I watched a video about how bad primary sources are and remembered about how bad eye-witnesses can be...
And I'm sitting here seeing it from the inside.
I have conflicting memories of the Berlin Wall falling and where I was and what I was doing.
Records show that I was being treated for breaking my legs after a fall from the turret into a ditch.
But I remember seeing some AFN footage in the company day room.
Which makes me think command dithered a while before sending us to the battalion maneuver area in the tanks to sit and do nothing until I broke my legs.
Heck, I can't even remember for sure if we'd finished transitioning from the M1(IP) to the M1A1(HA). I'm pretty sure we had. I'm pretty sure we'd even gone to one gunnery with the new tanks.
But I don't know like I did before.
It'd help a great deal if there was any admission on the internet that 3-34 Armor was at Panzer Kaserne in Böblingen from 88-90 with the 1st Infantry Division (fwd).
We're on this chart anyway!
I think my memory is correct about the transition because I also found this:
1st Infantry Division (Forward), Göppingen (Germany)
- Headquarters and Headquarters Company
- 3rd Battalion, 34th Armor, Böblingen, (M1A1 Abrams)
- 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry, Böblingen, (M113) <-- They'd begun changing to M2A1 Bradley about the same time as 1/4 Cav.
- 4th Battalion, 16th Infantry, Göppingen (M113)
- 2nd Battalion, 5th Field Artillery, Neu-Ulm, (24 × M109A3)
- 299th Support Battalion
- Troop A, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, (19 × M3A1 Bradley CFV, 3 × M113, 3 × M106A2, 1 × M577)(Boeblingen)
- Aviation Detachment, Göppingen, (2 × UH-1H, 4 × OH-58A)
- Company D, 1st Engineer Battalion
- Detachment 1, 101st Military Intelligence Battalion (Changed from Company D because Mr Garabaldi was actually there)
But I needed outside information to confirm my memories.
But my incorrect memories would be quoted as a primary source by a historian...

Hey Angus,
ReplyDeleteMinor Correction, there was a 101 MI Det 1 At Geoppingen not Company D, That was my unit. every thing else was pretty much spot on.
Would you consider yourself a primary source?
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