This area of the web site is the repository of all documents pertinent to the history of Charlie Battery collected from a variety of sources such as village archives, soldier stories and document collections, created documents of appreciation, official U.S. Army Personnel Records, etc.

This web site really began to gather momentum when I realized I could obtain the official U.S. Army Personnel Rosters for the time I was stationed at Charlie Battery from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Those rosters helped me reconstruct that time period so I could be as accurate as possible in this presentation.

I had intended to just scan the pages of each roster, but most of copies I received were not of scan quality. So I decided to recreate the DA Form 305-5 in my Adobe InDesign Desktop publishing program then filled in the tables.

It was actually an interesting and challenging exercise, and I do state on each page of the form that it is a recreation intended only to present a sense of the time period only, with no other intentions.

The original forms were all white paper, however, for the sake of viewing ease I inserted a subtle “every other line tone”, which I think makes it easier to read across the rather long lines of data. It also gives the form a bit of a more contemporary computer form look.

It took me 4 days to enter the complete rosters data, and it was a burn out, but I wanted a document that everyone could view with clarity and ease. I then turned each semi-annual document into a PDF file so that, by using the magnification tool, everyone can easily view the data.

I tried to be as accurate as possible while entering the data. However, because this web site project has so many aspects that I've had to pull together, I haven't had time to do a serious proof read.

The rosters below are official U.S. Army records that were requested from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Vet Recs requires that daily personnel accounting records can only be acquired by those who served within their peticular time frames. Which means, for example, I could only get information pertinent to the time I served.

At this point we have records for the times shown below, although there is a request in process for the 1968 - 1969 time period. We thank our comrades who took on the responsibility to file requests for their time period and contribute them to our effort.

However, we still have several time periods that still need to be requested. The years for Charlie Battery, Kleingartach; 1962, 1965 - 1966, 1967 - 1968, still need volunteers to come forward to make the request. It would be great if we could cover all the years we were there. The process is very simple and easy to submit, and I'd be happy to help anyone through the process. If you want to help, you can contact me using the email link at the bottom of each page.

The documents included below at this time are a 1959 Thanksgiving Day Menu, a certificate of appreciation given in recognition for services rendered at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO, the Charlie Battery Site Relocated document via Google Earth, and a rare Charlie Battery Group photograph taken down a the baseball field in the Launching Area.

The Thanksgiving Day Menu and the Battery Group Picture was provided by Jim Fitzpatrick and are great memories for us all. We think the Thanksgiving Menu was created by Company Clerk Howard Kostler, but that can't be confirmed. Along with the holiday memories the menu is also a record of the Officer Corps and the Enlisted personnel at that time. The document includes the reproduced original, as well as a reproduced facsimile.

The Archives Technician at the National Personnel Records Center was so helpful, and I/We are so grateful for the information provided, that I wanted to acknowledge her efforts.

Music has always been a passion for me. I vaguely remember hearing country music while growing up, but it was never a central part of my experience. Then came my time at Charlie Battery and Hillbilly Reveille.

Every morning on the Armed Forces Network we would wake up to the sound of “It's 6:05 and it's time for Hillbilly Reveille”. And thus began a 30 minute program of traditional and contemporary country music that would serenade us while we washed up and got dressed, in order to beat it down the stairs from the 3rd floor to make the morning roll call formation

Over time I began to enjoy, understand, and appreciate the nuances of the genre, and although it is a pretty much a “heart upon your sleeves” style of music, it has kind of forthright honesty that I liked. Soon I found myself having favorite singers and songs, and to this day I still have that appreciation that has only grown and expanded.

In fact we actually got to see one big country star by the name of Roy Acuff, who actually came to do a show right there in the Charlie Battery Mess Hall. That was pretty amazing considering we were this tiny little outfit way so far from any large kaserne. That always impressed me.

We are pleased and excited to announce the acquisition of some very special archival material donated by Fred “Olney” Van Zandt. Fred was member of the IFC Area, and has had s number of documents from Headquarters, 3rd Missile Battalion, 71st Artillery in his possession for all these years. It's really quite amazing that they even still exist, seeing as how they are basically “mimeographed” copies printed on the absolutely lowest quality paper. ( They weren't meant to last for any extended period of time. This stuff was whacked out by the ton...!)

They are all special orders of various kinds, ranging from several travel orders, including a blanket order for Bravo, Charlie, and Delta Battery personnel to fly from Germany to Fort Bliss, Texas, and back to Germany for the Annual Service Practice (ASP). The Annual Service Practice orders document the very first time Charlie Battery went to fire at McGregor Range, of which many of us were honored to be chosen to crew that event.