Basil N. Goslant

GERMANY – Sergeant Major, U.S. Army Retired, Basil Goslant, 87, formerly of Plainfield, VT passed away on Friday, January 29, 2021 at his home in Oftersheim, Germany.

Born October 30, 1933 in Plainfield, he was the youngest child of Russell and Leah Goslant.  During his school years he played baseball on the town team and was a player on the Marshfield Semi Pro Basketball Team that was runner-up in the New England Semi Pro Basketball Team.

Basil graduated from Plainfield High School in 1953 and attended Springfield College in Springfield, MA prior to entering the U.S. Army in 1954.   Upon completion of Basic Training and Army Administration School at Fort Dix, NJ, he attended Personnel Management and Recruiters Schools at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, IN.  Upon graduation, he was transferred to the Delayed Early Warning (DEW) Line and was initially attached to a small Stevedore Detachment at Argentina, Newfoundland to attend training in submarine netting and tracking from the Navy and attending Arctic Survival, Artic Warfare and Dog Sledding Schooling at Goose Bay Labrador, and Artic Survival on the Ice Cap at Thule, Greenland.  Upon completion of all training and the award of special identifier to his Military Occupation Specialty as Artic Warfare Specialist, he was transferred to the Command Headquarters at St. Johns, Newfoundland as Enlisted Personnel Sergeant, Reenlistment NCO, and prisoner escort to escort Army prisoners to their designated confinement facility in the United States.

Upon completion of his enlistment, he reenlisted for sunny California and was assigned to Fort Ord as senior interviewer and classification specialist for all individuals being inducted into the Army from the West Coast. This was a fixed 18-month assignment and upon completion he volunteered for Europe and was assigned as the Personnel Sergeant and Reenlistment NCO to a Signal Battalion in Mannheim, Germany that operated and maintained the European telephone network.  Battalion consisted of 57 microwave stations located at the highest elevations (to include the Alps) in northern Italy, Holland, Belgium and from Berlin to Paris, France.  All sites were visited many times.  In 1959, he met his future wife who had escaped from East Germany in 1958 with her young daughter.  They were married in December of 1960 in Mannheim and the daughter was adopted by Basil.   His wife passed away in Mannheim in 2006.

Basil departed, with family, to the above assignment in 1964 and was assigned patient liaison and burial escort for Army patients in the Great Lakes Naval Hospital in Waukegan, IL.  He was not happy with the assignment, so he applied for the 36-week Aviation Electronics Maintenance (AVIONICS) Course at Fort Gordon, Augusta, GA and graduated with honors in August 1965 with assignment to NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, CO to maintain the Army Aircraft assigned to Headquarters.  Three months later, because of the combat loss of the technical expert in Vietnam, Basil was the only available fully qualified individual to perform the job and twelve days later was flown to the 1 ^st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in An Khe, Vietnam.   His wife and daughter returned to Germany.

After this tour was complete, Basil left Vietnam and was assigned to the 7 ^th Army Command Inspection Team at Mannheim, Germany as the AVIONICS Inspector and NCOIC for the 53-member CMMI Inspection Team.  He inspected all Army aircraft in Europe.  Aircraft failing his inspection were grounded.  During inspection of non-aviation units, he cross trained as a Combat and Tactical Vehicle Inspector.  Three years later he was back in the 1 ^st Cavalry Division in Vietnam.  This time to an Aerial Artillery Battalion in Phuc Vinh consisting of AHIG Cobra Helicopters that provided direct aerial artillery support for the 1 ^st Brigade, 1 ^st Cavalry Division.  This position required Cobra combat flying and he was awarded 3 Air Medals.

When Basil completed this tour, he volunteered for Project FLATTOP, Corpus Christi, TX.  FLATTOP was a Navy ship (USNS Corpus Christi) that was leased from the Navy by the Army and retrograded to be used by a Battalion of Army soldiers to rebuild Helicopter components (i.e., engines, transmissions, rotor heads, AVIONICS, etc.) off the coast of Vietnam.  The Commander was a Navy Captain with a Merchant Marine maintenance crew.  The Captain was in charge when the anchor was up.  The Battalion Commander was in charge when the anchor was down.  The ships home port was Corpus Christi and was under the control of the Aircraft Depot at Corpus.  The soldiers received one-year depot training at Corpus prior to departing to the ship.  On the ship, Basil was in charge of the 36-member AVIONICS rebuild shop and he was the ships Physical Security Officer.  One year after arriving on board the War ended, and the ship was ordered back to Corpus Christi.  After arrival in Corpus and the big ceremony the ship was de-commissioned.

His next assignment was HQ Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth, NJ as Team Leader of 4 NCO’s that traveled around the world teaching new AVIONICS equipment being fielded.  During this assignment, he had an onset of Agent Orange and was hospitalized for some period.  As a result, he could no longer perform his duties and was reclassified as a Mechanical Maintenance Supervisor. He requested transfer to Germany and was assigned to Maintenance Company in Mannheim as First Sergeant.  Two years later he was promoted to CSM and assigned to an Armored Battalion.  Not happy with this assignment, he converted to SGM and was assigned to HQ USAREUR/7A in Heidelberg as special actions Officer in Logistics and later in Engineers.       In lieu of accepting an assignment to the University of Wisconsin, he retired with over 28 years of active service, was awarded the Legion of Merit, and accepted a Civil Service job the next day in Logistics.  Some of his accomplishments while assigned to HQ USAREUR/7A were:  Stationing 2d Brigade, 2d Armored Division to Garlstedt, Germany; Stationing 4 ^th Brigade, 4 ^th Infantry Division to Wiesbaden, Germany; surveyed/inspected over 1,800 maintenance facilities and 4,000 barracks in Europe (98%) were inadequate; developed facility criteria, personally briefed HQ Department of the Army and Department of Defense in Washington and received approval for the regulations and funding; published the barracks regulation and a vehicle maintenance facility regulation – funding would be $550 million annually; prepared, coordinated and provided the Corps of Engineers functional designs for each project; attended all design meetings to answer functional and technical questions; reviewed and approved all designs; annually briefed each project at HQ Department of the Army to obtain approval and funding; and continually visited ongoing construction to assure that designs were being followed and if required approved design changes.  Programs ended in 2008 at 98% complete at over two billion dollars.

Survivors include his daughter Rosela, sister-in-law Betty and many nieces and nephews.

In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his brother Russell Goslant and his sister Joyce Clark.

The service to honor and celebrate Basil’s life will be held at the convenience of his family.