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The E-Mail Newsletter for SIS, ASA and INSCOM Veterans who served in Germany or Austria
Army Security Agency/Signal Intelligence Service
Forces in Germany and Austria
Volume 4 - Number 4
May 1, 2008
Ralph R. Thadeus - Editor
E-mail
us
REUNION 2008 – ADVANCE PLANNING PROFILE
At the end of this newsletter you will find the profile which is absolutely critical to our pricing and capacity planning needs. We ask you to fill this out if you are planning to attend our 18th reunion in St. Louis, October 2-4, 2008. This is your BEST GUESS and is not a commitment on your part to attend. Our past profiles have been pretty accurate in that we price the events on the profile less 2 or 3 people who usually have to drop out due to health issues. So – if it is your intent to attend, please fill it out and return it to me by May 31st, the end of this month. Because the President of the Oktoberfest is also a member of my shooting club, he has blocked off some of the best seats in the tent for our group. To be honest with him, I have to let him know in early June what our probable attendance will be so that is why this Planning Profile is so important. The actual Reservation Request will be published in the August newsletter with payments requested by the 1st of September. It has always been our policy to refund event payments if you have to cancel for some health reason but will be limited this reunion since bus and Oktoberfest payments have to be paid in advance. We will refund to the best of our ability.
Prices in the Planning Profile are a SWAG (Scientific Wild Assed Guess) and will change depending on the responses received. We will have to provide for transportation costs from the hotel to both the Oktoberfest on Friday and to the Banquet on Saturday. Compounding the problem is that the city is pretty well booked solid for a large religious convention. The Joyce Myers Ministries has just about the whole city booked.
Reunion attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservation at the Cheshire Lodge by calling 1-800-325-7378. Remember to mention you are with the ASA Alpiners to receive the $85.00 rate (plus 15% tax.) The cut-off date for hotel reservations is July 31st.
It is also the individual’s responsibility to cancel any hotel reservations they have made should they subsequently not be able to attend. For those of you who may be driving in from the West, be sure to check your route carefully. We are involved in a major highway reconstruction project which has closed down I-64/US-40 between our outer-belt I-270 and inner-belt I-170. Not reduced lanes due to construction but totally closed.
For those of you coming in from the East, I-64/US-40 will take you directly to the hotel by using Exit 34B on the Missouri side. The Cheshire will be on your left about 50 yards past the first stop light at the top of the exit. Check our web site for the hotel’s street address.
REUNION 2008 FEATURE: In this issue we will be featuring one of Saint Louis’ premier attractions, the Missouri Botanical Garden. For those of you interest in the outdoors or gardening, this is a place not to be missed. It is widely considered one of the top three botanical gardens in the WORLD. Today, 149 years after opening, the Garden is a National Historic Landmark and a center for science and conservation, education and horticultural display.
The Garden’s 79 acres of splendid horticultural displays include the vibrant tropical rainforest that thrives inside the Climatron conservatory. The Japanese Garden (photo above) covers 14 acres, making it one of the largest Japanese strolling gardens in North America. Other outstanding displays include Chinese, English and German gardens and a Victorian District. Over 5,400 trees live on the grounds, including some rare and unusual varieties and a few stately specimens dating back to the 19th century, when Garden founder Henry Shaw planted them.
As a special added feature the sculptures, 40 in all, of the French-born, New York City-raised Niki de Saint Phalle will enhance the Garden through the end of October. You can preview her works at http://www.nikidesaintphalle.com.
The Garden is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an admission price of $8.00 per person. You can take a tour of the garden by visiting their web site at http://www.mobot.org.
PRELIMINARY REUNION SCHEDULE
Thursday, October 2nd: Hospitality Room (Cheshire Room 101) will be open about noon. Come to the Hospitality Room after checking in to pick up your name tag and activity tickets.
Your Editor will be available in the evening for help in planning your schedules. Dinner that evening is at the restaurant of your choice and at your expense. The nearest restaurant to the hotel is Applebee’s, which is up Clayton Ave. about two (2) minutes away from the hotel. They will not take large group reservations so, after checking in, call 647-0505 and set up your own dinner time. If Applebee’s is not your style, a larger selection of eclectic restaurants is located in the city’s Central West End, about 10 minutes by car from our hotel.
Friday, October 3rd: Hospitality Room opens after breakfast. The semi-regular and often raucous Jim Natividad Co-Ed Invitational Golf Tournament will be held at the Forest Park Golf Course, just down the hill from our hotel. Shotgun start at 8:00 a.m. since we have to be off of the course by 1:00 p.m. to make way for the local FBI’s annual golf outing. The golf course staff is aware of what our military function was and has asked us not to set up any listening posts to drop in on any sensitive FBI conversations. Cost of this function will be $30 per person including ½ golf cart. Players may want to have lunch in the club house at Ruthies Grill. Not at all bad for club house food.
If golf is not your thing, this is a perfect day, depending on the weather, to visit one or some of the interesting sites in the St. Louis area.
