MPs in Germany with German Bundeswehr Feldjaeger in late 1960s
With all eyes focused on the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, it brings to my mind a personal memory I have from my days as a military policemen in the 1960s.
I was stationed in Erlangen, Germany from 1966-68. Erlnagen is located just a few miles from Nuremberg, and when I first arrived, we were sending members of our detachment down to Nuremberg on weekends to augment the Nuremberg-Fuerth MP station. Nuremberg was a larger garrison and additional MPs were needed to handle the extra activity on the weekends as well as chase the soldiers out of the local brothel, which was off-limits.
One of the Nuremberg MPs at the time was a rather legendary character. He was an African-American ex-St Louis police officer the size of an NFL linebacker. I don't recall his name, but the story went that he was involved in a questionable shooting and was advised to join the army and get out of town. Thus, he wound up an MP in Nuremberg.
Stories also abounded how he would walk into the local black GI bars with his partner, pull the plug out of the jukebox, and order every soldier in the place out into the street to check their passes. This, of course, did not go down well with the troops, nor with his MP partners, who were usually white and had enough problems to deal with on a typical Saturday night as it was.
To make things even more interesting, after pulling a 4-12 shift doing this nonsense, our hero would get off duty, don civilian clothes, and return to the same bars to drink. Of course, he was so big, few wanted to fight him, but one night, a gang of soldiers "pooled their resources" and jumped him. It took a lot to subdue him, but eventually the MP was pounded through the barroom floor as the colorful description went.
What does this have to do with current events in Ferguson? Absolutely nothing, but I wonder where that guy is now.
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