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

Volume 2 - Number 10
January 1, 2007
Ralph R. Thadeus - Editor

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16th REUNION – MAY 24-26, 2007
LOUISVILLE, KY

Gus Gruneisen, our on-site reunion coordinator, has things pretty much under control and we will start publishing details of the upcoming reunion. Our Headquarters Hotel will be the Breckenridge Inn, 2800 Breckenridge Lane, Louisville, KY 40220. Phone (502) 456-5050 or Fax (502) 485-0437. Rate is $59.95 plus $9.00 city tax for a total daily rate of $68.95. This rate is good for three days on either side of our reunion dates for those that want to stay longer or arrive earlier.

By mid-January we will have the reunion “Planning Profile” e-mailed to all of you. This document will ask you about your intentions of attending the reunion. IT WILL NOT BE A COMMITMENT ON YOUR PART TO ATTEND BUT RATHER YOUR BEST GUESS AND A GUIDE FOR GUS ON ROOM AND DINNER CAPACITIES. Please respond by return mail once you get it. We also expect to have the hotel information and Planning Profile up on our web site by mid-January. Keep checking the site for the latest information. In case you forgot the address of our web site it is: http://www.asa-alpiners.com.

You can reach Gus by e-mail to: cgasagus@aol.com.

ASMN

We’ve had a couple of questions about what “ASMN” means. So, for you non-Morse and/or non-operations guys, here it is. In Morse radio transmissions the letters A and S (didah dididit in Morse) were used by the other side to mean “wait” and the letters M and N (dahdah dahdit in Morse) were used to mean “minute”. Thus ASMN was used to mean “wait a minute”. In some cases operators would just send the Morse AS and then follow it with the Morse “E” (one short dit) every couple of seconds, if the wait was not going to be long, and to keep the frequency open. [Damn – how could I remember this l could have used some of the Q signals for a heading but that would have really snowed most of our readers, and besides, Q signals are more readily forgotten than Morse code. Morse sticks to your brain somehow and that’s why we also have our opening greeting on the website available in Morse. Check it out but it is at 25wpm for us HSRO’s.

SSG Jonathan Taylor, on behalf of his father Tommy Lee Taylor, asked if there was any information about the ASA in Italy. Tom Harris, the POC for the ASA DFers wrote that his group is “the only really active contact group for ASA Italy. We have about fifty of the guys ranging in service time in Italy from about 1957 to 1970. Mostly DF types with also a scattering of everything else. Tom further writes that “We have held five reunions and had to cancel two also. We are trying to put one together for Cleveland in May, 2007. We have distance contact with Col. McFadden, one of the commanders of the 75th ASA Company as a Major before he went to Herzo Base. We also have contact with one of the XO and once in a while one of the other Company Commanders.” Tom Harris and the DF ASAers can be contacted by e-mail at tomh@usasadf.net

Dave Laden (Herzo/Bad Aibling 64-65) asked if the McFadden mentioned in our November newsletter was the same Col. McFadden that was Battalion Commander at Herzo in 63-64. Guess Tom Harris answered that one for you Dave.

Alan Batchelder (Scheyern 54-56) would like to know what happened to the troops stationed in Scheyern when in closed down in 1957. Since I was not there at the closing, can anyone else help? The designation of Field Station 8608 died when Scheyern closed.

Hal Cubberley (Scheyern 54-56) and his wife Ellen just got back from a week in Bad Tolz and Garmisch Partenkirchen. Unfortunately they did not have the time to get up to Pfaff and Scheyern.

Bob Hilliard (Bad Aibling 53-55) writes that the 328th Comm. Recon. group just had a reunion in Charleston, SC with a turnout of 82 people. Bob says their next get together will be in Williamsburg, VA next November.

Herzo Base West just had their second reunion in Las Vegas. With a total attendance of 53 individuals the slots at Hooters Hotel/Casino got a pretty decent workout. One of the memorable functions was their German evening at the Las Vegas Hofbrauhaus. This is said to be an exact replica of the Munich Hofbrauhaus and serves Lowenbrau beer directly from Munich. Next years Vegas reunion is already in the planning stages.

NEW CONTACTS

Warfield (Woody) Wilson (Frankfurt/Giessen/Rothwesten 55-56) living in the Tucson, AZ area; Reg Gagnon (Nottau 56); Ed Gillette (Bad Aibling 70-72) MOS 98C20; Arthur R. Newman (Art – lost your site and dates data, please resend); William (Bill) Cummins (Bad Aibling 58-60);

LOST CONTACTS

Lots of lost contacts during the time the newsletter was down. If you know these guys let them know that I need their new e-mail address. Here we go. Supporting members: Ted Atkinson (Scheyern/Memmingen 53-55); John Glasgow (Herzo 67-70), St. Paul, MN; Roy Spiller (Bad Aibling 55-56), East Hartford, CT and Vince Zoppi (Wels 52-55), Allentown, PA.

Mailing list members: David Bruening (Bad Aibling 65-66); David French (Herzo 63-65); Louis Mayfield (Wels); Wayne Foote (Odar-Oberstein 77-79); Hugh Smith (Herzo 66-74 Augsburg/Frankfurt 76-79); Delvin Zeiders (Wels); Pat McFerren (Scheyern/Wels/Bad Aibling 52-55); Paul Falcone (Bad Aibling 60-62)