Smoke Bomb Hill 1969 (Aerial Photo)

[Richard]

The MATA village and Gabriel Demo Area was to the E of the airstrip; the MFF school was the area circled in orange in Al's post IIRC.

Richard

[greenberetTFS]

When did they tear down the old SF museum?.........I stopped by with my wife and kids when we went to Wally World in 1976.......... Talked to the guys in charge about my short life in the 77th,they had some old papers from the early 60's......... Went to the drop zone(forgot which one) to have the kids watch a jump......... Sure brought old memories back,and it seemed like a lot of changes,like the old wooden 2 floor barracks were gone....... That was the last time I was a Ft.Bragg,hope to some day get back there on the next reunion.........

Big Teddy

[Pete]

Originally Posted by JJ_BPK

Someone help a FOG..

Is the red area in this pic where the 6th Gp was in 69??
And the green at the bottom right, the edge of the Gabriel Demonstration Area??

Tx..
JJ

If you look at the piture the bottom east/west road is Son Tay. Coming from the west the first single road is 15th st, next set of double roads are 14th & 13th, 10th & 9th and lastly 6th & 5th.

When they put in the All American Expressway in the late 70s they took out the eastern half of that last block leading up to the eastern single road over to the east/west runway you can just see in the bottom right of the picture. The highway fence runs/ran pretty much just to the west of the north/south runway.

The runways made an E/W - N/S X. As Richard said - the bleachers for the Gab demo were on the south side of the runway on the eastern side. After the demo the visiters took the trails wandered through the south/eastern square.

By 1982 the area noth of Gruber had been turned into new buildings and the 37th Eng Brigade. The SF Museum was moved somewhere around that time to where it is now. The 5th had moved over to the area in the Old Division area by the summer of 83.

Originally Posted by alelks

If I remember correctly it's this one:

Did Gruber Rd run down hill towards Reilly Rd (right to left on the map?

Which area was 7th Grps back in 65/66?

Thanks

[Richard]

Originally Posted by WCH

Which area was 7th Grps back in 65/66?

This was 7th SFG area '71.

Richard

[Pete]

Originally Posted by WCH

Did Gruber Rd run down hill towards Reilly Rd (right to left on the map?

Which area was 7th Grps back in 65/66?

Thanks

You are pretty much looking at the "Hill" in the picture. From around the orange circle it slopes gently down to the south. Where it says "Gruber" is around where it started to slope off to the east down to the RR tracks and old rigger shed at Knox St. But they did put in a big ditch as they ran the AA Expressway through there.

The northern square areas were the pavement of the motor pool parking lots. The "Hill" dropped off just north of them.

Richard - by 1974 the 5th had pushed your western 7th Gp line two more buildings east. Look real close at a larger picture and you'll see a single lane paved road just north of the top row of western barracks. At the 5th barracks (6th Bldg) it jogs south and then back east along the south side of that row. The building on the west side of that jog was A/3/5th's building. IIRC C/3/5th was just south of Co A while Co B was to the building to the west.

The snack bar was in one of those single story buildings on the east side of Alamo Parade Field.

Somehow in my memory (FOG), I remember the HALO Committee (66/67) being located in the building I circled in yellow.

A number of those building Richard marked as SFTG (71) were company mess halls back in the 60's.

In 66, 7th Grp company orderly rooms, chow hall, billets, dispensary, and Group S-2 moved into newly constructed buildings southeast of Ardennes and Marion St

[Richard]

Originally Posted by WCH

Somehow in my memory (FOG), I remember the HALO Committee (66/67) being located in the building I circled in yellow.

A number of those building Richard marked as SFTG (71) were company mess halls back in the 60's.

In 66, 7th Grp company orderly rooms, chow hall, billets, dispensary, and Group S-2 moved into newly constructed buildings southeast of Ardennes and Marion St

The area circled in red were the team rooms and ODBs - the Group HQs, ODCs, mess halls, and billets were due west of Reilly Road near the JFK Chapel.

The bldgs marked as SFTG were committee/classrooms - there were many more in the area South of Gruber Road and the training companies billets were also located West of Reilly and North of Gruber.

