Personal Stories
HANK HALL
I came to 1st Radio Relay from Munich after a short stint in the 86th Fighter Bomber Wing - having been ejected from that outfit for being just out of Keesler's Base Prison and not trusted by the commander. My top rated Airborne Radar Instructor Duty meant nothing and when I arrived in 1stRR I got the same kind of welcome from the Operations Officer (whom I will not name) and he assigned me to the duty of changing tires in the Motor Pool. That, I thought, was to be my future and final enlistment in the Air Force. However, a very special guy named Glen Turner showed up at the Motor Pool with my record tucked under his arm and after a short discussion about my having been a successful Electronics Instructor he asked me if I might be able to teach Microwave Radio. I told him that I could but that Privates didn't teach and with my record I was not going anywhere in the Air Force. He assured me that noone but he and I would have access to my record while in his outfit, so I started a Microwave School at Camp P, moved on to Camp Lindsey, then moved into the field to operate and maintain Radio Systems. Then became Site Chief at Bitburg AB, and finally moved to Ramstein AB to become Chief of Installations and Maintenance. I advanced from E-0 to E-6, earned a Commendation Medal covering a four year performance, married the gal I was would be with for the next forty years, and ultimately obtained the rank of Chief Master Sergeant 17 years after enlisting. All other assignments were good, but none so rewarding as the one that started in a Motor Pool with a REAL GUY NAMED GLEN TURNER.
Robert F Kane
I was assigned to the 1st radio relay sqdn April 55 through Dec. 57. I was an auto mechanic and assigned to the second comm. motor pool, worked there until July and was put on orders assigned to Det #61 1st radio relay site in France, helped set up site and got power generators up and on line. We had tents the first summer and winter then we built the barracks, radio shack and dinning hall. While assigned to Det 61 I had the duty of getting the fuel and water along with what Bart 1st cook and Gulley 2nd cook would give me on there grocery list. it was and all day trip to Etain AFB, Always managed to go around the back road and buy a storage area that had some good things that we could use at the site, like wall insulation‘s or Plywood always borrowed for Air force use never for personal gain. so I never felt guilty of borrowing some supplies, got caught with a load of stuff on the truck running a stop sign by pass and ID office going the wrong way on a one-way street. Never did convince the policeman that I was going the right way on the perimeter road. I remember the time when to of the guys took the garbage waste down town to one of the families so they could feed it to his pigs, they had a bottle or two of his good red wine and on the way back to the site they had problem of making the turn coming out of town and put the truck between to trees. names of Pete and last name of other was rose. SSgt Caldwell was site NCOIC while I was there. I know that while being there we weren‘t just Power production, cook or radio operator if there was something that needed to be done there was always a couple of guys pitching in to get it done and I believe that’s where I got the training of always pitching in to get the job done as soon as possible, then it was shooting a game of pool, shooting hoops, or always if there was 4 guys available it was pinochle. so we always seemed to have a good time being out in the boon docks and away from all the hustle and bustle of am Air Force Base.
I retired after 28yrs 5mos and 3 days. Worked 13 years with the OK National Guard Retired E-8.
MEMORIES OF THE SITES AND FRIENDS
DONALD (SWEDE) CARSCADDEN
I was stationed at Det 42 12thRRS Hohenstadt.. not far from the Autobahn A8 between Stuttgart and Ulm..(on the way to Munich)... we found a trail to the US Army Coffee stop.. just before the Autobahn went down a steep winding hill towards Stuttgart.
There were 2 US Army Radio Towers and a huge 210 ft. fixed base Air Force tower.The Army were using Lorenz Radio and we were using Seimens PPM24 until we got FM120 later.We had Microwave dishes..the Army had regular FM antennas.We had a nice German lady for a cook that one of our guys would pick up every morning except for Sat/Sun. Her name was Rosa Muller and she used to work for the Army next door 100 feet away! The Army also had a Frau from Oberdrackenstein... and worked same schedule...
We became buddies with our US Army guys...We traded movies..16mm Sound and when the Army somehow broke their Cinemascope lens, we lent them ours , which meant watching Cinamascope movies Squished!
We went to the Gasthous Krone in Oberdrackenstein.. I think there were 3 places we could go to.The Sonne was ok but always felt more welcome at the Krone and the owners daughter was very gracious!
