America’s Foreign Legionnaires
Sonthofen was located in the Bavarian Alps in southern Germany. “Picturesque would be an understatement. The facility had been an SS officer candidate school. The barracks were more like a hotel with two to four men per room with their own bathroom. Many rooms had balconies and views of the mountains. The mess hall was in an adjacent building. The alien recruits were fed standard American fare. Daily formations were held in an enclosed quadrangle,” recalled Second Lieutenant (2LT) Clarence C. “Larry” Mann, the company commander.
Anthony Pilarczyk
Receiving the letter to report to Sonthofen in October 1951 was the “happiest moment in my life. I had been bumping around in Western Europe since I had escaped Poland in 1946,” said Anthony J. Pilarczyk. Like Martin Urich from Filibovo, Yugoslavia, who served in the 9th Panzer Division, Ex-Flag Sergeant Peter V. Astalos, one of the few Romanian volunteers, had also been a Panzer tank commander on the Russian Front. “If it hadn’t been for the U.S. Army, it would have been the French Foreign Legion. I learned to love freedom and democracy later, but at that time, my primary motivation was to be a soldier again,” stated Astalos. The U.S. Army replacement personnel at Sonthofen were pleased with the motivation and high quality of the Lodge Act recruits.
2LT Clarence C. “Larry” Mann
2LT Larry Mann, who spoke German and some French, expected orders to Korea after graduating from New York University (Bronx) in June 1951. Instead, the infantry officer was sent to Sonthofen, Germany, to command a replacement company with two sections instead of platoons: one section was Iron Curtain country refugees who volunteered for five years in the U.S. Army in return for American citizenship; and the other, a modified basic training section was for U.S. military male dependents. “We operated a kind of military prep school for military-age sons of senior Army personnel in Europe bound for college in the States. For the alien recruits, in addition to the administrative processing prior to induction, we issued complete uniforms, ID [identification] cards and “dog tags,” arranged physical and dental examinations, scheduled batteries of inoculations, provided individual soldier skills training, presented basic English classes, and oriented them in U.S. customs.”
Not everyone passed the medical exams. Some had never had one. “I tested positive for tuberculosis (TB) and diphtheria. After being quarantined for three or four weeks in the hospital, it was determined that I was a carrier, but not contagious. These were probably picked up when we were in the Warsaw ghetto,” said *Stanley Minkinow from Lodz, Poland. “Since my original group had left for the States, I joined the next one.” These were not the only challenges faced by LT Mann and his small staff.
2LT Larry Mann’s wife, Joan
“Several Army sergeants served as tactical trainers and two corporals spoke several languages. The recruits spoke fifteen different languages in various dialects. They also had varying levels of education. I can remember using five guys to get a message across. I wasn’t sure if the final version was what I intended. It was the old ‘pass the message’ game that one played as a child. We used some of the officers’ wives to teach English. The enlistees had to speak and respond in English only,” said Mann. “My wife was a teacher and kept some letters written by the soldiers.” “My English amounted to basically ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ ‘Thank you,’ and ‘Good morning,’” commented Frank Jaks from Czechoslovakia. There were other issues.
This letter by Private Henryk Szarek was done as an English language writing requirement for Mrs. Joan Mann.
“Getting the East European recruits into uniform was tough. Most men were shorter and wider in the body than the average American. We tailored Quartermaster uniforms to fit. These were probably the best dressed enlisted soldiers in the Army at the time, said LT Mann. “The truth of the matter, the U.S. Army supply sergeants could not equate European metric sizes to the American sizes in inches. So, we really looked sharp in those tailored uniforms,” recalled *Andre Carson from Bulgaria. Unaccustomed to the higher standard of living in the Army, the recruits treasured their new clothing and equipment. Shoes were always polished to perfection and their ODs (olive drab dress uniform) were treated like “Sunday best” clothing. “Oh, yeah! We felt like special people in those tailored uniforms,” said Paul Ettman from Sierdaz, Poland.
Sergeant First Class (SFC) Henry M. Koefoot, a American Army tactical NCO (non-commissioned officer), said: “They’re the best. No ‘whys’ or ‘ifs’ when you tell them to do something. All you see is a streak of lightning and the job is done.” “Physical fitness was not a problem. The men were in their twenties and early thirties and had lived a hard life. They did not frequent Sick Call. These soldiers were just happy to be there. The aliens were getting paid more money [$72] than they had ever earned in their lives,” said LT Mann. “Payday turned the PX into a miniature madhouse. These soldiers guzzled gallons of Cokes and fruit juice, chewed four or five sticks of gum at a time, and bought almost every item in stock,” wrote a Stars and Stripes reporter. “In the excitement I bought a box of pie mix thinking that there was pie inside,” Rudi Horvath laughed years afterward. Before leaving for Bremerhaven, the Army port of debarkation for all American troops leaving for the United States, every recruit was offered a seven-day leave to visit friends or relatives living in Western Europe.
