8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Oct 1985)

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Vershina

Cable

Vol 22 No 10 56th Field Artillery Brigade October

985

Mechanic trades tools for tractor

Story and

pboto,

by J

ady A.

Mcrwinc

He

loou

like he could

bave

wa.llted

off

the t of a vintage John

Wayne

movie with

his old

d11ngarea, bca1

11p leather boots and

blaclr. fell

ciowboy

baL However, James

Hoogcneger

also

wears a differen1 type of

uniform.

a member of Ixlta Company 55th

MaiolCIW>Ce

Bmalioa,

Hoogemgcr is

jun

one of}4

American

soldiers

10

puticipaie in

the Gennan/American

farm

Exchange Pro

gram. 11,e opportllllity gave Hoogesieger

the chance IO l\1nl in his mechanic's

IOOU

for

K'l'ffl

daya in exchange for his favori,e

cowboy dud,.

Hoogmcger wu sponsored by ChriJtian

caengle in

the

nlhge of Weningm. Stxngle

bu bttn actively involved in die achangc

prognm for me past four ycan. Hls main

produce is pork and according 10 Hooge

neger the Stacng)cs ban

:approximately

700

bo p.

James is

no nraoger io lhc

farm b111ineSJ.

a

man.er

of

fact

he

worked on

his

fad,cr's

ranch in an Josc, California for scvcral

years. The Germans do things mostly the

same

u thef n America. 11,e

main

di f.

fercoce I sec is dw the Gcnnans do more

manual

labor and

use

smaller machinery,

he

sai

d.

ln addition \O the bogs, the Stung)cs

also

bavc

several

dairy cows and aacs of

land

tbat need COnstaDt tmding. They arc hard

workers and they kept me

very

busy when I

stayed lhere.

I

learned a lo1 thoug),. The best

experience

wu learning bow

to

give shots

to

the hop,

be explained.

My

ho... were

great. We

worked all day

and Chrutian and

his

sons would take me

111 in the evening. Th.is whole ex~rienct

bas

helped me understand the German

people

u a whole, be continued.

Jim believes

hia

scay with tbc Staengles

will be the stan of an everlasting relation·

,hip. I will be leaving Germany very

abortly and I plan keeping in

touIC of the an equipment.

We

arc

m11nications

suppon,•

Smith said

. going to need good ptoplc; more of the

good

people

tbat bavc already arrived.•

Evcnthougb they

aren

' t

at

half strength

yet

and

won't be until mid Novembtt, Byrd

u proud

of

the soldiers he bas on board

now. lliis, however im t much

of

a surprise

10 lbc new battalion commander.

Whm I wu notified

of this

assignment,•

be wd,

·1

knew i1 would .mean theopportu·

nity

t0

worlr. with

some

of

the

fincn

signal

soldier, in the Anny.•

For j11ruor enlisted soldiers of the 38th,

this tourwill be a chance for man lo work

with the

mon sophisticated equipment the

Anny has

to

offer. For others, like

CW2

Willie K. George, the B•ttalion S-4, (Sup-

ply),

it

will behis most involved mission for

the U.S. Anny.

George e>

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News

ine

Commander focuses on soldier care

i l l 1111

:a

••

1111

•

. _., _

PFC Seott Meyer 11 given some

lrlendly

edvlce by hl1

new

bllttlllon c:omm1ndef,

LL Col. JOMph Arbuckle.

by Judy A.

Merwin•

Bringing over 15 yeus of Army officer

n:perience with him, Lt.

Col.

Joseph Ar·

buckle

too

r the helm of 55th Maizuenance

Battalion with several ideas on

how

to

im

prove

the

combat readiness of

the

battalion.

Citing areu

of

concern within the

muc

tutt of

the

baaal.ion, Arbuckle offered his

opiruons on how those problem areas could

be bandied.

"My main ar