Designation of Wetzel Housing Area

Department of the Army

Headquarters, United States Army, Europe and Seventh Army

APO 09403

 

General Orders                                                                                         7 August 1968

Number 245

 

Redesignation of Installation

(Faulenberg Housing Area and Faulenberg Kaserne to

Walter C. Wetzel Housing Area and Walter C. Wetzel Kaserne)

 

1. TC 381. Faulenberg Housing Area and Faulenberg Kaserne, Baumholder, Germany, are hereby redesignated Walter C. Wetzel Housing Area and Walter C. Wetzel Kaserne, in honor of PFC Walter C. Wetzel, United States Army.

 

PFC Wetzel was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions above and beyond the call of duty while a member of the 13^th Infantry, 8^th Infantry Division, during World War II, at Birken, Germany.

 

Authority: AR 1-30 and 6^th indorsement, AEAGA-P-MD, Headquarters USAREUR and Seventh Army, 22 July 1968, to letter, Headquarters, 8^th Infantry Division, 12 April 1968, Subject: Renaming of Faulenberg Housing Area and Faulenberg Kaserne.

 

OFFICIAL:                                                                  B.F. Taylor

                                                                                    Major General, GS

                                                                                    Chief of Staff

 

 

 

J. H. Robinson

Colonel, AGC

Adjutant General

 

Telephone: HQ USAREUR & 7A Heid Mil (213-) 6443/7647

 

Distribution: M, plus

10 – CG, 8^th Inf Div

  5 – DCSPER, USAREUR and 7A (AEAGA-)

  5 – ENG, USAREUR & 7A (AEAEN)

SPECIAL DISTRIBUTION:

20 – TAGO, DA (Attn: AGSD)

 

Historical links

 

lSmith Barracks

 

lWetzel Housing Area

 

lMinick Kaserne, Bad Kreuznach

(Minick Field, Smith Barracks)

 

lA few facts

 

lBaumholder during the 1950's

 

lBaumholder, a post card history

 

l26th Infantry statue

 

Medal of Honor Citation

Walter C. Wetzel

Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, 13th Infantry, 8^th Infantry Division. Place and date: Birken, Germany, 3 April 1945. Entered service at: Roseville, Mich. Birth: Huntington, W. Va. G.O. No.: 21, 26 February 1946. Citation: Pfc. Wetzel, an acting squad leader with the Antitank Company of the 13th Infantry, was guarding his platoon's command post in a house at Birken, Germany, during the early morning hours of 3 April 1945, when he detected strong enemy forces moving in to attack. He ran into the house, alerted the occupants and immediately began defending the post against heavy automatic weapons fire coming from the hostile troops. Under cover of darkness the Germans forced their way close to the building where they hurled grenades, 2 of which landed in the room where Pfc. Wetzel and the others had taken up firing positions. Shouting a warning to his fellow soldiers, Pfc. Wetzel threw himself on the grenades and, as they exploded, absorbed their entire blast, suffering wounds from which he died. The supreme gallantry of Pfc. Wetzel saved his comrades from death or serious injury and made it possible for them to continue the defense of the command post and break the power of a dangerous local counterthrust by the enemy. His unhesitating sacrifice of his life was in keeping with the U.S. Army's highest traditions of bravery and heroism.