The Krone was good! Lunch for a DM 1.70.. Brew for 40 pfennigs.. and exchange rate of 4.20 DM for 1 US Dollar.
I shipped out of Pforzheim with a Native American S/SGT ...on the back of a flat bed Opel truck with my Duffel bag and Flight bag and laundry bag...at least the rails were up on the truck! Got to the site June 57 and the friendlist guy at the time to me was A/2C Ron Zimmer! I hope Walt will remember to ask Airman Zimmer what that site chiefs name was. Anyway the site chief gave me 1 week to climb the 210 foot tower or he would ship me back to Pforzheim!
He asked if I could type.. I said yes.. and I suddenly had to type the menus for Breakfast, Lunch and Supper! Somehow he got shipped out and we got a new guy..and I didn't have to type! that was A1C Jim Allen.Later we had A1C Terrance O'Donnell. Lot's more but that's enough for now..
Don(Swede) 1stRRS 12thRRS 56 - 59
FALCON 5 DETACHMENT 31
BILL WELLMAN
To illustrate how dangerous our position was, I always slept with my windows opened at that time of the year. The windows were large double glazed, insulated plate glass, each window measuring about 24 X 96 inches. That made the entire window about 48 X 96 inches and both halves opened inward and hung over my bed. When they finally stopped firing, I went inside and looked at my bed. It was filled with glass from all four sheets of glass being broken. Had I been in the bed, I am convinced that the solid resistance of my legs and abdomen rather than the softness of the mattress and blankets would have caused the glass to slice me up like a salad.
The three walls of our dayroom, dining room and kitchen were virtually all windows of the same size. Over half of the windows on the north and east side of the building were destroyed.
We were many weeks getting the damage repaired from that incident. The proximity of the 155 MM guns and the sharpness of the report was much more damaging than the large shock wave created by the 280 MM Atomic Annie cannon which fired from the same location. And the 280’s were never that close to the fence, only about 30-40 yards. Teufelskopf was a designated firing location for the US Army and other NATO Forces firing into the giant artillery range on the Baumholder facility. The entire top of the mountain adjacent to the radio site was later surveyed and marked for live firing of all sorts of artillery.
That mountain also contained a very large underground water reservoir that fed the Baumholder Army Post and we received our water from there as well. Our living quarters building contained a large water reservoir in a basement set-up, which also contained an oil-fired boiler for heat and hot water. None of those physical things were ever affected by the concussive blast of the cannon firings, especially the larger bore artillery pieces. That exercise with the Belgians was the only time that we experienced any damage from firing the howitzers from Teufelskopf but there were many live firings from there, including many US Army 155 MM guns and the larger 280 MM Atomic Annie Cannons as they were called.
We had to contend with boarded up windows for a considerable period of time before our maintenance facility, Baumholder Army Civil Engineering, completed the repairs. The officer in charge of the Baumholder CE was Lieutenant Colonel Jose I. J. Colon Tiado. That name has stuck with me all these years for some reason. He was both helpful in many instances and a hindrance at other times. He was helpful in getting us a phone but it worked only sporadically and we could rarely get ‘long line’ service and most of the time, no local calls to local civilian numbers at all.
All in all, it was an experience that we would like to have missed but it was just another building block in our life there at Teufelskopf, Falcon #5 or Detachment #31
SEE GALLERY 1 FOR PICTURES
Some memories of the 1st Radio Relay Squadron
JOHN HALTON
I would like to preface this writing by saying that I feel great respect and affection for those I served with during my assignment. Most of us arriving during my tour were very young and we were thrust into positions of responsibility within a short time. I’m proud of what we accomplished. I have often quipped to my family that the Air Force finished raising me and there is much truth in this. To establish perspective – I arrived at Camp Pieri in June 1948 and rotated to the U.S. in December 1951.
Three Corporals – Leo Yuravich, Jim Hanvold and John Halton – traveled on the same ship - passed through the EUCOM Replacement Depot at Marburg, Germany – and were assigned to the 926th Signal Outpost Operations Company at Camp Pieri – June 1948. Jim and I attended Radio School at Scott Field together – went to the 606th AC&W at Shaw Field together and volunteered for Germany together. He came to my home in Shortsville, NY for a few days before we reported to Camp Kilmer, NJ for shipment. We met Leo on the ship to Bremerhaven, Germany. After arriving at Camp Pieri - Jim was assigned to a distant Site near Munich – and this separation was unfortunate for our friendship as we saw very little of each other for the rest of our tour. Leo was assigned to Mudlark 9 just down the hill from Camp Pieri and I was assigned to the Radio Maintenance Shop. We both lived in the barrack – hung out together much of the time and became close friends. We shared a two man room for a long period before I left Camp Pieri to become a Site Chief in the fall of 1950.
