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There’s at least one American soldier who feels at home in the Grunewald – the popular forest that sprawls over the American and British sectors of Berlin.
He is Sergeant William L. Grunewald, who admits that he shares the name of that forest by coincidence, yet doesn’t mind it.
“With a name like that and stationed in Berlin, you ought to be able to write your own ticket.” He has been reminded more than once.
But while he has found that his famed last name has brought him no special privileges, the 25-year-old duty foreman with the Berlin Brigade Headquarter Commandant Section has still gotten his share of good natured ribbing – even as far back as the boat over to Europe in August.
Sometimes, however, the ribbing turns out to be the real thing – genuine confusion resulting from his name. Once, after ordering a military taxi to take him to Andrews, the instructions somehow turned out to be “to pick up a sergeant in the Grunewald who is going to Andrews Barracks.”
A 1959 graduate of Pensacola High School, Pensacola, Florida, he was a property classification analyst with the Lockheed Missile and Space Company, Sunnyvale, Cali., before joining the Army in March of 1964. After completeing basic combat training in Fort Ord, Cali., the following May, he served as an engineering supply specialist at Camp Roberts, Calif. He was with the 763rd Engineering Detachment of the Eighth Army Support Command in Korea and after that, a processing NCO at the U.S. Army Reception Station, Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. Before his assignment to Berlin.
He is the son of Mr. And Mrs. Carl Grunewald. 3025 Page Street, Redwood City. Calif., His wife Donna, is the daughter of Mrs. Eleanore Wilcox, 2912 West Wilcox Drive, Pasco, Wash.
In his present capacity behind the Iron Curtain, Sergeant Grunewald is charged with the responsibility of maintaining the cleanliness of the Brigade’s headquarters compound, police of the grounds, moving of office equipment, decorations for parades and other ceremonial events and other duties to keep the headquarters looking tidy.
He also sets up the forward command post for the field training exercises which the U.S. Army conducts in Berlin. And that’s what brings him in contact with his namesake. The Grunewald – a beautiful woods smack in the middle of a bustling city – has brought him “quite a few comments,” he muses.
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