Take a nap in the afternoon and be prepared for a good old Volksfest evening. Our busses will load at the hotel at 5:00 p.m. and transport us to the Soulard Oktoberfest in down-town St. Louis. Oktoberfest opening ceremonies start at 5:30 and you will probably see your Editor in his Schuetzenverein regalia taking part in the ceremony. Cost of the function is $50 per person. A little on the expensive side but includes bus transportation back and forth, reserved seating in the main tent, German buffet dinner (Bratwurst, pork schweinshaxe and chicken with traditional sides) and also includes two drinks (20 oz German beers, wine or soda.) This price may change as it was developed on the expectation of two full bus loads and the current cost of fuel. There will probably be three tents on the grounds where the other featured groups will be playing or stay in the main tent and let the entertainment come to you. During main tent intermissions you can wander around the grounds and enjoy yourself or catch the other acts. Dress is casual with lederhosen, dirndls, and your old army uniform all acceptable. We may be able to arrange two departure times from the Oktoberfest back to the hotel. One leaving the grounds at 9:30 and the other at 10:30. Indicate your choice of departure on the profile.
Saturday, October 4th: Again, the Hospitality Room will open after breakfast. Another good day to explore some of the St. Louis sites.
Our only scheduled function today will be the Banquet. Our busses will depart the hotel at 5:30 p.m. for our trip to the Feasting Fox restaurant. Our combination business meeting/happy hour will be held at the restaurant starting at 6-ish. The hotel’s hospitality room will be too small to handle the crowd. At the meeting your reunion group officers (President Jim Natividad, Vice-president Ray Lash and Treasurer/Editor Ralph Thadeus) will discuss the finances of the reunion group and will look for an on-site host for our next reunion. If you intend to suggest a site you will also be volunteering to be the coordinator of the reunion. Remember to consider our reunion’s German theme. The suggested dress for the banquet is business attire. Got some good German CD’s? Bring them along since our venue will have a player and speaker system. Any good piano players out there? Want to take a whack at playing a calliope, sometimes called a steam piano? They’ve got one and you are welcome to give it a try, but only if you are a good pianist. Schaef, are you coming?
Dinner will be a “sit-down” dinner with a cash bar. Entrees will be a choice of: Pepper Roasted Prime Rib of Beef Au Jus with horseradish whipped potatoes and steamed garden vegetable medley; and, Scallops and Shrimp Scampi with Radiatori Pasta in olive oil and herbs and also a steamed garden vegetable medley. Coffee, tea and house desert are included. The estimated price for this function will be $38.00 per person.
Speaking of costs, we will also ask for a $10 per person registration fee to offset website and reunion group expenses. This will appear until we publish the Reservation Request but you should be made aware of it.
Sunday, October 5th is the normal check-out day so the Hospitality Room will not be open. Meet in the Cheshire’s breakfast room and say your goodbyes - Aufwiedersehn zum nexten Mal.
ASMN
We received an e-mail from David Curtis as edited and as follows: “I am writing on behalf of my father, Harold Curtis (Scheyern 52-54.) He served in the 8608th as a radio operator and Trick Chief.
I’m looking for history of an incident on the Berlin wall where the East German military police, backed by the Soviets, were planning to overrun the wall. Traffic intercepted at Scheyern was decrypted by the Pentagon which resulted in the allies moving to a matched show of force causing the Soviets to stand down. My dad monitored the network from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. the next day.
In reading thru some of the postings on the web, I saw several veterans who had served in Scheyern in the same time period. Wasn’t that big a place … so perhaps others are familiar with either the incident and possibly served with my dad.” Editor: David Curtis can be reached thru e-mail at david.curtis@comcast.net.
Our British compatriot Jim Jarman (attached to the 137th SRIC late in WW-II) commenting on the WAC’s in WW-II said the British had similar manning problems. Jim wrote “Here in the UK members of the ATS (British Womens Army) were first trained up in 1941,and they were very good at the job. Now owing to the limited number of men available to be called up into the fighting forces, only a limited number of men could be spared to become radio intercept operators, so at the end of 1942 women were trained to replace all men that were physically capable of serving in Field Sections. These Female Operators, who numbered 4 Companies, covered all the high grade German Networks, including Occupation Police. As you will know from experience this was a very busy and highly active job. This meant that the rest of us Males were concentrated in the Field Sections backing up the Divisions, Corps and Armies, in the Middle East, Italy, Burma and our sector the France/Germany Campaign.
I am still in contact with some of these female operators, who worked so hard during those days.
As Winston Churchill said of us, “My Goose that laid the Golden Egg".
NEW CONTACTS
Bob Rennick – Herzo - NSA Intercept Op. – 9/55-9/57
Frankie J. Porter – Darmstadt 63-65
Lester Young – Herzo/Baumholder 52-53
TAPS
Lillian Woodin, wife of David E. Woodin (Scheyern/Munich/Straubing 46-48) passed away on January 28, 2008, as reported by David.