Army Security Agency/Signal Intelligence Service
Forces in Germany and Austria

Volume 1 - Number 8
November 1, 2005
Ralph R. Thadeus - Editor

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 ASMN 

Tom McGinnis (Scheyern 48-49) brings us up-to-date on his personal experience with Hurricane Katrina.  He writes:  "Hi Guy:  Just got our Internet service back today. We evacuated on Aug. 27 and went to Eunice LA with part of our family, from there we began our journey,  We spent time in Texarkana, AR, Houston and Austin TX and repeat returns to all of these places. Our evacuation was mandatory but we were allowed to come home for one day on Sept. 6 to get clothes and medicines and to check on damage, Our home had little damage, Gutters torn loose and our fence blown down but every thing else was fine. Since the power was out the whole time we lost our freezer and all it's contents, we were able to clean the fridge and save it. You can't imagine the smell when we opened the freezer door, it's contents and the fridge's now reside in a "slit trench" in our back yard. I guess that will be the greenest part of our yard next year. Power came back on Sept. 20 and we came home on Sept. 26. We have lots of debris from trees and storm damage piled up in our yard that we have been cleaning up and slowly getting back to normal. Thank God we had no water damage to contend with. Our one son lost his whole home to wind damage and will have to rebuild. Part of our family has relocated to Houston due to temporary job location. All in all we were blessed, no one was injured and our family will be together again someday. Winnie and I will be at the reunion and look forward to seeing you'll.  Regards, Tom." 

Hugh J. Smith, Jr.  (Herzo/Schneeberg/Gartow/Rothwesten/Mt. Meissner/Gross Gusborn 66-74 - Augsburg/Frankfurt 76-79) writes that this past September the 5th annual reunion of the DLIWC German class 01GM24W2066 took place in St. Paul, MN, with its traditional lunch buffet/cruise on the St. Croix river and a trip to the Oktoberfest celebration at the  Bavarian Farmer Gasthaus in Stillwater.  This small group started as a  spin-off of the ASA Alpiners reunion several years ago in the Twin Cities,  and includes and welcomes ASAers from other eras to our strictly fun and  informal get-togethers.
 
Hugh also has a large quantity of unit crests for the 16th USASA Field  Station (Herzo).  These crests were authorized for wear in 1967-68 for just  a short period before the unit was re-designated USASA Field Station  Herzogenaurach.  In order to have them for our small reunion group I had to  order a gross amount of them.  If anyone would like to have them, my cost  was $10 a pair, and that is all that I would want, plus a buck for  postage.  I can be contacted at:  hjs856ASA@aol.com. 

Tim Bazzett (Rothwesten/Augsburg) tells us that he has been looking at various ASA related web sites and found ours.  Tim has just published a memoir of his time in the ASA (1962-65) as a ditty bopper 058.  It's called "Soldier Boy: At Play in the ASA" and covers his experiences at FLW, Devens, Meade, Sinop and Rothwesten and is 350+ pages of memories, stories and photos.  His is a one-man operation and doing his best to get the word out.  Tim says that reactions so far have been nothing but positive and his readers range from WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, and the Cold War all the way up through the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan. Tim also served a second hitch as a 98G Russian linguist in ASA/INSCOM (FLW, DLI, GFAFB/TX, Meade, Augsburg) from 1976-1981, but that will be another story.  From 1981 to 2001 he worked as a civilian RU (and Azeri) linguist at NSA (still another story). Tim says that "right now I'm just trying to sell my book and hope you might be interested and that you will pass along this message and my web site information to anyone else you might think would be interested.  For more info on my books and purchase information, see my web site at http://www.rathole.com/soldierboy.  I look forward to hearing from you and your friends."

Our Webmaster tells us that the 116th Signal Radio Intelligence Company (WW-II) history project is progressing.  Because of the size of the original book it is taking a little longer than expected.  Hopefully it will be completed by the end of November.  Right now the problem is that the file is so big that it takes a very long time to download.  She is working on that problem now.

Your Editor was unable to make the reunion because of a previous commitment to my target-shooting club (Schützenverein).  As I mention in the last newsletter, the German band Antrifttaler Musikanten played for several functions in the St. Louis area, one being our Hubertus Tanz,  and blew the places apart.  I have heard some pretty good German bands in the past but this one was, by far, the very best.   Next year we will be holding our Hubertus Tanz on October 21st with music provided by the well know German group Chickeria.  Chickeria plays every other year at the Milwaukee Germanfest and is probably the largest drawing group at the festival.  2006 will be their "off" year at the Germanfest so they will be playing here in St. Louis.