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The E-Mail Newsletter of the Army Security Agency Alpiners Reunion Group
Serving veterans of the SIS, ASA and INSCOM who were stationed in Germany or Austria

Volume 5 Number 12
January 1, 2010
Ralph R, Thadeus, Editor
(Scheyern 53-56)
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ASMN

Where did the time go? When filing the last issue of the Interceptor, I looked at the back of the binder and saw my first mailing to the reunion group. It was the summer of 1997 and it was the lineup for the 1997 reunion here in St. Louis that I was coordinating. This was after volunteering to do so at the 1995 Charleston reunion. Back then the newsletter was called the 116/8608 Reunion News. The next issue was in the summer of 1999 and we had changed the name of the newsletter to The ASA Alpiner. In the 4th quarter of 2001 we again changed the newsletter‟s name, this time to the Interceptor. In April of 2005 we switched to the internet – the physical mailings had become just too expensive (800+ mailings) - and allowed us to go to a monthly format. It‟s been a blast and as long as the financials sustain, and my good health maintains, it will stay that way. Pardon the reminiscent but it really just struck me how long I have been involved with this group. And my kudos to all the others who have been with us since the groups inception back in 1982.

Larry Goodman (Herzo/Berlin 56-59) contributed this about marrying a German: I married a German national, a girl that I dated for two years. I virtually lived off post. I was detached from Herzo Base December, 1956 to Berlin. Not sure what year it happened, but my detachment became the 280th ASA Company and we were stationed in Andrew Barracks in Schoenfeld, Berlin. Our marriage was October, 1958. I was deployed back to CONUS in May, 1959 to the Signal Corps. Attached to support the 4th Infantry in my MOS of field communications operation and equipment repair. As a Spec 5, I was in charge of a deuce 1/2 with a communications van and 2, 5 kw generators trailer. Although I was moved out of ASA I never tried to remain in ASA.

Mel Gregory (Herzo 62-64) has some interesting reminiscences about his times in Germany that I though our readers might find interesting. Mel writes: “Although I was not a ditty bopper in ASA, I graduated from Ft. Gordon in Military Police, was tapped for ASA, and sat in a barracks with soldiers being discharged (non-honorably) until my clearance was granted. I escaped being sent to Ft. Hood Texas by agreeing to become ASA. It also helped that I was semi-fluent in German from college. I finally got my orders for Herzo Base and could find nothing in 1962 that told me anything about Herzo. I arrived in Nurnberg and found that my college German had never heard Bavarian German and my driver had to come up to me several times to finally get me to understand that he was taking me to Herzo. I remember being stopped at the gate and when the Unit Police found I had MP training I had my evening filled. I was assigned to the UPs at Herzo and was promoted to be in charge of a trick--Corporal (not Sp4) shortly and my 2 years with Herzo started. My fiancée came over and we married in Furth. I had several assignments to try to find out who was dating whom in Herzo and report to security but never ever found anyone dating a German National (probably from not trying since some of the security officers, non-coms and enlisted were seeing German Nationals.)

My greatest achievement in Herzo was letting all but the most aggressive soldiers get on post after curfew without writing them up. Spent two years at Herzo until 1964 and then transferred to Arlington for 6 months with some time at the Pentagon. I did not like the Army that much, could not wait to get out and now look back with fondness. The GI bill got me through law school and my practice has allowed me to return to Herzo, Nurnberg and all over Germany many times. I was at one time the counsel for a beer importer for German beers in the US and HAD to go on a brewery run to buy new beers to import at least once a year generally from Kulmbach all through Bavaria with stops in Munich, Traunstein, Tegernsee, Bamberg, Regensburg, Andechs, and around Bad Aibling. After that job ended when my client sold the company, I had enough time to dry out my liver (just kidding) and try to save a marriage (did not work). I try to return to Europe yearly but now concentrate on the Czech Republic and Romania with side trips to Germany. I have had 5 German foreign exchange students, each for a year, and we visit them often or they come here.

I am semi retired and while I now have the time, I have not the money for all the trips. I remarried to a beautiful younger lady who is a pro photographer and owns her own Pro level digital lab for those really big enlargements and special printing. She has been to Romania (I tagged along) to photograph the Romanian Junior Women's Gymnastic Olympic team and students, has done a few wedding overseas, has been using Prague as her site for her photos for national competition. She does sports photography for a magazine so I get on the sidelines, behind the bench or behind home plate courtesy of her.

I dearly love the newsletters I receive. I do not know many if any of the guys and gals but I always read the text and look at the pictures. The article on fraternization struck a chord with me since Herzo was more relaxed in my time but did pull clearances of some who married GN but they transferred them to Motor Pool or to the UPs. I recall having to restrain a young man who had heard too many ditties over a very dangerous time and he went absolutely bonkers. We restrained him, kept him in the Guard shack until S2 came and then the young man was gone--just plain gone.

We did listen at the bars for secure info being bragged about but most was just plain BS but we did not know what happened to some if they were reported.

Sorry for the long email but it sometimes feels good when you get older to remember where you came from and how you got to where you are now.”