When we closed out USASFT/1st SFG in '74 and returned to Bragg, the old buildings North of Gruber were gone, with new bldgs belonging to the 20th Eng Bde in their place and the team rooms and ODBs all having moved into the area South of Gruber.

The WAC area was gone and the female soldiers had been integrated into their individually assigned units.

Richard

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Richard

.............When we closed out USASFT/1st SFG in '74 and returned to Bragg, the old buildings North of Gruber were gone, with new bldgs belonging to the 20th Eng Bde in their place and the team rooms and ODBs all having moved into the area South of Gruber...........

You are just a couple of years off on the time line Richard. In 74 the area I noted as 5th Gps was still there - as well as everything around Alamo Parade Field. We were still there through 75 as we did one of those Organization Day fun and games deals on the parade field - Van Meter was my Team Sgt at the time. And then we did either a Solid Shield or a Bold Eagle from there when Blair was my Team Sgt which would have been early 76.

We where on the south side when I bought my Jeep Christmas of 77.

So at least the western portion moved south between summer of 76 & fall of 77. I want to say the fall of 76 because I got a 66 Chevy Impala at Christmas of 76 and we barracks rats were living in the old COSCOM area while our barracks near the JFK Chapel were rehabed. I do not recall having the Chevy while being on the north side.

When they started building the AA Expressway shortly thereafter we were on the south side and for our weekly company four mile run - in boots - we would run east to the AA Expressway route and then south down it to Santa Fe and back. As they were building the bridge they had a temporary crossing made over a few small culverts. That was one sucky run after it had rained.

[Richard]

Pete,

Your recall is probably better than mine there and '76 may have been the time-line for the tear downs and new construction North of Gruber. Our team rooms in the 7th SFG had moved from the North to the South of Gruber sometime between '73-'74 when I left 714 for USASFT/JCRC and returned to 742. I thought they were gone and the 20th was in our old area then, but that must be CRS on my part. I then left for Bad Tolz in early '76 and both Groups were South of Gruber when I returned to 726 in '79 with the 20th Eng Bde having taken over the entire North side of Gruber in their new 'dorms' and all.

I do miss the old team rooms and ODB HQs there, though - there was something about those old WW2 wooden buildings that seemed durable and familiarly comfortable.

Richard

[greenberetTFS]

I have a picture dating back to 1956........... I've got Maggie looking for it and will post it ASAP............ I got it when I was in the 77th SF group..........

Big Teddy

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Richard

....Your recall is probably better than mine .............

Only in the immediate area - and mostly only Co A/3/5th. When we moved to the south side of Gruber we were in one of the larger two story buildings that had been used as a BEQ. The rooms were very small and most teams shared a bathroom with another team. The building was just about even with the SF Museum.

Co A was downstairs and the old dayroom at the end of the building was used as a supply room. Co B was upstairs. Co C has down the hill and to the west in the last row of 2 story buildings. They were just offset by a building or two (IIRC) from the 5th Gp SCUBA Locker on Son Tay.

[alelks]

Originally Posted by Pete

Only in the immediate area - and mostly only Co A/3/5th. When we moved to the south side of Gruber we were in one of the larger two story buildings that had been used as a BEQ. The rooms were very small and most teams shared a bathroom with another team. The building was just about even with the SF Museum.

Co A was downstairs and the old dayroom at the end of the building was used as a supply room. Co B was upstairs. Co C has down the hill and to the west in the last row of 2 story buildings. They were just offset by a building or two (IIRC) from the 5th Gp SCUBA Locker on Son Tay.

Yep,

I was upstairs in Co B at that time on ODA 584 (1980 timeframe). Our team room was on eastern most end of the bldg. Instead of dragging stuff down the hall and down the stairs we used to take it out on the fire escape and lower it down (except for the heavier team boxes of course). It was funny watching one of the other companies play (darn I can't remember the name of it now but it involved a HUGE ball). More injuries were received from that game than any training we ever did.

[MtnGoat]

I love reading this Tread.. Great History on these pages.

[mojaveman]

Interesting history.

Looked in the top left portion of the picture and couldn't locate the JFKSWC so I guess it was built sometime after '69. Also looked to the southeast of Gruber and Reilly and couldn't locate the Yntema club so I guess it came later too. I went in there onetime while inebriated and on a dare.