1. My memories of Berlin 1963 to 1966
‘The Potsdam Agreement’ divided GERMANY into four zones of occupation
British, French, American, and Russian
BERLIN
BERLIN (The Divided City) was in the Russian zone and the City of Berlin was divided into four sectors.
After the Berlin Wall was built the City was divided again into Communist East, and Free West Berlin.

2. Company F 40th Armor was the only American Armor unit
located 110 miles behind the iron curtain, inside of Soviet occupied East Germany,
and surrounded by 17 divisions of Russian troops
West Berlin was truly in a awkward position, surrounded by hostile
East Germany, The Russian army, and held hostage by the newly built Berlin Wall

3. Company F 40th Armor Berlin Brigade Turner Barracks
Co”F” 40th Armor was located in West Berlin in the borough of Zehlendorf.
It was a oversized tank company with 32 tanks

4. Lichterfelde
The Berlin Wall stretched over a hundred miles. It ran not only through the center of Berlin, but also wrapped around West Berlin, entirely cutting West Berlin off from the rest of East Germany.

5. West Berlin was an island of freedom within Communist East Germany
Lichterfelde
West Berlin was an island of freedom within Communist East Germany

6. “Have Guns Will Travel”
That freedom was guaranteed
by the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the
French and British allies

7. Potsdamer Platz 1963
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev referred to Berlin as "the testicles of the west vulnerable to his iron grip”

8. “When I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin"
Potsdamer Platz 1963
“When I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin"

9. Was the first “cold war” mayor of West Berlin
Ernst Reuter
Was the first “cold war” mayor of West Berlin
“People of this world … look upon this city and see that you should not, and cannot abandon this city and this people!“ ~ Ernst Reuter

10. "Nobody intends to put up a wall” ~ Walter Ulbricht
Walter Ulbricht was the Leader of the GDR,
The German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
He said the above quote two months before the Berlin Wall was built

11. Walled up Versöhnungskirche (Church of Reconciliation)
The Church was in the Death Zone and demolished by the GDR
Bernauer Strasse became especially symbolic of the inhumanity of the Berlin Wall.
People attempted escapes through upper floor windows. Pictures of these escape attempts were seen around the world

12. East German guard shack The GDR border guards shot and killed
Top center
The GDR border guards shot and killed
more than 600 East Berliners trying to escape to the west

13. East German guard. He would not look at the camera
The population of Berlin was understandably scared

14. Looking east, across the wall and barbed wire
Well over 100,000 citizens of the GDR tried to escape across the Berlin Wall

15. Sign in the west, facing so the east German border guards could see it
The division is inhuman.
The Shooting orders are criminal

16. Lichterfelde
Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt appealed to American president John F. Kennedy to make a morale-boosting visit.

17. “Checkpoint Charlie” The symbol of the Cold War
President Kennedy came to Berlin and delivered
one of the most famous speeches of the 20th century

18. All -- All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin.
And, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words
"Ich bin ein Berliner.“
Picture from the internet
On June 26, 1963, in a speech before 200,000 citizens of Berlin, President John F. Kennedy declared “Ich bin ein Berliner,” meaning, “I am a Berliner.”

19. American Flag at half-staff for President Kennedy's assassination
"We will never have another day like this as long as we live," said Kennedy as his plane lifted off from Tegel airport. He died just a few months later
American Flag at half-staff for President Kennedy's assassination
Anybody that was in Berlin that day will remember the cannons going off at (BB) Berlin Brigade headquarters on Clayallee.
The cannons went off every hour it seemed for weeks. And the genuine love the Berliners had for president Kennedy. Everything closed down. Stores had pictures of Kennedy draped in black in the windows.
It was a sad time for everyone

20. Lichterfelde
Only a few thousand American, British and French troops stood in the way of complete Russian domination of West Berlin

21. Motor Pool - American Flag
I asked a German friend, what the best thing was about Berlin .
The reply “the American flag at the Panzer Kaserne”

22. Company F 40th Armor Berlin Brigade
Turner Barracks
We were a tripwire for World War III, but what a great tripwire we were. If an invasion had ever occurred we would have inevitably lost, but the price that the enemy would have paid to take Berlin would have crippled them ~ posted on the Berlin Tankers web group 21 August 2005

23. August Santini Conrad Schornhorst
The following pictures are just a few from my time.
Thousands of soldiers served at Turner Barracks from 1951 to 1990.
August Santini
Conrad Schornhorst

