Alfeld-Augsburg-Bad Aibling-Bahrdorf-Bamburg-Baumholder-Bebra-Berlin-Bremen-Coburg-Frankfurt-Fulda-Giebelstadt-Giessen-Hammelburg-Heidwinkel-Heilbronn-Herzogenaurach-Hof-Kassel-Königslutter-Linz-Mahring-Malmsheim-Mannheim-Memmingen-Munich-Mt. Meissner-Nottau-Nürnberg-Oberursel-Offenbach-Passau-Rothwesten-Sontra-Salzburg-Scheyern-Vienna-Wasserkuppe-Weiden-Wels
The
E-Mail Newsletter for SIS, ASA and INSCOM Veterans
who served in
Volume
3 - Number 1
February
1, 2007
Ralph
R. Thadeus - Editor
alpiners@worldnet.att.net
Reunion 16 is progressing as expected. If you are planning on coming to the reunion, and have not yet sent in your Planning Profile, you can get a copy of the blank profile from our web site. And, in case you have forgotten, our address is: http://www.asa-alpiners.com.
Our grateful thanks to those of you who will not be attending but were so generous in your donations to our General Fund, which basically sustains our web site and all it takes to maintain it. By the way, if you are planning on attending, please DO NOT send in a donation with your Planning Profile. We normally charge a $10 registration free, per person, to cover unexpected reunion expenses with any surplus going into the General Fund.
ASMN
We will be trying to jazz up our newsletters in the future. This will be a little bit at a time since yours truly is not what you would call a computer nerd. As I learn more about Windows XP and my new version of WordPerfect, I hope to start including photographs to enhance the text. I will also be sending the newsletters out as attachments. This is so those of you who want to print the newsletter will not have to print the e-mail heading as well. For those of you who can not open the attachments, and let me know, I will start a new contact group that will send the newsletter as a regular e-mail. We have also increased the font size to a 12 to accommodate a lot of our readers. This was done at their request.
JAMMY JARMAN, one of our British counterparts, passed along his New Years greetings to all the Alpiners. Jammy was a DF Operator with the British 116h Special Wireless Section during WW2 and was attached to the 137th SRIC from February of 1945 to the end of hostilities. Our greeting back at you Jammy.
EDWARD (ED) F. GILLETTE (Bad Aibling 70-72) is looking for a pre-70's Bad Aibling unit crest. The crest is two shades of blue separated by a lightning bolt superimposed over either what appears to by a bayonet or phallus, with an edelweiß in the lower right hand position. The slogan under the crest reads ‘Sentinels of Freedom’. Ed says the crest was submitted to the Heraldry Office but was never officially approved.
As names appear in the newsletter, I get requests from individuals to be put in to contact with the mentioned person. I am more than glad to do this as it is the intention of the reunion group to foster comradeship among our members. This is one chore I am happy to perform. But - to not stir up privacy issues, I forward the e-mail of the person requesting the contact, to the other person. Then it is up to the recipient if he wants to establish contact or not. This practice also applies to requests to tell if a specific person is part of the reunion group. If I get a ‘hit’ on the name, I send the person an e-mail letting them know who wants to get in touch with them. Again, it’s up to the individual to establish the contact.
I am happy to say that this past month we had several tie-ups that were mutually beneficial to the individuals
JIM PETTIT (Scheyern 55-57) writes that “the demise of (Scheyern) FS 8608 happened in the summer of 1957. It was probably more of President Ike’s cost cutting and it happened without much warning. It surely wasn’t because of reduced threat. It was converted to a German Nike base and it still was when I last saw it on a visit in 1988. Had my last Scheyerngold then, at least I think it was, it came from a tap and the Kloister had taken on the feel of a luncheonette. All or most of the remaining troops went north to Kassel with tears in our eyes. The base was occupied by a USAF outfit and others doing the same stuff as us.” [Editor: I might add to Jim’s comments that, even later, Scheyern was converted into some sort of a school. On my last trip back I ran across Attila, our old bartender from the Bar Charlie.] And DENNIS L. BENNET (Scheyern/Bad Aibling 57-62) adds that he “happened to be assigned to Scheyern when it was closed in September of 1957. Everyone who had an ETS of 6 months or less went home. Those with more than 6 months went, with their mission, to either Rothwesten, near Kassel, or to Bad Aibling.” He adds “Everyone who was promotable got promoted one grade for moving.”
JAMES
SESSIONS (Bad Aibling/Memmingen/Sinzig
60-65
& BA/Memmingen 68-71) comments on Col. John
J. McFadden. Jim says that “McFadden was indeed
one of the
‘legends’ of the ASA. Not only did he command
the 318th ASA Bn in Herzo but also the
7th RRFS in Udorn,
BOB ZIKOWITZ, a WW2 veteran of the SIS writes a quarterly newsletter dedicated to the 2nd Signal Service Battalion and it’s Detachments. The 2nd Signal Detachments were the predecessors to the ASA Field Stations. The 5th Det. 2nd Sig was later Field Station 8605 in Helemano, Hawaii, and the 6th Det. 2nd Sig later was designated as Field Station 8606 in Herzo. Bob was running short of mail funds, and running short on WW2 donors, so the Board of the Reunion Group made a contribution to his mailing fund.
As most of you know, our married members bring their wives and other family members to our reunions. And when one of our members moves on to that big intercept station in the sky, we do not necessarily remove them from the mailing list unless we are requested to do so. In this way the ladies are still kept in the loop about our activities. This is just a reminder to those ladies that they are more than welcome to attend our reunions. It is a safe and friendly way to visit a city they may not have been to before, or to keep in touch with their loved ones friends.
Martha Fritz, wife of DON FRITZ (Bad Aibling 56-58) writes that she was working the snack bar in Operations coinciding with Don’s shift work. Martha says they lived on the economy, over a bakery, and that when they worked Mids she would make egg salad and PB&J’s on fresh semmeln and they would sell like hot-cakes. Martha adds that “twas a great time and one I will never forget and the friends one makes in the service are lifetime friends.” Could not agree more Martha.
Sorry that this newsletter is going out so late. Blame it on those s.o.b computer/software companies. I had both Word and WordPerfect on my old computer and could work with either one. When I got this new Dell, it came with an updated Office Word so that’s what I had been using the past couple of months, thinking I would buy it after the trial period. When I wanted to convert they would only sell me the entire Office package for $279. So, I checked with WordPerfect and they would give me a usable upgrade for $99. Needless to say I, being a cheap s.o.b, after mortgaging my second child to buy the new Dell, ordered the Word Perfect. Low and behold, after waiting and waiting, I found out it was on backorder. So I had to download a trial copy and re-type the entire newsletter since I could not load the Word copy.
NEW CONTACTS
Robert Lloyd Brown, 856th ASA Co., Frankfurt/Hoechst 9/77-7/79
Kenneth (Ken) Darnay, HQUSASAEUR Frankfurt, 64-66
Richard A. Hass 328th Comm. Recon., Bad Aibling/Wels 52-53
Troy M. Stewart, 18th USASA Field Station, Bad Aibling 64-67
Don Shipman, Bad Aibling/Heilbronn/Bamberg/Coburg 52-54, W3RDF, N. Myrtle Beach, SC
LOST CONTACTS
Lynn Maldoon, Giessen 53-54; Tom Potter, no sites or dates; Greg Lonsky, Bad Aibling 70-71; Chris Dickson, Rothwesten/Munster 69-71; Ray Robb, Wels 49-54; Bill Tully, Scheyern 51-53; and Wilbur Ragsdale, Herzo 67-68.