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

Volume 2 - Number 9
December 1, 2006
Ralph R. Thadeus - Editor

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ASMN

Ralph Thadeus (Scheyern 53-56), your Editor these many years, was involved in a major crash late in September. Nope, it wasn’t a car crash, a stock market crash or his home crashing in around his ears, it was just that his trusty PC finally crashed and refused to connect to the Internet. After trying several new modems, and after many pissed-off hours talking to the AT&T techies in India, I finally had to come to the hard and cold fact the Windows 98 was no longer in my future. After two attempts to load Windows XP on my old PC, without success, the bitter truth emerged – it also was time to get a new computer. Well, the problem then was to gather the shekels together to do so. Once that was accomplished I had to wait for the techies to install the new DSL line and get me up and running. So, now we’re back in business and we’ll try to keep the e-mail newsletters on schedule in the future. If you missed getting the newsletters, now you know why.

Along with hardware problems I also have encountered major changes in the software I was using. These newsletters are now being sent as attachments to the e-mails. I hope you will all be able to open these attachments. Let me know of any major problems.

Also, until I figure out how to change things, the newsletters will be going out under my new personal address. You can still respond to the old address of alpiners@att.net since it is still in existence and I monitor it regularly.

John J. Wilman (Bad Aibling 64-68) writes: “During the time frame of November through December (19)67, I was a short timer given the detail of watching the “Dubies” that were working on the dome. This was the first dome that was built just to the right of Ops as you faced the building. While on guard one day, they were going to pour the base of the dome. This had to be performed at one time and about 45-50 cement trucks from the contracted German construction firm showed up. Before the NSA civilian engineers would allow the pour to proceed, they wanted to test the concrete on a statistical basis. So they picked every 4 th or 5 th truck and removed a concrete sample from the middle of the load. They then analyzed the concrete by, among other things, feel for texture, heat being emitted, even taste for the degree of lime in the mixture. After all these tests they rejected the whole shipment!!! The German contractor had a fit. The trucks had to be emptied, cleaned out and refilled with concrete according to the contract spec. When I left in January 68 the footing was in, the base to support the radome was positioned and they were waiting shipment of the equipment to install in the dome. In pictures of the Ops buildings this dome is the one behind the large building to the right of (the) Ops building It was really interesting to watch since the NSA civilians used to give me blow by blow descriptions of what they(were) doing and why. I think the footing for the first dome was a square some 20 x 20 (feet) and maybe 30 to 40 feet deep. Lotta concrete to pour at one time.” (Editor: John was a 980C20 – “C” Branch)

Bobby Lee Taylor was stationed at the Aviano ( Italy) AFB early in1958, probably assigned to the Motor Pool. [If recall correctly, some of the Scheyern troops were sent to Italy after Scheyern closed down in 1957.] Bobby Lee’s son, SSG Jonathan Taylor, would like to get ome further information on the unit. The information he currently has is that at Aviano the CO was a Captain Hardwick and that the unit was later relocated to Verona where the CO was a Major McFadden. Bobby Lee pulled some Courier duty with the ASA. If you have any additional information you can contact Jonathan by e-mail at johnnyreb77@copper.net or send it to me and we will publish it in the next newsletter. Thanks to Roy Getz, with the Chitose Group, for passing this along to us for our input.

Denis (Denny) Byrne was a British Army Sergeant attached to FS Bad Aibling in the late 60’s. He ran the DF Detachment at Hoeglin, down the road from BA. He was billeted in the MQ’s opposite the Quartermaster Store with his then wife Carol. Tony Palmer was his driver. Denny is trying to get in touch with an Ami named Mike Lea who, he believes, was then a Staff Sergeant who had something to dowith Southgate. Mike Lea drove a dark green VW Beetle with lowered suspension and tuned exhaust and was billeted in the BSQ at the top of the hill. If you can help Denny get in contact with Mike Lea, you can do so by contacting Denny by e-mail at: denis.byrne@dwp.gsi.gov.uk or through me in the next newsletter. If you contact Denny directly by e-mail, your Editor would appreciate being kept in the loop.

The Chitose ( Japan) Group just had their 18 th annual reunion in Branson, Missouri. They planned on 200-225 and pulled in 296, exceeding their planning expectations. Their “draw” seemed to be the mixture of sub-groups in attendance. Too bad we can’t get more of the European ASAers to combine their reunions with ours. Maybe this could be a subject of discussion at our May reunion along with the thought that an annual reunion would be better attended than one held every 18 months.

NEW CONTACTS

John H. “Buck” Hawthorne, Bad Aibling 2-7/59

William N. Evans, Schneeberg 56-59/Rothwestedn, Dahme, Offenbach 60-64

George Noe, Scheyern 5/47-11/48

[Editor: Another Scheyern guy sent us an e-mail that somehow got lost during all of the computer problems. If you sent in your info, and your name is not listed under these new contacts, please accept my apologies and re-send your information.]

TAPS

Keith Shafer ( Passau, early 50’s) passed away on September 27, 2006, as reported by his daughter, Jackie Dietrich. Mrs. Dietrich says that the Passau information passed on to her was appreciated. She further said that they had a beautiful military service performed by a local American Legion post.