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 Germany or Austria
Volume 3 – Number 10
November 1, 2007
Ralph R, Thadeus, Editor
E-mail
us
ASMN
I received an e-mail from Stephan Demmelmeier, a German citizen living in Pfaffenhofen a/d Ilm. Stephan says he is a U. S. militaria collector and local historian. He is especially interested in American military history and is looking for pictures and stories of guys that were stationed in Scheyern and Pfaff. If you would like to help Stephan in his quest, you can contact him by e-mail at: sdemmelmei@aol.com. He is quite well versed in English.
Jim Natividad (Scheyern 47-54) and Eva just returned from a trip to Munich mentioning that there was plenty of good German food to be had and especially enjoyed the Schweinshaxen. They also visited Scheyern and Bad Aibling on their trip and mention how much things there have changed.
Tim Plunkett (Herzo 55-56/Berlin 57) reports that Al Krolikowski (Herzo 56/Berlin 57-59) is ailing and under hospice care at home. If you would like to contact Krolikowski his address and phone is: 11024 Rockaway Road, Apple Valley, CA 92308; 760-240-1442.
One of our “New Contacts”, Carl Beduhn (Baumholder 56-58) wrote that he toured Germany last month with a group of Baumholder veterans. Carl said that they spent a half day at Baumholder, having lunch at the main base mess hall. He said they had a great time in Germany but also mentioned that it sure has changed in fifty years.
Dave Dexheimer (Bad Aibling/Memmingen 62-65) recalls that the crest shown in last months newsletter was also worn by the troopers in Fort Devens. Comments???
Oktoberfest 2007 Beer Sales Hit an All-Time Record
German publications are reporting that the sales of beer at Oktoberfest, the annual beer festival in Munich, hit an all-time record despite a fall in visitor attendance. Waiters and waitresses in Bavarian national dress served 6,700,000 Maß (one-liter steins) of beer to help wash down the thousands of Hendl and 104 roasted steer consumed by the estimated 6.2 million visitors.
Even on the closing Sunday, with the Wiesen basking in bright sunlight, crowds were still standing in line hoping to snag a rare seat in one of the beer tents. Visitors came from around the world, many dressed in the traditional Bavarian garb of dirndls and lederhosen. Leading this influx of faux-Bavarians were the Italians while attendance from Eastern Europeans and Americans also increased.
Beer tent security guards confiscated about 200,000 steins from visitors who tried to take them home as souvenirs. Police said they answered more calls for assistance then last year, but mostly of a non-violent nature.
By the way, the heart, held by the Herzelein in the above photo, says “Do You Want To Merry Me? [Editor: Yes but my wife won’t let me]
Al Poland (Bad Aibling 54-56), commenting on Ray Lohr’s missed opportunities during his trip to Germany, suffered the same consequences during his first trip back to BA in 1990. He and his wife had everything planned from places to stay to probable gas usage. Needless to say it all fell apart when they got to Bad Aibling. It wasn’t until they got back home that Al realized that he didn’t do much of what had been planned.
Al was fortunate enough to go back to BA in ’93 and this time, leaving his wife with their 1st Lt. son in Wurzburg, spent almost a week in BA doing all the things he had missed the first time around. The moral of the story, as Al says, is to make a check-list and stick to it.
Web site has been updated. If you haven’t visited the web site recently, we have made some changes. We have added an archives section to the site. You can review old newsletters dating back to April, 2005. We have also moved pictures to the archives covering the Minneapolis, Melbourne and Charleston reunions. As time goes on, and if the money holds out, we will add more old stuff to the archives. We’re at: http://www.asa-alpiners.com.
Warfield “Woody” Wilson (Giessen/Rothwesten 55-56) is trying to locate an old friend, Bob Elton, who was stationed with him. Woody says that Elton left a year before him as Elton was US while Woody was RA. Elton is neither on our e-mail list nor on our old snail-mail list so if any of you out there know him, contact your Editor and I will forward the information. Woody says he thinks Elton was from Philadelphia.
It seem like September is the preferred month to travel back to Germany. Alvin E. Meek (Frankfurt 56-58), who is now USNR Retired, caught a military C-17 flight out of Charleston to Spangdelham. From there he caught a train to visit several cities including Hanau, Wurzburg, Rotenburg and Nürnberg. He also went back to his old duty station, the I.G. Farban building, where he had the dubious pleasure of riding the paternoster again. Then another C-17 out of Ramstein back to Charleston.
Last chance for Vegas: November 25-28, 2007. If you are just making up your mind to join the Herzo guys in an Alpiners mini-reunion, this is your last chance. Get in touch with Chris Homeier, the reunion coordinator, at herzobase2@aol.com.
NEW CONTACTS
Tom Tollefsen (Bad Aibling 71)
Carl Beduhn (Baumholder 56-58)
Bob Doehrman (Herzo/Coburg 62-65)
LOST CONTACTS
Supporting member Edward H. Klein (Scheyern 53-57)
Kenneth Darnay (Frankfurt 66)
HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY TURKEY DAY. GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE