I do have some technical data about total storage capacities. Donges capacity at tank farms A, B, C and D totaled 1,541,000 bbls.

Texaco fleet tankers (230,000 bbls) out of Port Arthur offloaded their loads at tank farm A. "Ship-to-shore" pumping took 2-3 days and nights. "Main line" pumping operation was from tank farm B which had a low and a high pressure pump house. Pumping started 6 AM-6 PM five days a week.

St. Nazaire and Donges greater area with the beaches and small fishing villages are very pictures. St. Nazaire, during WWII, was an important German submarine base. While stationed there I managed to marry a local national.

Between two tours in uniform and serving as a DAC, I spend 15 yrs in Germany. Enjoyed every moment of it. My first French vaction since I left France in 1966 came in Dec 1973 when I was stationed in Nuernberg. The 15 yrs we were in Germany we went to France each year.

My flag orders back to the US came in Augsburg in Sep 1995 when I was a DAC. Starting in 2002 I visited Germany twice and my wife and I went back to France each year. Hoping to go this summer again.

Being born in the middle of the war in the Czech Republic, I am fascinated about WWII history in Europe. The history of D-Day and it's beaches in Normandy is still like a magnet to me, even though I have visiting three times.

Tanker Off-loading Operations at Donges
I'll try to walk you through step by step. A tanker ship pulls into the jetty. First it's secured and the flexi rubber hoses connected to the ships manifold. My job was to gauge each tank and varify quantity with ships paper work. Next came the lab people to take samples of the fuel.

Each shift consisted of a US pipeline sergeant with a few soldiers. A crew of French workers worked together with the American soldiers. Both crews together opened the necessary rising stem valves for the designated tank farm that had enough storage space for the fuel to be stored. Tank Farm "A" had very little storage capacity. In most cases fuel was transferred to Tank Farm B.

The Texaco fleet tanker deliverd bulk fuel only. The tanker's capacity was 230,000 barrels. The ship-to-shore pumping operation for a tanker was a 24 hr operation and usually took 2 to 3 days. 8 hr shifts were on hand to do the mission.

Main line pumping started at 0600 hrs. The first crew started their duty day at 0400-0800. Day shift came on at 0800-1600 hrs. Tank farms were connected with each other and military pumps were available for transferring fuel as needed.

Packaged products, in my time, were not part of our mission.

Our total strenghth was approx 90 soldiers.

I do remember seeing truck filling racks (fuel racks for tanker trucks to pull under and fill up). The racks were not being used. I also remember a storage area with 55 gal drums. Quantity never increased or decreased. And I remember railroad sidings but they were also not being used. When I arrived in 1964 (many of the original) operations were already stopped and we were downsizing.

Tank Farm "A" itself consisted of a row of six tanks. Tanks #3 & #4 had a capacity of 63,000 barrels each. Con shaped roof. 138 ft in diameter. Tanks #1 & #6 only had a 10,000 barrel capacity each; also cone shaped roof. #2 & #5 each had a capacity of 24,000 barrels; 73 ft dia; cone shaped roof.

Along the right bank of the Loire River estuary was the jetty - or dock - for the fuel tankers.

Brief Description of Tank Farm "B"
The main entrance to the tank farm was at the northern end of the facility. There was a parking lot for vehicles just inside the fence. (As a SP/4 we needed permission from our CO (1LT Osborne) to purchase an automobile. I have a copy of my request for purchasing my 1965 Opel Kadett in front of me.) The entrance was at the lowest elevation of the entire facility. Everything else goes up fast. The tanks were at the top of the small hill.

At Tank Farm "B" there were 6 large tanks: one tank in the middle and the other 5 neatly positioned around it. Capacity of each tank: 84,000 barrels. Floating roof tank. Diameter: 120 feet, Weight of the roof: approx 114 tons.

I do remember two pump houses (a high pressure pump and a low pressure pump) -- one of them can be seen in photo #2 showing four exhaust pipes on top of the roof.

Went to France in 1960 but our radio equipment failed to follow. The unit designation was Melun Terminal District though we were not actually in the town of Melun. (Webmaster note: the four tank farms were just south and west of the town of La Ferté-Alais -- click on the GOOGLE Maps image above for a recent satellite view of the area.)

The unit was small (about twenty soldiers) but we had a large French civilian worker contingent. Since we signalmen were at a loose end the unit used us for other jobs. I busted truck tires for awhile then began driving semi tanker trucks delivering fuel to other units and then a truck wrecker. I made many trips to Germany and other parts of France, usually alone. I was a tourist at government expense. I picked up some French and even served as interpreter for the base commander on occasion. There were civilian employees other than the French. There were three engineers, one British (future father-in-law), two Dutch, and an American who oversaw Public Works. The American was not an engineer but was Army civil service. If you know someone else who was there that would be interesting because I knew everyone.

There was no caserne for the terminal district. We were given a plot in open country that a big WW2 battle had been fought on. It was full of unexploded ordnance so the Army dumped 14 feet of earth fill on top of previous grade. We were always digging something dangerous up and would have to call EOD to handle it. Our post consisted of four “tank farms” that were several miles apart from each other. The farms were POL storage tanks behind fences with manifold and pump houses to move product around and to load POL onto train tank cars and tanker trucks. My signal stuff was on the farm that had our HQ building, mess hall and barracks (Tank Farm "B").

The unit had many railroad MOS soldiers, engineers, conductors and brakemen because we had a siding for Army train cars that we filled on order for the U.S. Air Force jet fuel needs and we supplied heating oil and motor and aviation gasoline for surrounding U.S. housing areas and army units. Our base had, I believe, 6600 barrel storage tanks that were resupplied by the TRAPIL 12-inch pipeline that ran from Donges (St. Nazaire), through France, to 7th Army in Germany. The pipeline had a pump station every forty miles or so which were operated by French engineers. There would be a U.S. Army post about every 120 miles.

I worked in the resupply office for a while where my main job was to call U.S Air Force bases in France and Germany to determine their jet fuel needs and to track their fuel supplies and if need be to begin the process of resupply by truck or tank car via the French railroad system. I meet a young woman at the base who was a civilian worker; she was secretary to the commanding officer and to her own father who the civilian Post Engineer. We also had a military Post Engineer but the civilian engineer was a pipeline expert who had worked for oil companies in the Middle East for many years. I eventually married the young woman and we had twenty-five years together before I lost her in 1989.

Tank Farm "A" -- I pulled up some French road maps and could see the secondary roads that used  to be the main roads. I drove them enough times. It looks like the French ran what would be a freeway to us right through the middle of the area; that’s what confused me at first. The "A" farm (see 1961 aerial photo above) was the only place we could fill a 5000 gallon tanker trailer. The area to the north of the buildings and the loading area was empty -- later we stored thousands of jerry cans at that location. Also, an SNCF railroad line ran right past tank farm "A," we had a spur right off that line. I re-read the Army-TRAPIL contract and saw where Quartermaster Petroleum District ordered a rail line spur for the “La Ferte Alais Depot”. We also used the La Ferte train station to receive cans of oil and artillery grease and a crapload of jerry cans but since we paid demurrage on track space at the La Ferte station I’m thinking we did not have a spur there.

Tank Farm "B" -- "B" farm (see 1961 aerial photo above) had a large warehouse, and our only motor pool with a shop and vehicles parked in the open. There was an Army Engineer storage area with bulldozer, road scrapers and trailers used as offices. Follow the entrance road to a right turn off the main entrance road, about half way down and in the approximate middle of the photo. The Administration building will be on your left and the post theater will be across from the Admin building on your right. The Admin building was the HQ for the four tank farms. I swear I can also see some old radio equipment trailers that were there when I reported.  They were late 40s or mid-50s vintage and were never used.  I inspected them shortly after arriving.

The radio equipment finally arrived and I (with the help of the Army Engineer company temporarily based with us) built and installed equipment for two high-frequency radio stations. The antenna siting was so spot-on that my installation was designated Alternate Net Control station. Net control station was normally based in Fontanbleau France.

The small signal detachment was a new wrinkle - we came under the technical command of the existing signal organization, but we and the radios were there to support the pipeline system. The TRAPIL pump stations operated their own teletype landlines but the command wanted a system that would be under the command of the army with radio capability. The signal equipment was all HF. AN/GRC-26Ds. Radio, voice, RTT and CW capability.

The radio equipment was mounted in a hut on the back of a 2 and a half-ton truck with a PU-95 trailer-mounted power unit. I made them ground-mounted with a permanent antenna system and commercial power per Signal Command order from Fountainbleau HQ.

A small contingent of signalmen were located at each terminal district. Many of the team members had gone to Signal School with me. You could tell who they were by their CW “fist”.

I remember being asked by the First Sergeant to welcome and help settle in a WW2 veteran who was joining the outfit. I was a young sergeant and helped him with his kit and took him to where he would be staying in the NCO quarters where I also lived. He came into the room, suddenly stopped and asked “Is Milly La Foret in that direction”? He was dead right in the direction and I asked him if he had been where we were standing right now. He told that he had been in an artillery battery that was firing on the Germans in Milly during WW2 right from the spot where our building was now standing. He also knew the correct distance to Milly-ten kilometers. He then said “there’s something wrong though, we’re too high”. I told him we were on 14 feet of earth fill and now stood higher. Talk about a small world. We became good friends and he came to visit me when he was later posted to the Fort Benning Marksmanship Unit as an ammunition expert.

I came across the TRAPIL-U.S. Army pipeline contract on-line just last night. I was allowed into the TRAPIL pump station which was normally off-limits to us. One reason was my future father-in-law was going there and asked if I wanted to come along. I sometimes made diesel fuel deliveries to other TRAPIL stations when they had delivery problems. Sometimes there would be a pipeline or valve box leak and I and the C.O. and the POL officer would go to the problem area and confer with TRAPIL engineers. That’s when I got to show off my bad French since the officers didn’t speak a word. The engineers were just glad they had at least one GI that could communicate.

I had many adventures in my travels around France and Germany and met many decent people. Maybe having some French Huguenot ancestry helped me with getting on with the French (even though the Huguenots were protestants).

I left France in 1963 to attend OCS in Fort Benning Georgia.

Carter Doering has requested some news about the place where he served during the Cold War.

I went to St.BAUSSANT yesterday. Weather was exceptionnaly good.

The facility is still here and in outstanding shape. All seems to be running smoothly & with efficiency (pretty scarce in France). I had some trouble in finding it, it is lost in the middle of nowhere. Horses have disappeared. Only cows remaining. Nobody has taken up with cow riding, though.

I wasn't able to enter the site. The boss was not on the premises, so I took some pictures that you will find attached.

I don't know if the pipeline coming from Donge is still active. But for sure there are a lot of trucks loading fuel here every day. I guess fuel is coming from the ports at the North Sea. I have asked TRAPIL (SOCIETE DES TRANSPORTS PETROLIERS PAR PIPELINE : http://www.trapil.fr/fr/pipelines_reseaux.asp) if the former American pipeline is still in service. Probably not, if you take a look at their map on their website.

I am awaiting for their answer, if there is any answer.