I remember my first view - looking at the men working on the docks from the rail of the ship. I thought – these are really Germans. Like most of us - I was a kid in high school during WW II and Germans were Nazis and all bad. I don’t know what I expected – but these people seemed quite ordinary! The aftermath of war struck home while still at Marburg. Little boys would yell at us - “Hey Joe - you want to ---- my sister – she virgin” – and they would name a price! I also remember the Chaplain giving us an orientation talk. The story - - - A Tom Cat ran across the RR tracks and a train cut off part of his tail. Startled – he looked back to see what happened and the train cut off his head. The moral – “Don’t lose your head over a piece of tail”! As my years in the military went on I was to learn much more about the sadness of war and how tragedy could bring out both the best and worst in people.
Camp Pieri was controlled by the Army. It was headquarters for the 1st Constabulary Brigade commanded by BG Arthur Trudeau who was also the Camp Commander. At some point each of us had a complete backpack on top of our wall lockers ready to move out on short notice. Standby inspections and parades on Saturday mornings were the norm. SSgt John Allred was the barracks chief and we stood roll call every duty morning. Passes to leave the camp were assigned according to rank. Senior people carried their passes all the time and could more or less come and go as they pleased. Junior people had to pick up their passes in the orderly room and be back in the barracks for bed check at a given hour. I disliked pulling CQ because there were always some people who wanted you to cover up for them so they could stay out all night. Some of these men were actually married under German law and had families. It was a bummer because I wanted to obey the rules and yet felt bad about doing so.
Camp Pieri was some distance from the major city of Wiesbaden. It sat up in the hills above the Rhine River near the little village of Dotzheim. Some of you may remember the old GI shuttle buses struggling up the hills between Wiesbaden and the camp. The local weather was generally mild - but I remember some snow and periods in winter where the fog was so thick that all vehicle traffic in and out of camp was restricted. Special services provided us with numerous leisure activities and the Eagle Club in Wiesbaden was a popular place. I believe the Opera House was near the Eagle club and I have fond memories of my first experience at one of Bob Hope’s shows. I’m sure it was around the Christmas Holidays of 1948. We were all waiting for Hope’s arrival on stage and the MC kept stalling. Suddenly – the noise of an aircraft swooping down low came over the PA system and I think most of us ducked. Here came Bob Hope down one of the aisles from the back, dragging an open Parachute behind him up onto the stage as if he had just bailed out. Were any of you there?
Assignment to the Radio Maintenance Shop proved to be a lucky break for me because it provided a greater opportunity to learn. The first building I worked in was a dingy old unheated warehouse on the edge of camp. The working conditions were primitive – poor lighting – no heat. In the winter of 48 we burned scrap wood in a 55 gal drum outside the shop to warm our hands. I sure wondered what I had gotten myself into. Eventually we moved into the basement of a larger building with steam heat where we set up a nice shop with good work benches. I was eager to learn and the senior people tutored me until I eventually became a fairly competent Radio Mechanic. Some of the names I remember are - Worley, Allred, Iacovone, Jacobs, Edmonds, and a civilian Tech Rep - Louis Schmittroth. Smitty was one of my prime mentors and I learned much from him. Along the way I took part in teaching some classes to our own personnel and later on I taught classes on our equipment to one group of Turkish Army personnel followed by a group of Norwegian Air Force personnel.
One frustrating aspect of those early days was that - far too often - equipment that we had just repaired would be inoperative when it arrived back out at the radio sites. It was delivered by our Squadron Couriers driving two and a half ton trucks and the trip over bumpy roads took a toll. Of course – some of those guys were real cowboys!! J Regardless – this did not reflect well on our maintenance. We used to bang the units around on the work bench - we called it the bounce check – in an effort to detect these intermittent problems. We also used another approach by sending maintenance personnel, with test equipment and spare parts, out to the sites to do repairs on the spot. Taking part in these trips gave me an opportunity to see much of Germany and I was able to meet many of the people assigned to the various remote sites.