John Wilman (BA 64-68) writes: “When guys married a foreign national they became MP's overnight until their next duty station became available. We also had a group of officers, NCO's and EM's get caught up in a gay ring that met off post. They were all gone almost overnight. They didn't fool around.

My Christmas remembrances at BA: Col. Holland coming around Christmas Eve dressed as Santa passing out boxes of hard candy. The wives of Officers, NOC's and EM in our section baking cookies for those of us that worked. The rum balls were the favorite. Every cookie reeked and tasted of only the best alcohol. My last Christmas there (1967) I was put in charge of getting the Christmas tree (a big mistake on the part of the Army). Had a talk with the forest warden and gave him a bottle of scotch and he showed me the monster of all Christmas trees. The deuce and half could barely carry the weight. The crane at ops broke trying to lift it. When it was finally up they had to buy extra strings of lights (40 watt variety) to cover the tree. To appreciate the tree you had to stand on the road that went to Munich the back way. Believe a German TV crew came out to tape it and put it on TV.

My first Christmas there was probably the most special. Three of us walked to town after a new snow fall and a full moon. The night scenery was beautiful. We attended midnight mass at the church in town. No lights, no heat, no pews. The light we did have was with candle light. Somehow the cold and lack of seats didn't matter. We were later invited to a German's home for a drink and some cookies. He also called the base commander to ask if it would be alright if the 3 of us were late for work. Colonel said no problem, really a great Christmas that one.”

Alan Batchelder (Scheyern 54-56) expands on the foreign national thread with the following: “Not having fallen in love with a "foreign" girl, I did not respond as those who had that good fortune did. However, I dated a Münchner Mädchen without raising anybody's attention - she was a close friend of "Duke" Snyder's Schatzi - and also a London girl both times while on leave to England.

On the other hand, returning from London the first time, I caught the train from Calais - a Schnellzug that had a surcharge for passage. A single passenger boarded the train in Liege. Of all the possible choices, she came into the otherwise empty compartment that I had sneaked into to sleep. We talked, more or less, with her being about as fluent in German and English as I was in the former. She was from Belgrade and was returning home after being allowed (following two or three years of getting official permission) to visit her Aunt in Belgium. We looked at each other for awhile before she spoke. Her first words were "Wo do you fahrt?" I was grateful that my limited vocabulary sufficed to permit me to answer her intended question. For two nights and into a third day we stayed together on the train, she providing the money (I had spent my last tuppence to buy a platform ticket so my English girlfriend could accompany me to the train from London) and I providing cigarettes. We both rationed our resources and were able to eat and smoke enough to survive.

She talked a lot about conditions at home. Said that her mother and her twin sister were all the family she had in Yugoslavia. She hated life there and seriously considered not returning. When the train stopped in Köln she was standing in the vestibule with her suitcase, prepared to leave the train and seek asylum. I stepped off the train and took her suitcase. She stood in the doorway and stared into space. Then the train began to pull away. She looked at me, said, "I cannot do this" and turned back. I tossed her suitcase in and had to start running to get back aboard.

When I got off in Munich she kissed me and said that she had never met a man so kind. She promised to write and subsequently did. Her name was Melica (Melitza) Leovic (Leyovich). I used to remember her address but it has finally left me. It was not love that connected us, but rather the circumstance under which we met. We had exchanged two or three letters before the Exec. called me in and told me that I had to stop all correspondence with her and was not even to write to tell her that I had to stop. I complied, but have always regretted not finding a way to let her know why. It still feels like unnecessary roughness when it comes to security.”

Dave Laden (Herzo/BA 64-65) puts a twist on the pulled security issue by saying that he is “aware of a fellow soldier that actually tried to give up his clearance by citing the „five times‟ rule and they forced it back on him.”

TAPS

Supporting Member Herbert R. (Toby) Tobias, Jr. (Giessen/Königslutter 53-54 Rothwesten 55-57) passed away on May 12, 2008, as reported by his wife Erica Dods.

Lester (Les) H. Otterman (114th SRIC – WW2), passed away on November 18, 2009. While attending the Harvard Graduate School of Business he enlisted in the Signal Corps during World War II. He served in Europe for two years as a cryptanalyst with the 114th Signal Radio Intelligence Company attaining the rank of Technical Sergeant. Services were held on November 23rd in Buffalo, NY. In lieu of flowers the family requests that memorial donations be made to the Alzheimer‟s Association.

David B. Moore (Sinop 60/Bad Aibling 61-62) passed away on December 17, 2009, as reported by Brooke Anderson (Bad Aibling 60-62). Brooke was a good friend of David‟s and in her e-mail wrote the following in memory of David: “Dave‟s reward for Sinop was BA. We met on Trick 1, learned that we lived ten miles apart in Ohio, then that his granddad had been my aunt‟s attorney and that we both went to Miami of Ohio. We became friends, then, after leaving the Army, Dave joined my family‟s company as understudy to the CFO. Ultimately I became president of the company and Dave our CFO. We worked closely together for over 30 years, were friends the entire time and maintained our friendship after we both retired. Few men have had a better friend and comrade-in-arms at work and at play. He will be missed by wife Mary, sons David and Aaron as well as by me and the many employees of the Salem Label Company in Salem, Ohio.

ASMN

TAPS

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