OFF TOPIC
I was stationed at Kriegsfeld Army Depot (aka North Point), 1985-1987. My unit was the 558TH Military Police Company and we were “Tower Rats”. A Tower Rat’s main duty was to spend 24 hour shifts on a “special weapons” site guarding those weapons. In our case this included two, four hour shifts alone in a steel box 20 to 40 feet in the air. If you think this sounds a lot like solitary confinement, you’re correct.
If memory serves, this 24 hour shift was followed by 12 hours off then 12 hours on standby (where we were supposed to be sober, LMAO). This repeated for 2 weeks then we had a “down week”.
A down week was often spent “out in the field” in such places as: Friedberg, Grafenwöhr, and Hohenfels. If we were very lucky we got to do special things like TACOPs (tactical operations) training/tournament or even Air Missions. The Air Missions were kinda cool as we basically flew around Germany in Chinook Helicopters and emptied out other special weapons sites.
Anyway, our days consisted of long, boring hours on duty and long, boring hours off duty and drunk. We had barracks parties often and would make up themes like “Happy Birthday Jack Daniels” or, well, I can’t print out the names of some of the other themes…
The Army knew how bad this duty was and all but abandoned us. Retention from our unit was very, very low and the reputation of departing Tower Rats was suspect. I remember reporting to my next duty station and the COMPANY COMMANDER basically said he was surprised that I wasn’t a knife wielding psycho (what’s up Jimmy!). My platoon sergeant was very obviously wary of me and frankly I think I scared him. All this based solely on the duty I had just come from.
“North Point’s reputation fared far less. Most soldiers reported assignment there as the worst possible
duty. Many left either the Corps or the Army after that experience. It was a preventable loss. Commanders,
who certainly recognized the problems, could have implemented practices to alleviate monotonous working
conditions. Appropriate rewards, appreciation, contribution acknowledgement and variable assignments
would have helped to retain qualified individuals. Sadly, division and theater commanders could have
instituted a rotation practice between the security companies and the law enforcement units thus giving the
“tower guards” a broad base of both knowledge and experience. As it were, most MP’s assigned to security
units spent an eighteen month tour in a tower. They then left the Corps, and in many instances the Army,
never to experience what some of us considered the finest assignment available.
Detractors notwithstanding, the people who served at Kriegsfeld were proud of the service that they
rendered. Adversity creates the strongest of human bonds – and without exemption the bonds formed
between the MP’s while at North Point have lasted a lifetime. The soldiers take pride in knowing that in all
those years no one ever got through the fence of the 558th.”
During and after being stationed at North Point I was bitter and angry inside for many reasons (another long story). I drank heavily, put one truck into a guardrail, and ripped the undercarriage out from a Mustang. I don’t know how I survived it or didn’t hurt someone else. I didn’t stay in touch with the guys I was there with. I know a few guys called my parents house but I couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t return their calls. It is something I’ve regretted a long, long time. I missed the guys so much that a year after getting off active duty I joined the Virginia National Guard trying to get that feeling back. It didn’t work. I had gone through basic training and MP school with 2 dozen of them, got stationed at Northpoint with them, and we went through what we went through.
What got me on to this writing.
I had done an article about digitizing old photos and had just got around to my old Army pics. I was trying to remember everyone’s name and started searching the internet. I found a 558th Military Police Company Kriegsfeld Germany 1986-1990 Facebook Group that I cannot access fully because I’m not on Facebook. I was scrolling through what I could see and saw this:
I just sat there… staring… Bernelis was dead? Fours year ago? What was he then, like 50 years old? Nick and I were close back there. The emotions came over me. It’s been more than 30 years since I’ve seen him and yet grief and emptiness came pouring out. Then came the guilt of not staying in touch and more emptiness because I feel like I let him down. It’s been 4 days and I can’t shake it. He was unfailingly nice and a good friend and he deserved better from me.
I remember one of the first conversations I had with Nick. Come to find out he was from Bay City, Michigan, right next door to Saginaw where I grew up. Our conversation went something like this (It’s been over 30 years so cut me some slack here):
Me: So your Polish?
Nick: No, I’m Greek.
Me: Can’t be. Everyone from Bay City is Polish.
Nick: I’m not f’ing Polish.
Me: Nope, I’ll call you Nick Berneliski
He was pissed and anyone that knew Nick knows he could pout a little when we had our drink on and you pissed him off. I thought it was hysterical. Whenever I would want to get his goat I’d call him “Ski”.
So buddy, tonight I’m cracking open a bottle of Jack and setting out 2 glasses.
If by some miracle any of my fellow 558th Tower Rats see this, please give me a shout.
Me and Nick:
Some pics from back then:
me