Dennis Bennett (Scheyern/Bad Aibling/Rothwesten/Augsburg - Lifer) wrote that he just got back from three weeks in Germany and that there are only five or six radomes left at Bad Aibling and they are in various states of being dismantled.  Two days before they left Bruckmuhl, there was an article in the Magfall Bote (the local newspaper) that said a group of developers from Munich had bought 60 Hectares of the Bad Aibling Station and planned on building a harness race track there in the near future.

 

Marshall Kwait (Bad Aibling 68-70) adds to the radome thread by writing that he was working S-2 at that time and the project was called Wild Boar.  It was run by the NSA with Lockheed subcontractors doing the actual work.  It has for a very specific purpose, which had a limited life.

 

CHUCK BOWEN** (Bad Aibling/Hof/Bindlach/Coburg/Bamberg 52-54) says that the 332nd Comm Recon group will hold a reunion in Charleston, SC November 5-7, 2006.  Info can be obtained from Jerry Fortenberry at gritsd@telepak.net.

 

[Editor: Over the years we have tried to keep in contact with WW-II SIGINT veterans.  Among those are Ed Ioanes (POC for the 137th SRIC veterans who sends me his groups newsletter regularly) and Jim Jarman who served with the British 116th Special Wireless Section.  For a period of time during the war Jarman's DF unit was attached to Ioanes' unit and we were able to get the two in touch with each other. In Ed's last newsletter he printed an e-mail from Jarman that he had received.  I thought it would be of interest to those of you that followed.]

 

Jarman writes: "I joined the Royal Signals Y Service as an Intercept Operator from Wireless and Line in December, 1942 and our Section 7 Special Wireless Section covered the D-Day area from just outside Southampton April, 1944. We went to Normandy as part of 21st Army Group and then in Holland to the 2nd Brit. Army. Our D/F set up was different than yours as we consisted of myself a L/Cpl., 3 operators and 2 drivers. We had a 15 cwt truck to pull the D/F trailer (a chicken hut on a single axle trailer) and a single axle 15 cwt Wireless Van for communication to the section. We received the frequency to monitor by code on a one-time pad, which was relayed to the D/F Cabin by telephone.  The D/F operator having found the station was guided as to German by guide signals sent from the control by wireless transmissions. As far as I can remember after all these years, call sign was Q, preambles P, transmitting message R and end of message K. You used landline. (Comment from Ed: We did not use landline but operated in a manner similar to the British.) Bearings were sent back to control by encoding on the one time pad. In February, 1945 (?) The 9th U.S. Army was put into the 21st Army Group for the combined drive by Montgomery to cross the Rhine and reach Berlin before the Russians. (Comment from Ed - 9th U.S. Army was actually transferred to the 21st Army Group on December 22, 1944 shortly after the German breakthrough in the Ardennes.) 116th Special Wireless Section was attached to the 9th Army for this and my D/F crew was a part of it. We crossed the Maas on a pontoon bridge with you and I remember St. Tonis, Munchen Gladbach, Krefeld and ended up on a farm on the Rhine bank near Mors. We crossed the Rhine at this point and from there on we seemed to be on the move all the time until we were at the Elbe as you say with the Russians. VE Day we received a message to say hostilities had ceased and the next day we were withdrawn from the 9th Army and joined a UK Section at Luneberg. I was greeted by the CO and told I was promoted to Corporal and posted to the UK for forwarding to the Far East. 200 of us operators left Hanover and returned to the UK and after 28 days leave we were given 3 weeks to get up to speed on the Japanese Kana Code which we were taught in our training course some 2 years before. Everybody managed it in 2 weeks with no trouble. We were awaiting transport when VJ Day came. Thank God for the A Bomb. Some short time later I went back to Minden, Germany and then in February, 1946 arrived near Graz in Austria near the Hungarian/Yugo border where until June, 1947 I was set room Sgt. of the 3rd Wireless Company intercepting Tito and the Russian units in the Balkans. The war never seemed to end for me. "

 

Jim Jarman AR VA. [Editor: di-dah-di-dah-dit   di-di-di-dah-di-dah]

 

Ed Ioanes concluded by saying, "It is amazing, to me, how closely this accounting parallels ours even to being sent home for Pacific training and the eventual invasion of Japan. We are not the only ones that are grateful to Harry Truman and his decision to use the A Bomb. "

 

The memory bug bit Carl Zelich (Bad Aibling 60-62) after reading about the radomes.  He started drawing a map of BA as he remembers it.  Carl has three sections, North, Central and South, and would like to add to his maps in case he forgot a few things.  If you were in BA during the 60-62 time frame, give Carl a shout and he will send you his maps by e-mail.  He can be reached at aa4mi@aol.com.

 

 

 

David Woodside (Bad Aibling 11/65-11/68)
Thomas H. Loeschke (Herzo 11/51-12/52, Baumholder 12/52-9/53
Terrence H. Pypiuk (Heilbronn 58-60)

 

 

 

 

Supporting Members EDWARD ALSHIRE** (Herzo 49-52) Marriotsville, MD and NOLAN P. LeCOMPTE** (Bad Aibling 56/Nottau 57) Indiana, PA.  Mailing list members Bob Benner (Frankfurt) and Elder R. C. Green (Bad Aibling 60-63) Indiana, PA.

 

 

 

 

Patrick R. McFerren (Scheyern/Wels/Bad Aibling 52-55) passed away on August 22, 2006, in Spring Township, PA.  His wife Gloria Fay, sons David and Michael and five grandchildren survive Pat.  Pat was active in Masonic organizations and the Boy Scouts.  He had been involved in an automobile accident in May of last year and never fully recovered. During this period, as we've previously reported, Pat was visited regularly by a small group of ASAers living in the PA area.  They, along with the rest of the reunion group, express our deepest sympathy to Gloria and her family on their loss.