Many of us played sports on the squadron teams. I’m sure all the commanders encouraged these activities to keep the troops busy. These were casual “off duty” teams and all of us worked full time at our regular assignments. We played softball on the Camp Pieri Parade Ground and I don’t think there was a blade of grass anywhere. Spectators sat on the wall near the big clock. J B Kelly was our coach and most of the Sq folks would be out for our games. We played Basketball in the Field House and Capt Ross Dobbs played a mean game himself. Lt. Lipchak was another officer who played sports with us.
One of my favorite activities was hunting and I went at every opportunity. John Allred was a key figure in organizing the early trips that I took part in. We would submit the paperwork on Monday for the following weekend and this would include permission to hunt in a specific area under the guidance of the local Jaegermeister. Come Friday afternoon we would check out rifles from the armory – a vehicle from the motor pool – rations from the dining hall – and we would be off to our designated area for the weekend. We would stay at a local Gasthaus and the families who ran them would cook our rations and German dishes as well. We were very welcome in most of these areas because when we returned from a hunt we would have a local butcher cut up the meat and we would donate most of it to the local orphanage.
The German economy was still in poor shape and there were many orphans from the war. I remember a daily scene each evening at Camp Pieri where a Catholic Nun accompanied by several children pulling a small wagon would come to the dining hall to collect the day’s leftovers.
We had some colorful characters in the unit and living in the barrack was an experience. There was one older guy we called “Schnappsie”. Early on I was assigned to a large room with him and several others. He would come in drunk in the middle of the night with bottles rattling in his musette bag. On and off during the night he would wake up – sit on the edge of his cot and have a smoke along with a few swigs from a bottle – then go back to sleep. In the morning he would get up and go to work in the motor pool. He wasn’t around long and I don’t recall what happened to him. A very sad situation and I don’t think he could have lived very long if he kept that up.
An amusing event happened while I was living in a four man room. I won’t mention a name – but one night one of the guys came in rather intoxicated and fell into bed. I woke up in the middle of the night hearing him fumbling around trying to find the door to go down the hall to the latrine. He finally opened and closed the room door without going out – then walked over to the radiator in the corner and started to take a leak. I had to yell at him and practically chase him down the hall.
Looking back from today’s levels of wages and prices – it’s difficult to relate back to those of the late forties – especially in the military. We are used to direct deposit to our bank accounts today – when back then we were paid in cash each month. The “Pay Officer” would be set up in a room with the pay roster and a bag of cash on a table along with a .45 cal. Pistol. We walked into the room - saluted the officer – signed the roster very carefully (and I do mean carefully – because if you got “red lined” you didn’t get your pay until the next month) and were handed our cash. There were always some senior NCOs standing at the exit collecting for some cause or another. Woe be to the guy that balked at donating to whatever the cause! J
In the summer of 49 – Leo Yuravich, Gene Sandor, Dick Johnson & I went on leave and spent a week at the Eibsee Hotel in the mountains near Garmisch / Partenkirchen. It was a beautiful place on the shore of the Eibsee Lake and you could see the Zugsptiz Mtn from our room. It was an R&R facility for enlisted only and almost everything was free. We paid eighty cents a day – fifty cents surcharge for the room and ten cents per meal surcharge. Imagine that?
Cigarettes were $1.00 a carton in the BX and if one didn’t smoke they were good barter for German goods and services. In 48 - there was a barber shop in the basement of our barrack at Camp Pieri and the cost of a haircut was two or three cigarettes - I don’t think anyone used money. Most of this petty stuff was ignored by the authorities – but a few got into the real “Black Market” for big money and were prosecuted. One of our HQ couriers was caught filling up his jeep with gas several times a day and then draining it out to sell on the black market. He ended up in Ft. Leavenworth.
Some of you probably remember that we used “Script” rather than standard U.S. money. Periodically – it would be changed to a new format to deter counterfeiters. The change over date and time would be kept secret – but when the word got out there would be many Germans at the fence trying to get rid of the Script that they had for cents on the dollar before it became worthless!
A rather historic event took place while I was still living in the barrack at Camp Pieri. The Air Force desegregated and black personnel were transferred from “all black” units into the mainstream. Three men came to the 1st RRS – Coats, West & Crenshaw. I’m sure there was much concern that this would go smoothly and I remember Capt. Dobbs interviewing individuals living in rooms where these men would be assigned. Henry Coats joined three of us in a four man room – he was a good guy and we became friends.
