Lloyd Couch served in the United States Army from March 26, 1954 until January 10, 1956.
Couch’s time of service began in Camp Chaffee at Fort Smith, Arkansas with 8 weeks of basic training and 8 more weeks of field wire training (Combat Telephone Service). After his training was completed, he was flown to Hoboken, New Jersey and placed on a troop ship to Bremerhaven, Germany where he disembarked and was moved on to Neckarsulm near Heilbronn, Germany which was a lovely mountainous area covered with grape vineyards.
Within two weeks his whole unit moved north by truck convoy to Hanau near Frankfort, Germany, where Couch remained until he was discharged from service.
His new unit did not need a “field wireman” so they retrained him to be a Chart Operator in the Headquarters Battery of a self– propelled Artillery Unit. The Chart Operator was part of a 5 man team with a Sergeant and an officer.
Couch’s team was the fire direction control over 3 batteries of six self–propelled 155mm howitzers (Artillery). Their job was to pinpoint the enemy target one round at a time until they made a hit, then all 18 howitzers fired on that same target.
“Thank God, it was all practice and not combat,” Couch said. “We were the peace keepers after World War II closed. We also kept Russia from taking over West Germany.”
“I could have been sent to Korea, which was hot with war. I could have been sent to Alaska, which was very cold. I was sent to Germany, by the hand of God, and came back with a bride,” he added.
Couch and his wife Monika will be married 60 years this December. They have 3 children, 11 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.
York Township Supervisor John W. Valle said, “York Township is proud of Lloyd Couch and we just wanted to express our gratitude for his service to our country by honoring him in our ‘Remember When’ display at Township Hall.”
