It doesn't get any better than this at the top of the Hill ..... Det J remembered. Check out the color slides Paul has provided.
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June 29, 2001, Aug. 10, 2001, Oct. 24, 2001 update
Learn
from Paul
Miller and then Ray Croel how those sheep got on the Alten Turn:
I wanted to send you
a copy of the latest e-mail I got from Ray Croel because it has a such a clear
version of the "sheep on the hill caper". As I was reading it and
hashing it over in my mind, I'm not sure, but I might even have been along on
that detail, because I had a "flashback" of remembering guys trying to
hoist those sheep into the back of a deuce-and-a half, no mean feat, and that
the poor sheep had trouble keeping their footing in the moving vehicle on
the ride back to the hill. Ray and Bill Evans really have a memory for details
over these lo, 40 odd years.
Now about how the sheep got to be on the hill. We were the 279th at the time and
headquartered out of Frankfurt. The IG came to Schneeberg for the annual
inspection. As you know the only grass that was cut was the grass in front of
the ops center. The rest of the area inside the fence was rocks and boulders
with grass and weeds growing amongst them. The IG told Woody (Capt. Woodrow,
279th commander) that the grass would have to be cut. After they left Woody said
we were not going to cut that grass. We'll get some sheep up here to do that.
Grafenwöhr is a very large area and they let the Germans graze their sheep back
in the unused areas. Woody sent a detail to Graf to "borrow" some
sheep. I was on the detail but can't remember who else was. As I recall we
"borrowed" 7 sheep and a goat. I thought one of the sheep would surely
baa as we got stopped at the gate leaving Graf but none did. We got them to
Schneeberg okay. The sheep never did do the grass any good and as I recall 3 or
4 of them were killed by the dogs. Then one day some guys took the remaining
sheep and the goat to Bisch and traded them for beer. They brought the beer back
to Schneeberg and we all drank it. That's the story. It's hard to believe, even
to this day, that we did that but it's true. And if you remember Woody you know
it's true. He was a character. Return to top of
page.