I have to relate a humorous event regarding Henry. My family had sent me a “care package” with all kinds of goodies and we were enjoying some of the contents. There was a can of mixed nuts and we got into a discussion about the different types of nuts. Many of you may already know where this is going - - - without meaning anything derogatory – Brazil nuts were commonly called “Nigger Toes” back in those days – perhaps still are? Anyway - - - Henry was at his wall locker when Johnson very innocently came up with that name. I was looking for something to crawl under - trying to shut Johnson up while he innocently repeated the name several times. There stood Henry just smiling about the whole thing – knowing that Johnson meant no insult – and all the while observing my discomfort.
Two young guys that worked in the orderly room – Bob Koczara & Leon Snyder – just couldn’t hold their drink. They were nice guys and did good work – and I remember hunting with them on several occasions. One night they came home to the barrack quite tipsy and decided they were going to tear their room up. The CQ came and got me (I guess one of the ranking NCOs in the barrack) and I did my best to get them to quiet down and go to bed. They weren’t really belligerent toward me – but at the same time were having none of that. They kicked in the front of their wall lockers and did a few other damaging things - forcing us to call the security folks and have them taken away. Later - I had to testify at their Courts Martial and really hated having to do that. I think both came back to the unit and eventually made some of their rank back. In recent years - I located one of Bob’s sons and learned that Bob had passed away. I have never heard anything about Leon Snyder.
As an aside – a hometown friend of mine, Jim Newman, took leave from Wheelus, Tripoli and came up to Germany Jim and I were close buddies back home and we did a lot of camping and hunting growing up. He did go Boar hunting with us and if memory serves me right he did shoot one. The two of us also hitched a gooney bird flight from Wiesbaden Air Base to Erding Air Base where we spent some time with his younger brother and another friend from our home town - Shortsville, NY. How often would you find four guys from a little village of only 1200 people meeting up half way around the world – and two of them brothers? What a write up in the home town newspaper! J
I think one of my personal experiences speaks very highly for the kind of leaders we had in 1st Radio. In the spring of 1950 I took leave to travel to Naples, Italy to meet my younger brother, Tom, who was on the Aircraft Carrier USS Midway. The ship was on a Mediterranean cruise and was supposed to be in port. The ship’s schedule changed – there was no meeting - and I came back to Camp Pieri very disappointed. I was barely back to work when I received word that the Midway would be in port at Cannes, France. No questions asked - I was allowed to go right back on leave. I had five great days with my brother both ashore and on the ship. I have always treasured the memory of that trip and my appreciation of those I worked for and our Commander Ross Dobbs.
We received new Radio Vans during the summer of 1950. They were very nice self contained units built for the rapid set up and tear down of relay stations. In September 1950 TSgt Joe Centore and a team made up of Bernie Cole, Bill Troup and myself took a van to “Army Exercise Rainbow” to demonstrate the new equipment. We were pressed into service with no warning when the Army had cable problems and we provided them with a very necessary communication link. The Army was impressed and we all received accolades for our work.
Unexpectedly - my assignment to the Radio Maintenance Shop was about to end. I was a “seasoned” SSgt by this time and I was sent out as a member of a team to establish a new Radio Relay Site near the small village of Hohenstadt, using one of the new Radio Vans. I can’t recall who the team chief was. Anyway – once the site was established it became Falcon 2 and I was assigned as the first Site Chief. This was to be a much different operation from all the Mudlark Relay Stations I had visited. They may have had their early rigorous days as well, but at this point most were located in houses with all the comforts of home. The radio room – living quarters - dining facilities with their own cooks – all were located in one building. In our situation – we set up our operation in an open field on a plateau surrounded by farm fields without a building in sight. All of our electricity had to be generated using gasoline power units mounted on 1 ton trailers and our gasoline had to be hauled and stored in five gallon “jerry” cans. Our antennas were the portable type mounted on steel poles supported by nylon rope guy lines. A self sufficient operation to say the least.
