This web page is about the officers and men of "The Border Barons" who from 1957-1965 were an engineer support company for the 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron of the 14th Armored Cavalry at Bad Hersfeld. Members of three different units but always with the same mission on the East-West border that was, to stop an invasion of the West.

In June 1956, the 63rd Engineer Battalion (Combat) received word that it would transfer with Operation Gyroscope in February 1957 to exchange duty stations with the 4th Engineer Battalion (Combat) at Giessen, Germany.

Advance detachments were exchanged between the 5th and 63rd Engineer Battalions in November 1956. The Battalion departed Fort Leonard Wood by troop train on 6 February 1957, arriving at the Brooklyn Army Terminal two days later. On 9 February 1957, the battalion left the United States aboard the USNS Simon B. Buckner arriving at Bremerhaven, Germany on 18 February 1957.

Company C moved to McPheeters Barracks, Bad Hersfeld.

This was the start of the Border Barons as we became a part of NATO and its mission, the defense of the free world. They were part of the Seventh US Army and attached to the 37th Engineer Group (Combat), a part of V United States Corps.

The 63rd was deactivated in 1959, the Border Barons then became D Company 317th Engineer Battalion with headquarters in Hoechst Germany. The 317th was sent back to the United States in 1963, we then became D Company 54th Engineer Battalion with headquarters in Wildfecken the 54th was stationed at Wildfecken 23 years, 1961-1984.

McPheeters Barracks was closed after the Berlin wall came down, and was turned back over to the German people in 1993, as it remains today.