop. about 120,000), I checked into a gasthaus in town, while wearing my military mili-tary fatigues. It seemed that everyone in town, especially the older men, gave me the worst hate-stares I have ever experienced In talking with other GTs, I learned why. About one-fifth of the population popula-tion of this city had been killed by heavy Allied bombing during dur-ing WW-II. Intelligence reports were that some of the Germans in that town had dragged downed allied airmen to death through the streets. The motto for the bomber pilots became, "Save one for Pfortzheim." The pilots would drop all but a few bombs on assigned targets, tar-gets, then, on their way back to England, save the rest for Pfortzheim. The townspeople created a volcano-like structure from the rubble and put a cross on top of k. It can stiO be seen for miles. I wr j told there are still active Nazi dubs in town, and certainly a great deal of resentment. In 1971, 1 was asked to be the LDS stake mission president, presi-dent, and I spent a lot of time working with the fulUime missionaries. I wu discharged from military duties in 1973 with the rank of first beutenant. I served in several reserve assignments. Including one in Alaska wkh a colonel who had been in charge of evaluating evaluat-ing defoliants in a large tract of jungle in Vietnam. I was also able to take advantage of some great fishing trips. On an assignment to Fort Stewart, Georgia, I ended up in first class seated next to a gentleman who announced, "My name is Ralph Aberna-thy" Aberna-thy" (who had succeeded Martin Mar-tin Luther King as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference). He asked where I was from, and when I said, "Utah," we had a most interesting inter-esting discussion. Some veterans may wish, on their own, to tape or digital record their memories of military service. These will ' be transcribed and archived. For Instructions on how to do this, e-mail Don Norton, at donnortonfSbyu.edu. CEST CODYSMO? FRACTICES FOH LESS! "?t tiZj GTZ2D O Q" "'ZITi Onm. 84057 (801) 224-9911 SAm-smm PROVO BSSLSSOS. Prove, 84CCS (901) 377-2827 HOURS WMatlaW tbw PrfalM ucMi-sjsmi Sunday Closed 17 I f ft) Ml I L v V07 COACHMAN SPIRIT OF AMERICA 08 FOREST RIVER WIL0W00D V '-T 24lM,siow, DVD. McmNW,SM,Mdt. 28 m. wtwwww. nmst Jaws! MM set X I SsWtaS. WMowCwMln, CMkSMi. 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