The site was a few kilometers off the main autobahn between Stuttgart and Ulm. This particular stretch was not the typical divided four lane highway – there were just two lanes winding up the side of a mountain. A U.S. service station was at the bottom of the hill and a snack bar called “Java Junction” was at the top of the hill. A dirt road that led to our site actually went off a back corner of the snack bar parking lot through the small village of Ober Drackenstein. Our quarters were in a building adjacent to the service station at the bottom of the hill, along with a small group of Army personnel who maintained a wrecker for emergencies along the autobahn. We ate most of our meals at the snack bar, but gradually found some local German establishments to provide some variety. Schick’s’ Gasthaus in Gosbach became one of our favorite places for the evening meal and I remember Frau Schick mothering us and making us button up our jackets on winter nights.
I would be remiss if I didn’t include a humorous story about myself. During the holidays (probably New Years) winter of 50/51 - I was off duty with some of the guys and we partied at Schick’s Gasthaus in Gosbach. I was not much of a drinker and I was introduced to a beverage called “Steinhager” – which was something clear like Gin. (Shouldn’t have done that!!!) Apparently it caught me off guard and I woke up the next morning in a dormitory like room upstairs where all the girls who worked at Schick’s lived. I took a lot of teasing from the girls who told everyone that all of them slept with me. The story was probably all over Gosbach and I’m sure all the guys at the site (quietly) got a charge out of the “boss” getting caught with his hair down!! J
Not the greatest arrangement – quarters - dining facilities - and radio site quite widely separated. At different times during my tour – I believe we had a jeep, a ¾ ton truck and a 2 ½ ton truck assigned. Scheduled vehicle maintenance generally caused us to operate with less than that. I have to smile when I think back – it could have been worse - like living in tents at the site - especially that first winter. Early on - our only communication with the site from our quarters was a radio link using our VHF/FM equipment. In addition to radio personnel – we had several other AFSC’s assigned – cooks – ground power – etc. Regardless of their specialty we trained most of them well enough to pull night duty at the site. Our daily routine was for the night man to be off while the rest of us worked at the site. He would eat the evening meal then come on duty and the rest would go off duty. I regret that I didn’t save copies of orders so I could name everyone who took part in that operation. Perhaps someone reading this can add to the list. The names I can recall are: Fernando Arreola, Bill Goss, Freddie Carscadden, Norman Lasley, Dick Sterner, Russ Martin, John Mealor, Russell, Ken Butler, Hall, Bob Kennedy, Jim Monroe …
Again – I have to relate a humorous story. I always refer to Freddie Carscadden as a “lovable renegade” because he was an easy going friendly man - but alcohol was his nemesis! Here I was a 21 year old SSgt Site Chief and Freddie was a 42 year old Sgt cook. When I had occasion to get on him about drinking he would just smile sheepishly and tell me to lighten up – while still respecting me as Site Chief. At times I suspected that he was drinking during his night shift – but couldn’t figure out how. One evening during the winter of 50/51 I was the one to stay on duty waiting for the night man. I happened to be out by the power units in the dark and here came Freddie tossing bottles of beer into the snow banks as he drove into the site. J
We made many friends in the local community and most of us learned to speak German fairly well. At first – the squadron was quite lenient (looked the other way) regarding the use of our assigned vehicles. We carried local civilians quite often. I can remember taking the entire Gosbach football (soccer) team and some of their fans to a nearby town for a game in the back of our 2 ½ ton truck. At some point in the spring of 51 – I bought a little German Ford Taunus automobile from “Red” O’Neil at Camp Pieri when he was ready to rotate to the U.S. It was practically new. This helped ease the strain on available transportation at Falcon 2 and I used it rather than a military vehicle when I traveled back & forth to the HQ and other sites. In turn – I sold it to someone at Camp Pieri when I rotated and trusted them to pay me most of the money over time. Don’t have any idea who it was – but the car got wrecked and I never did see any more money. Such is life!
