I was a young lieutenant in Berlin in
1961 General Clay in late August early
September flew out to this area called
Steinstücken which was in East Germany
but belonged to the district of Zählendorf there is a pathway a little roadway
that you could drive your car or bicycle
or walk about one kilometer from Steinstücken
into Kohlhasenbrück which was
in the district of Zählendorf West
Berlin when the Communists put the wall
up in Berlin they've surrounded the
village of Steinstücken with barbed
wire about 50 acres there might have
been 80 or 90 people that lived out
there he flies out on a helicopter he
gave a television set to put in their
Gemeinde Hall (public hall) and he asked the
villagers what their concerns were and
they said they were scared to death
because the boat the VoPos (east German police) were
harassing them and they had no
protection from the Berlin police
because the Berlin police could not go
out there since it was in East Germany.
So the next day I flew out on a
helicopter with four MPs and we set up a
headquarters in the basement of the
Burgermeister house and we had radio
communications back to to Andrews
barracks on Finkensteiner weg a there in Zählendorf and we patrolled walked around
the perimeter of Steinstücken every
two or three hours but our military
police stayed there for 12 years until
1972 one evening in November of 61 Spec4
Blonski was on walking patrol and a
bus from East Germany crashed into the
into the barbed wire and the VoPos
were hollering "halt, halt, halt" and
shooting their machine pistols and
Specialist Blonski he had a what we call a
burp gun a grease gun he fired off 16 or
18 rounds above the vopos heads and told
them, "raus raus" (Get out)
and the VoPos took off he went to the
bus and was able to extract five people
that were trying to escape to the west
and we put them we sheltered them
overnight the next day we flew a
helicopter out there with a duffel bag
full of uniforms and 5 MP helmets and
barber shires and we gave them a haircut
so they look like American GIs. Dressed
them in uniform and put the helmets on
and flew them out and the Russians of
course protested. They said
the next helicopter comes out they will
shoot it down so general clay said fine
the next 15 minutes
every 15 minutes for the next 24 hours
we flew a helicopter in and out of
Steinstücken and of course the Russian didn't do anything. We go back from time to time
and the people there are magnificent the
original residents that were there
during the time that the MPs were there
and they've had festivals and to
celebrate the aviators that flew the
helicopters and the MPs that secured
them. Wonderful story wonderful place
just great people and it was an
opportunity for us to help them out.