24. Note: Everyone has a hand on a beer
Roberts,  Schleupner,  Pauley,  Thompson,  Henderson,  Fitzpatrick
Note: Everyone has a hand on a beer

25. August Santini
Isaac W. Seay
John Tavares
Conrad Schornhorst (Flag)
Arnold Perry

26. Grafenwöhr
Toledo Rivera

27. Ronald L Newlin

28. Santos Gamino
Ronald L Newlin

29. James F Vogel
Leslie T Cason

30. Ray Guidry 
James Vogel 
William Hatcher

31. Hatcher
Mayer

32. Newlin
Ramsey
Perry
Grobaker
Irzarry
Short
Trznadel

33. Ramsey
Davis
Hoffman
Perry
Newlin
Trznadel
Grobaker

34. Ronald L Newlin
John Trznadel

35. Gordon Iles
Bill Knock
Bill Harbin

36. Grafenwöhr
Dunham
Fugate

37. Elmore Newton
Roland Brown 

38. Irzarry

39. Marc Cowe was 17 when he arrived in Berlin.
He left Berlin in 1966 and went on to distinguish himself in Vietnam
along with many others from Turner Barracks
When He left the service
he was disabled
Marc took his own life
with a single shot in
April 1997
When a free nation sends men and woman to war their sacrifice must be honored and rewarded.
These people deserve our thanks, respect, support and more importantly a place in our memories. - Oliver North
Marc A Cowe

40. Command Sergeant Major Kent Vickers
Vietnam Berlin
Kent Vickers was a First Sergeant in Vietnam
2nd Squadron,17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

41. Korea, Berlin, received a Purple heart in Vietnam
Sergeant Bill Moyer
Korea, Berlin, received a Purple heart in Vietnam
Bill Moyer

42. Command Sergeant Major Jerry Sodosky
U.S. Army 1961 to 1988, Vietnam Veteran, Two tours in Berlin ( and )
Served over 20 years overseas duty, Highest Award: Legion of Merit

43. Command Sergeant Major
Jerry Sodosky

44. Ramsey did 3 tours in Vietnam
Rick Ramsey

45. 1st sergeant, Vietnam Veteran 1967-1968
Stuart Short
1st sergeant, Vietnam Veteran   
Tank 15 
Aggressor forces in the Grunwald 

46. Berliner Kindl & Currywurst
Not far from the U-Bahn station Oskar-Helene-Heim
Stuart Short  

47. Here’s a few more random pictures Ed Sullivan at Co F 40th Armor
Picture from Conrad Schornhorst
Ed Sullivan at Co F 40th Armor

48. Company Tailor

49. slang: a tavern frequented by military men
This was our ‘Slop Chute’ a small room in the basement of Turner Barracks
slop chute noun
slang: a tavern frequented by military men

50. Brandenburg Gate Winter 1964
Picture from Ray Guidry
“The Brandenburger Tor” is a monumental gate built in the 18th century as a symbol of peace.
During the Cold War the gate became the sad symbol for the division of Berlin and Germany.

51. The Reichstag 1963
This is where it all started in After the Reichstag fire, the Enabling Act was passed by Germany's parliament. Hitler was appointed chancellor by Hindenburg. Germany and the world was turned upside down until the Berlin Wall came down 56years later in 1989

52. Spandau Prison
Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach were released in 1965
Rudolf Hess was the top Nazi and the only remaining prisoner.
After Hess' death, On August 17, 1987 Spandau Prison was
demolished to prevent it from becoming a Nazi shrine

53. Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943.
“The Stalingrad Madonna” made by a German soldier in 1942 at the siege of Stalingrad hangs in the Church

54. Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943.
“The Stalingrad Madonna” made by a German soldier in 1942 at the siege of Stalingrad hangs in the Church

55. What’s left of Hitler's Bunker,
In no man's land

56. American soldiers Going through Checkpoint Charlie after a tour
“Checkpoint Charlie” The symbol of the Cold War
American soldiers Going through Checkpoint Charlie after a tour
of the east

57. “Checkpoint Charlie”

58. Soviet Russia's war memorial in West Berlin
Russian
Guards in West Berlin
Throughout the Cold War, Soviet Guards were present at the memorial.
The monument was in the British Sector and seen as a sign of communist provocation on West Berlin soil. British soldiers had to protect the Russian Guards from the West Berliners.