The first winter - 50/51 - proved to be a test of endurance for all of us. We had a good amount of snow at times and the fog that I mentioned earlier at Camp Pieri threatened the operation in two ways. The fog would form frost on the tops of the antennas and they would become very top heavy. In spite of constant adjustment of guy lines - and efforts to shake the frost off - they were in danger of toppling over. It happened one cold and windy night – one antenna fell and like dominos others were taken down. The night man called us and the entire crew fell out to repair the damage. It was a miserable night – the nylon ropes were wet and frozen and we couldn’t work with gloves on. Eventually – we sorted the mess out – replaced broken parts – got the antennas raised again – and were back on the air. The same fog caused us problems with our gasoline driven generators. We couldn’t figure out why they would begin losing power after running for just a short period. We would switch units and the same thing would happen. Finally we noticed that the outside of the carburetors were covered with white frost and somehow we learned that this was just like the carburetor icing that occurred on recip aircraft engines. Our immediate solution was to aim the flexible exhaust hoses back onto the carburetors to allow the hot exhaust gases to keep them warm and prevent the icing. This was a good enough short term solution to keep them running, but it wasn’t very good for the equipment. Eventually someone in HQ came up with a modification to apply better Carburetor heat. American ingenuity won out once more.
Spring of 1951 brought better conditions to Falcon 2. Commercial electric power was run into the site allowing us to place our generators on standby – ready for a rapid move. Sixty foot telephone poles with cross arms were installed so we could mount our antennas more permanently. Apparently this change was incorporated at other sites as well because I went back to the HQ for a few days to attend a pole climbing school along with other site chiefs. I have photos of Sam Ruffo, Benny Flaxman, and myself at the training. Our portable antennas were eventually packed away ready for an emergency move. Next – we decided that our site could use a little landscaping and clean up. We used the old “midnight requisition” method to obtain gravel from an area where the local roads were being repaired and we built pathways all over the site to get rid of the mud. The place was quite spiffy by the end of summer complete with flagpole and “Old Glory” flying in the breeze.
We started receiving good support at the Army Post at Goeppingen for our vehicles and ourselves (medical & dental). I believe we even had class VI privileges so we could purchase liquor. (Remember 18 was the drinking age then!) Other creature comforts came along as well. We were issued some furniture for our day room - a Hi-Fi record player along with records - and a 16mm movie projector. We started getting movies shipped in several times a week. Movie night would bring in some of our German friends that worked at the service station and snack bar along with their families. Of course all of the local pretty frauleins would be invited as well. All in all life certainly improved. At one point we attempted to set up our own kitchen and dining room with the army group at the barracks. Unfortunately our schedule was too variable for it to work out.
As the old saying goes – time passes fast when you’re having fun. I had extended my overseas tour by six months at Major Dobbs’ request so my tour wasn’t up until December 1951. I was promoted to TSgt in September and reenlisted for three more years. At that point of my career I had my eye on MSgt (the highest NCO rank at the time) - and eventually the Warrant Officer Program. Little did I know that ten months after leaving Germany I would be entering the Aviation Cadet Pilot Training Program which would lead me to a new chapter in my Air Force career as a fighter pilot.
From: Lee Kelsey
Date: 04 Apr 2005
My arrival in Germany winter of 49,Icame into Rhein/Main by air, was trucked with other troops in an open 6x6 truck to the Medieval town of Marburg, located about 60 miles north of Frankfurt, the trip was cold and bumpy, the road was full of bomb holes, I arrived at the ex-Nazi concern, it was a Medieval Castel, I thought to myself that "Count Dfacaula lives here", we were issued mattress covers with mattresses and told to bed down in the stone covered hallway, I could just hear the storm troopers marching up and down the stone hallway with their boot heals echoing off the stone walls. The roof was missing, from the war and you could look up and see the stares at night, they were big and bright like in Texas, one of my assignments was to march a group of American repatriates that had been found, to and from the mess-hall, a couple of them could speak English, so I selected one of them to call out orders and count cadence and told him that I didn't wont any of that goose stepping crap. so off went to the cadence of "ein Zswi, Ein Zswi" I didn't like that, but you cant have everything you way, besides they were supposed to be Americans. Next I was assigned guard duty, I had to walk up and down my post, two lengths of barbed wire fence, right angels to each other.The unspoken rule was to shake the fence vigorously before started down the fence line. Each time you would do this, the frauleins on one side of the fence would scatter and the GI's on our side of the fence would scatter, and you would walk your post in a military manor, the Sargeant in charge would come by and shout out, "Post number one report" the reply was, "all goes well at post number one" the one and only time we were allowed in town,we stashed four packs of cigarreties in our socks and stuffed our pockets with chewing gum for the little kids. The cigarettes were sold on the black market, you could get locked up for dealing on the black market. and the MP's at the gate looked us over good, from top to bottom, if they had asked us to take off our hats, four more packs would have fell to the ground. I was a 19 years old the month earlier an Army buck sargeant (three stripes). The next story will probably be about my arrival at the Bohnhoff (train station) in Wiesbaden Germany and my introduction to the enterprising group called 1st Radio Relay, with troops left over from "Company D 926 Signal Battalion, the 926th hit the beaches of Normandy and flowed with the battle thru France all the way to Germany.I was a high speed radio operator converted radio repairman U.S. Army Signal Corp, my only clam to fame as a radio repairman was in a radio shop back in the States I repaired head sets. wa a radio repairman was in a shop in the States, repairing headsets.
