Sam Herrin (52-54)

The orders presented here have Sam being sent to Berlin for 90 days TDY in 1952 before the unit's existence was recognized.  The comments are as he best recalls.

"We were originally sent TDY from 2d RSM in Darmstadt to the 7350th AB Complement Sq.  When I checked in, I remember being instructed that I should not make any reference to being assigned to the 2nd, but to simply say I was in "Det D, 7350th."  It was for security reasons. I was debriefed before going, which made it impossible to write op notes without getting chastised (which I did and was). Here are the orders assigning Jerry Moore and me. Notice the orders are in letter form LO rather than SO and the distribution was only 6 copies: 5 to each of us and 1 to file.  I was there from 1952-54 as a Russian linguist and the unit, although very small, was well-established when I arrived."

When it came time to go home there were no orders - hence Sam recalls, "... I ran across the attached letter that Lt Clarence Blanford prepared for me when I needed to get back to Darmstadt from Templehof in order to process for my rotation stateside. We kept waiting for a copy of orders which never came, so Blanford prepared this letter..."

Lt Blanford appears to have used his own ingenuity to get Sam back to Darmstadt without breaking the imposed security measures.  Some might call it the old "To whom it may concern" orders on an official looking letterhead.  That is why they're called Commanders.  According to Sam, Lt Blanford succeeded Lt Pearsall as OIC of the Detachment.

Early Ops Page