Wertheim Germany in the 1980s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wertheim_am_Main

 

 

I write stories about the life and times of me so my family and friends will know what life was like back in the good old and not so good days in my life.

 

 

I feel it is important to try and capture some of those lazy, crazy, hazy days of smiles from our long-lost and not so lost past, so I will make every effort to get the information from those times from so long ago correct, but my brain fog may cause some issues every now and then.

 

 

As brain fog kicks in dates, places, names, and such may be just a little off. If folks do not like these moments, do not read them, move on to other stories that you may like – Smiles and Frowns.

 

 

In the late 1980s I (Robert Wayne Busby), when I was thirty something was a Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) assigned with the US Army (USA) Criminal Investigation Division Command (CID) as a Special Agent (SA) in Charge (SAC) of the Wertheim Branch Office (BO) at the US Army Post known as Peden Barracks, located on the side of a mountain looking down on the city of Wertheim, Germany.

 

In my day working with the USA CID our offices had totally different names and designations than they do in 2021 and many of those military facilities are no longer a military facility.

United States Army Criminal Investigation Command - Wikipedia

 

These days the US Army CID is identified as follows –

 CID units by state (army.mil) CID units worldwide (army.mil)

 

In the 1990s, working at a CID BO was a lot different than working at a CID District (Dist); Resident Agency (RA), or Field Office (FO), since there are usually only two folks in a BO.

 

 

A District Office in my day may have had as many as  thirty SAs assigned; an RA could have as many as fifteen SAs assigned; a FO could have as many as ten SAs assigned, but in my case I was the only special agent assigned at the BO, so not a lot of issues with who was in charge or who did what - smiles.

 

 

My boss was at the Würzburg FO in Wurzburg, Germany about twenty-five miles from Wertheim.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Würzburg

 

 

When I was assigned to Germany on my third tour of duty with the CID I was assigned to the Würzburg CID FO and worked there as a Team Chief (TC) for a year.

 

 

As more and more crimes were happening at Peden Barracks near Wertheim, Germany, our office at Wurzburg was spending a lot of time driving to and from Wertheim.

 

 

The drive was only twenty-six or so miles one way to Peden Barracks, but the drive was on the autobahn/interstate highway and then on a very small highway alongside a river that wandered up into the mountains, so the drive was not easy depending on traffic and weather. There were also various animal crossings that at times closed the roads.

 

 

Driving in Germany was dangerous, we had blizzards and snowstorms along with terrible icy roads at the most inconvenient times when responding to a felony crime.

 

 

Wertheim had a small group of MPs with three MPI taking care of any crime at Peden and was supplemented by MPs/CID from Wurzburg if need be.

 

 

Sadly, being the senior SA second to the SAC at Wurzburg assured I was the SA going to Peden Barracks too represent CID.

 

 

Then again it could have been because I did not always agree with the powers that be, was set in my ways, gave everyone hell if I thought I was right, but that is history now.

 

I enjoyed my time at Wurzburg, had a good place to live, enjoyed the work and the folks at the CID FO, but someone had to go to Wertheim and that someone was me, looking forward to a new adventure.

 

 

The assignment was not a bad duty assignment but could be lonely at times since I was the only CID SA assigned to Wertheim. My wife at the time was an MP/MPI and was with me at Wurzburg and Wertheim.

 

 

As long as I was available to investigate any CID cases (Felony Crime) that were reported to the Military Police (MP) at Peden Barracks, my time was mine and there were no Monday morning meetings that took all morning and all the rest of the fun office activities that took place in large CID offices.

 

 

Did not miss the back seat driving from the Wurzburg District Office which was co-located with the Wurzburg FO.

 

 

The draw back was being the only SA on duty, I was on duty twenty-four hours a day, every day, every week, every month!

 

 

Wurzburg was supposed to cover for me every now and then if I need time off and I covered for Wurzburg, but most of the time I was on my own.

 

 

Lucky for me I was a runner in those days, in fact if I missed a day of running, I was not worth being around. I set my office hours as 8:00 AM to 5:00PM in those days but was on call all the time.

 

 

My humble abode was on the second floor in a genuinely nice apartment in family officer quarters on Peden Barracks about three blocks from the MP station.  Every morning I would get up with the sun and go for a five-mile run through the farm fields located behind the old airfield.

 

 

My running days ended when I retired from the US Army in 1991, my knees and feet decided running in boots or just running all those years was too much and put me on a walking regiment.

 

My run would take me to the MP station where I would check in and advise the Desk Sergeant where I was running in case, the MPs needed to find me. No cell phones back then, and handheld radios did not have the best reception in the mountains.

 

 

My run took me past the post arch, movie theater, bowling alley and out the back gate.  The MP desk sergeant had a map of my running route so I could be found when and if needed.

 

 

While running I had a small battery-operated tape recorder (Walkman) with running music on it and would play the music loud so I could hear it.  Did not want to use headphones since I needed to be aware of what was going on around me, CID folks were not popular back in the day.

 

 

Running with a gun is always a hoot, fanny pack time, but one had to be careful, not that a Smith and Wesson 38 special with six in the cylinder and six in my two loaders would have helped much.

 

My music of choice was a tape of the 82^nd Air Born soldiers running in formation and doing the Air Born Cadence.

 

The farmers thought there was a hundred or so soldiers running through their fields every morning.

 

I also ran five-miles every night after work and enjoyed every minute of my runs since I was a runner in my soldier days all those years ago, not so much today – smiles.

 

 

 I had a running suit and shoes for every weather condition, and I ran in heat, wind, cold, snow, rain, ice, and any other weather situations.

 

 

Since I did not have CID office physical training daily, I had my own physical training daily.  On weekends I trained for a mini marathon, so I ran twelve miles on Saturday and six miles on Sunday. I trained for the Peden Barracks Regional Marathon held yearly.

 

 

Sadly, the winners were by age group and the first year my age group had a guest running team, the Swedish Army Long Distance Team, they took First, Second, Third and I took Forth.

 

 

My memories of my military days may not always be in the correct sequence they occurred in. Enjoy the memory but do not get hung up on the dates, times, and places, I will do the best I can to keep my memories in some sort of order.

 

 

More fun and exciting moments from the life and times of ME will follow when I remember to jot those down.