Rminiscence; I was transferred to our site "Gunpost"/Kassel West Germany for what I like to call a career alternative enhancement program. I checked in and whent to my assigned room. I did not get to see the other guy that I was to share space with, he was on duty at Gunpost at the time,train tracks ran all over the room and under my bed. One day my neighbor the train master, arrived at the front gate with his fraulein in an old beatup German Army troop troop carrier thing, with a big Harkenkreuz (swastika) on its side, the Army MP's would not let him bring his contraption on base, because of the swastika, so he parked it outside the gate, and walked to9 the evening movie with his sweety in tow . I had a very small fiat convertible about the size of a golfcartI bought itg for 400 D-Marks (about $1oo and sold it to the train master for $125, he would spend all his money on Bahnhoff Queens (sell one's talents) and next month he would need money for a new gal with more talents. I would buy the fiat back for $25 and resell it to the train maqster for $125 each time he found a new gal, with more talents than the last one had, He and I finally ended up back at HQ Camp Pieri Wiesbaden, thanks to someone??? the train master no longer train, but he had my Fiatg, this time he invited me for a fiat tour around Wiesbaden in the Fiat,he now had another talented gal, and she like six foot tall, she sit on the back top of the Fiat, it was a convertible, I told the train master to either get he down from the top of the Fiat, or I would get out. We sold the Fiat back and forth a few more times. Next thing he ended up on my sitge at Stainvell France, some of the troops were making fun of him and he blocaded himself in the van with a carbine and was going to shoot somebody. I talked him out of that and hid away all the catridges, even the cartridges to my automatic machine gun. About the time that I left for the States, the train master was now a site chief. A few years later I met up with the train master in Greece he was now a techrep for an Amercan company this time he had married a French Gal. I now live in the mountains on a little hillk, away from it all.
From: Lee Kelsey
Date: 06 Apr 2005
During the Berlin Airlift, the Track Gear served many purposes. During the airlift there were three of us at the Rhein/Main Topscoke site, being site Chief I had the privilege of pulling my turn on shift work. our site was located on the top floor of Rhein/Main control tower, it was a cold place on night shift, so we made a make shift sack on top of the Track Gear to keep warm they put out a hell of a lot of heat (right). The aircraft to and from Berlin taxied up to the terminal just below our site windows. they would rev up the engines. That would cause an Oklahoma dust storm inside of the old tower and made it difficult to get much needed sleep after carousing Frankfurt, The equipment was always dusty, the fans had to be cleaned a few times each day. The coke (German for coal) hence the name topscoke and tops for the house tops that were skimmed by our aircraft sharply dipping down directly into Tempelhof the 4 or 5 store buildings were directly at the end of Tempelhof runway. as the aircraft fell into Tempehof the crews dropped candy to the little kids that always gather at the end of the runway waiting for their daily candy drop. the chewing gum, the kids called "Kaugumi" for cow rubber they reasoned that cows chewed big mouths full of stuff and the gum was like chewing rubber. Back to Rhein/Main, the C47's were stuffed chuck full of coal out on the flight line by truck after truck loads of coal, the aircraft took off every 6 minutes or something like that, in and out, in and out all day and night long. the aircrews coming into the chow the hall looked like coal miners, black and dirty. troops that working directly on the airlift were allowed chow passes for midnight chow. when on site watch, you would leave the tower and go to midnight chow, the big shots back at 1st radio relay did not know all of this because the only contact that we had with our unit was on CF-1 carrier bay channel one. then some jerk decided, hourly radio check on channel one was a great thing, and that was the end of our midnight chow trips, that was ok though because I talked the Rhein/Main mess sergeant into box lunches. being short of bodies we had to pull shift from 5pm until 8am the next morning. yes old soldiers are ornery and stubborn.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------