Well the Charleston Reunion is drawing fast upon us and it looks like there will be a good turnout.  Our on-site coordinator, JIM NATIVIDAD (Scheyern 47-54), reports that we are running a little below our Planning Profile returns.  If you sent in your Planning Profile and said you were coming, now is the time to return your Reservation Request so Jim can get the meal counts correct.  If your plans have changed, please let Jim know so he can adjust accordingly.  Right now the confirmations stand at 69, about 34 people short of what had been turned in on the profiles.  Jim's e-mail address is  natividad1374@yahoo.com.

Bring your favorite German CD's along for the Bavarian Evening music.  Jim has also arranged for a keyboard musician to play for you at the Banquet.

Your photo albums of your times in Germany , and any memorabilia, will be welcome additions to the Hospitality Room.

You avid photographers - don't forget to send me your pictures on a DVD so we can publish them on our web site.

For you big time procrastinators - that have decided at the last minute to attend the reunion - click on to our web site at http://www.asa-alpiners.com for all of the details.  Click on "Charleston Reunion Planning Profile" for hotel and activities information.  Then click on the "Charleston Reunion Reservation Request", print it out and send it to JIM NATIVIDAD right away so he has a correct head-count for the meals.

You guys that served in the Giessen/Alsfeld area might be interested in this one.  The St. Louis ( Missouri ) Schützenverein will be hosting the Original Antrifttaler Musikanten at their annual Hubertus Tanz on Saturday, October 15, 2005 .  This brass band comes from the Municipality of Antrifttal made up of the villages of Bernsburg, Ohmes, Ruhlkirchen, Siebelsdorf and Vockenrod.  If you are in the neighborhood, and would like to see this band, send me a e-mail and I will see what I can do.  Because of the heavy German/American influence here in St. Louis , this may be a sell-out.  The Antrifttaler Musikanten will also be playing the next weekend, October 21-23, at the ( St. Louis ) Soulard Oktoberfest, unfortunately scheduled at the same time as our reunion.

Hof Veterans may be interested in the following e-mail I recently received.  Here it is with slight editorial changes:

My name is Jerry Mangas and I served in Hof/Saale with the (USAF) 6915th Security Group in operations from 65-68 as a Russian linguist (a 203-1 in Air Force terms, a 98G in ASA terms) and was fortunate to travel TDY to Schneeberg,  Teufelsberg,  Frankfurt, Rothwesten and the various ASA sites way the hell up there in the British Sector in 1967. The Schneeberg trip was in the winter and memorable for reasons I am sure you are well aware of. There was a reason it was called Schneeberg! Most of my work at Hof was Army associated even though I wore blue instead of green.

I am also the Secretary for the Hof Reunion Association, a Military Reunion Association COVERING ANY AND ALL U. S. AND GERMAN UNITS STATIONED AT KINGSLEY KASERNE IN OR AROUND HOF/SAALE between 1948 (or earlier, since we have an active 28th Constabulary member) and 1972 when the Air Force presence ended in Hof and the operation site was turned over to the Luftwaffe. For your info and for your members, Kingsley Kaserne was renamed by the Bundestag, in 1985, to General Hüttner Kaserne. 

Until recently we were the largest reunion association in the Air Force, because we include all services and units assigned to Hof . The honor of having the largest association has now been taken over by the Misawa/Wakanai association, using the same cross/unit and service platform that we have been so successful with.

We are actively looking for the approximately 24 ASA 98G's (Jim Atkinson is one remembered name, others are "Ganapis" and "Arena") assigned to the 6915th in the 67-68 era.  Also, ANY MEMBERS OF THE 114/116TH (SIGNAL SERVICE COMPANIES) THAT WERE ASSIGNED THERE IN THE 50'S. Any paperwork/orders we might have had, on the 24 that stayed behind in operations, never saw the light of day again so, their names are lost for the moment.

But! We have identified approximately 3800 people assigned to Hof over that 48-75 time frame and are always looking for more. We have approximately 800 active members and several hundred less so. There are 600 +/- on the weekly email mailing list. We put out a "Connection Update" weekly by email and a hard print "Hof Connection" twice a year. (Our weekly email contains pictures of interest to one or another parts of our community.) We publish the stories, the lies, the tall and less tall tales of those years; we hunt down the people, we do historical research and on and on.  What would you like to Know about 2nd LT Richard Kingsley, MOH, for whom the Kaserne was named by Army General order #51 in 1948? We know most of it. Hüttner the same.  The Kaserne's early days are well known but not the WW II years except that the 250th ID, the Blau Division, was there for training (and at Graf)

OUR HISTORY OF THE ASA IN HOF IN THE 50'S IS LIGHT, BUT WE KNOW THAT YOU GUYS WORKED AND LIVED UNDER CONDITIONS THAT LATER WE WOULD CONSIDER APPALLING!  ANY FILL-IN YOUR MEMBERS WOULD LIKE TO ADD WOULD BE APPRECIATED. PICTURES, WAR STORIES, LIES AND DAMN LIES ARE ALL QUITE ACCEPTABLE, ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE FUNNY. WE ARE CURRENTLY GOING THRU OUR VW STORIES PHASE.

I should also mention that we just finished our yearly reunion, this year in Nashville .   NEXT YEAR WE WILL RETURN TO HOF . And if 2006 goes half as well as 2002 did in Hof , I promise it will be memorable!

      Your guys can check us out at http://www.hofreunion.com, or e-mail back to me here via hofreunion@dejazzd.com. 

      Thanks and I look forward to hearing from any ASA Hof veterans.

      Jerry Mangas - Operations 65-68