59. Stephanie's Bar Charlottenburg, Kantstraße 75
2009 Picture
from Reinhard Bronewski
“Stephanie’s” today is a eye doctors office (Dr. med. Uwe Kraffel Augenarzt).
Dr. Kraffel could never guess what went on in his office 50 years ago

60. and American Movies - On the Kudam
Mix of German
and American Movies - On the Kudam

61. “How the West Was Won” (1962)
Movies
“How the West Was Won” (1962)

62. Movies
“Send Me No Flowers” (1964)

63. Movies

64. On the streets of Berlin Major Hains and Roland Brown
American Tanks
On the streets of Berlin
Tank #1
Major Hains and Roland Brown

65. On the streets of Berlin
American Tanks
On the streets of Berlin
Tank 14
TC- Paul Welch, GR- John Davis, DR- Ray Guidry, LD- Marc Cowe

66. On the streets of Berlin
American Tanks
On the streets of Berlin

67. On the streets of Berlin
American Tanks
On the streets of Berlin

68. Made in the United States of America
Tanks
Detroit Steel
Made in the United States of America

69. All 32 Tanks at the Brandenburg Gate

70. Looking through binoculars.
Tanks at the Brandenburg Gate
with the elevated 50 cal
visible on each tank
32 Tanks

71. “The Garden of Remembrance”
East Berlin
“The Garden of Remembrance”
Soviet Russia's tribute to those of its soldiers who died in the siege of Berlin.
In five sections are the bodies of 2,000 Soviet soldiers who died in the battle for the city

72. East Berlin “The Garden of Remembrance”
This is a cemetery, and there were no crosses.
Nor any other symbol to indicate that these dead had a religious faith

73. Grafenwöhr is located in beautiful Bavaria, near Nuremberg.
Some American tankers might think of it as Strafen-woehr, a play on words "Punish-Woehr"

74. Every year each platoon went to Graf for Tank Gunnery
Grafenwöhr
Every year each platoon went to Graf for Tank Gunnery

75. They still looked pretty formidable to me
Grafenwöhr
West German Soldiers
They told me the German Army of today is not the same as it once was. They can wear long hair now.
They still looked pretty formidable to me

76. Grafenwöhr
Range 118

77. Towing a target down range
Grafenwöhr
Towing a target down range

78. Grafenwöhr

79. Grafenwöhr
Night fire – I remember staying up all night loading and unloading ammo in the rain.
Then waiting for the rain to let up so we could have our turn going down range

80. Grafenwöhr

81. Grafenwöhr

82. One year we slept in tents
Grafenwöhr
One year we slept in tents

83. Mayer
Hall
Dunham

84. We didn’t get much sleep, I wore the same clothes for two weeks
Socks standing
by themselves
We didn’t get much sleep, I wore the same clothes for two weeks

85. One year we slept in a nice warm barrack with a wood burning stove
Grafenwöhr
One year we slept in a nice warm barrack with a wood burning stove

86. Grafenwöhr
1965 or 66?
Berlin Tank crews
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5

87. Grafenwöhr Allen J Peterson James Vogel
M4 Sherman Tank

88. Joe Benolken Grafenwöhr Allen J Peterson Richard E Gallina
Daniel Gallagher
Landis 
Perry
Joe Benolken
Gervis Ramsey
After two weeks in Graf!
Recently after seeing this picture Sgt Vickers said we looked worse than the Iraqi army

89. Lichterfelde

90. Lichterfelde

91. We were knocking down the fence posts one at a time with the tank
Lichterfelde
We were knocking down the fence posts one at a time with the tank

92. Lichterfelde

93. Lichterfelde
105 MM HEAT
METERS

94. Grunewald
James F Vogel

95. Grunewald
Vogel
Ramsey

96. Tempelhof Airport

97. 1st Platoon Company F 40th Armor, Berlin Brigade

98. Apartment buildings are now on the site of the former Turner Barracks
Picture from Ray Guidry
We grew up in a time and place that has vanished,
in a world that can be recalled by only a very few

99. Gruß aus der Vergangenheit

100. November 2001, Elizabeth Town, Kentucky
Old 40th Armor Warriors
November 2001, Elizabeth Town, Kentucky

101. I was with. I’m very grateful for that opportunity.
Being in the United States Army and in Berlin at that time and place in history changed my life in many ways. I will always remember those times and the people
I was with. I’m very grateful for that opportunity.
James Vogel
63 to 66