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

Volume 1 - Number 6
September 1, 2005
Ralph R. Thadeus - Editor

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CHARLESTON REUNION - OCTOBER 20-22, 2005.  The Reservation Request for our next reunion will be sent out by e-mail immediately following this newsletter.  There is a minor change from past reunions.  When you see the Reservation Request you will be asked to make your checks out to Jim Natividad personally and mail them to his home address.  Jim will be handling all of the finances for this reunion since he is the on-site coordinator. 

If you haven't yet made your hotel reservations, remember that they will close on September 20th.  The Headquarters Hotel's phone number is 843-722-4000.   

Since Thursday night is a non-scheduled dining night, some of you sub-groups might want to get together for your own site dinner. So, if there are any of you Scheyern, Wels, Herzo or Bad Aiblingers thinking about such an event, let me know who the Point Of Contact (POC) is and I will publish it in the next newsletter, coming out on October 1st.  That way you can let others from your site know about the dinner.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to our members who have suffered through Hurricane Katrina.  Especially to TOM McGINNIS (Scheyern 48-49) and Rita Palermo (widow of CIRO PALERMO Scheyern/Trieste 50-52), both of which live in the Greater New Orleans area.  We were unable to contact them by e-mail so we can only hope that they and their families are safe and well.  So remember, any money you may donate to the Salvation Army or Red Cross may well be used to help out one of your ASA comrades. 

Just in from Tom:  All is well with him.  He is staying with friends in Eunice, LA, west of New Orleans.  His home is intact.  No word from Rita but Tom says that her area also escaped major damage.  Thank God for small favors.

Mia Culpa, My bad, Entschuldigung.  No matter how you say it, I screwed up.  Blame it on a "senior moment" or maybe I froze off certain brain cells with the 333rd Communications Reconnaissance Company up in Nome, Alaska, but don't blame CHRIS DICKSON.  So, just to make it clear, the 330th RRC was the 330th Radio Research Company not Radio Reconnaissance Company.  I guess the Army had too hard a time spelling reconnaissance correctly so they opted for Radio Research Company rather than Radio Reconnaissance Company or Ranger Rescue Company.

One of the guys that pointed out the error of my ways was JIM SESSOMS (Bad Aibling, Memmingen/Sinzig 60-65 and Bad Aibling Memmingen 68-71).  Jim deployed to Pleiku with the 330th ASA Company (A) in August of 1966.  He left there in December for assignment with the 224th Aviation Bn. (RR) to fly Airborne Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) missions.   

There was no mortar attack while he was in Pleiku but he experienced mortar attacks later in Saigon, Nha Trang and Phu Bai, and 122mm rocket attacks in Saigon and Da Nang.  Jim also experienced, up close and personal, an Improvised Explosive Device in Nha Trang.  This resulted in a concussion, three pieces of shrapnel in his skull, three days in the hospital and two weeks grounded from flying. 

ALAN MOSER (Baumholder 61), commenting on the passing of Charles Chibitty, passed along the information that there is a book out titled "The Comanche Code Talkers of World War II" (ISBN 0-292-75274-1).  William C. Meadows published the book and it was printed by the University of Texas Press.  Might make some interesting reading.

Our good buddy JOE STROCK (Wells/Bad Aibling/Nottau 54-56) passed along a little news item, out of the EU (European Union), that should strike cold fear into the hearts of every ASAer that quaffed a few at the Oktoberfest or the local Volksfests.  Read more about this dastardly proposal by clicking on the original news item's web site below. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/03/wdirndl03.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/03/ixworld.html

KEN MANCIL (Bad Aibling/Hof/Heilbronn/Mannheim/Herzo 52-55, Zweibrücken 60-62, Bad Aibling 62-65) passed along some information worthy of repeating in this newsletter.  If you need a copy of your DD-214 or other documentation, you can now retrieve this through the Internet by going to http://vetrecs.archives.gov

LOST CONTACT 

We got returned mail from a couple of the 116th SRIC (WW-II) guys.  WILLIAM HARMAN last listed in Colorado Springas, CO, FRANK MODELL, last listed in Guilford, CT and WILBUR LEE last listed in Lake Wales, FL.  Their mail was returned with no forwarding information. 

TAPS 

WILLIAM D. JOYCE (116th SRIC - WW-II) passed away June 15th, 2005, as reported by his wife of 62 years, Lois.  After hostilities, and during his time in Scheyern,  "Bing" was on the "Indicator" staff and took a large part in compiling the company history book.  This is the same history book that we are trying to have published on the Internet.