Update from John Hatton

I have been out of touch with people for a time due to events beyond my control. I had to miss the reunion and wanted people to know why.

First, its been a trying year. I will skip the small stuff.

Back in August/September I began having trouble with left shoulder. On September 29th they operated expecting a few bone spurs. I woke up to find out they had to rebuild the shoulder as the spurs had cut the tendons off my shoulder. Nice…..three months to recover!

Just after this I went in for my annual physical. Surprise!  My PSA score had suddenly shot up. On the eve of my birthday I got a call from the doctor: I had cancer and it needed fixed NOW. November 9th I was in surgery. Shoulder had just gotten out of a sling and I was due to start therapy on it that week. Now there is a little delay.

Here it is November 20th. I am happy to say they think they got all the cancer out and that it will not spread. I am up and around, although a bit slow right now. I started the therapy on the shoulder today (Oh so much fun!).

Its been a rough ride these past few months. I would have MUCH rather gone to the reunion than to have to have gone through all of this, but time caught up with me. The silver lining in all of this is that I should be much better by the end of the year.

The cancer factor should be eliminated (fingers crossed) and my shoulder should work better than it has in a long time. The rest of me is in good shape and I am working hard to keep it that way. My future actually looks pretty good.

So, I am back on my somewhat shaky feet. My recoveries are going well and life is good. (Well, under the circumstances).

I look forward to catching up with folks at next year’s reunion. I regret health issues got in the way this time. I had a lot of plans for this fall and they all went into the trash can. But that is OK, we got some important issues out of the way and I look forward to a good life.

Thanks,

John Hatton

BALTA ‘09 and The Cotler-Carroll Ol’ West Adventure ‘09

This is an album of photos that Heidi Cotler took at the 39th Balta reunion in Ruidoso, NM this past October.  And then photos of the Cotler-Carroll roadtrip afterwards.

Enjoy.

 

 

Hello Ben!

Balta 39!

Many thanks to the Freyermuths for a memorable 39th reunion in Ruidoso, NM.  And a heads-up for next year.  Tom Forrest has stepped up to host it around Austin, Texas in October.  The actual location will be New Braunfels, Texas! (I had a ’senior moment’  when I first composed this and named it at Luckenbach. Thanks for the correction, Hog!)

Also, for all Baltans, I will soon begin to update your contact info for a new updated Balta list, so expect to receive an email from me.  Please take time to look at it, correct info if needed and send it back to me in good time.  Thanks.    dee

BALTAFEST ‘09

Many many thanks to the Dog family (and pups) for a really great time!  Good to see a few new Baltan faces, too. for those of you who didn’t/couldn’t make it… too bad.  You missed a good one.

BTW, I know that a lot of people were taking pics.  If any of you have some nice ones of me and The Squirt, please forward.

Best to all,

Shea

Just a quick note to say that my daughter, Dari, sent an email saying she
was in Ireland on her way home from Iraq!

Great news!  Tears in my eyes.

Hugs to all, Brian

Trip report from Doug Gitt

(Several BALTAN’s wanted to hear how my return to PA aboard AMTRAK went.)

First leg: The Southwest Chief (LA to Chicago) – boarded at 1:00pm on Monday afternoon. My accommodations were a “roomette”, only 3’ 6” wide, with two semi-reclining seats facing each other with controls for air, a power outlet, etc. The two seats are moved flat and a mattress placed on top to form one bed. The second comes down from the ceiling. The toilet and shower were elsewhere in the car, but this turned out to be a minor inconvenience. It was very comfortable for one person. Two can be accommodated, though movements must be coordinated. Experienced traveling couples don’t shy away from them. Four meals; the one breakfast, two lunches, one dinner (included in the price of a ticket) were adequate-to-fairly good. I slept well. The rocking and the few bumps and sways became relaxing. As the train was consistently going between 88mph and 90mph, this could be expected. The drivers were experts at smoothly stopping and starting at stations. The noise of the train whistles, blown at all grade crossing, were not intrusive. This is a great way to cross Kansas and much of Missouri; asleep.

The train was barely late, arriving at about 3:00pm

Second leg: The Capitol Limited (Chicago to DC) – boarded at 7:20pm, get off in Pittsburgh at 5:00am.

Again, I stayed in a “roomette”, allowing me to get to bed right after dinner and get a night’s sleep.

A major part of training is socialization, meeting other travelers. One is almost always seated in the dining car with others, almost requiring conversation, no matter how small. (The lounge/observation car is the real hotspot for meeting people.) At dinner, Major Patrick C. Roe, USMC (retired) was seated with me. He was an intelligence officer during the Korean War. He was on his way to Laurel MD (i.e. Ft. Meade/NSA area) to speak at the 2009 Cryptologic History Symposium. His topic: “The Ghost Armies of Manchuria: Chinese COMINT Deception during the Korean War.” We talked shop all during the meal! Sometimes the coincidences are eerie!

Third leg: The Pennsylvanian (Pittsburg – Philadelphia – NYC) – board at 7:20am, arrive in Harrisburg at 12:55pm. I rode in coach class. The regular seats were surprisingly comfortable, recliners with leg support and a foot rest. A club car was attached for sandwiches, snacks and drinks. This route is railroad history. It includes the world famous Horseshoe Curve, Tunnel Hill, Altoona locomotive/car repair shops and the Rockville Bridge just north of Harrisburg, the longest stone bridge in the world. Of course the Harrisburg station goes back to the glory days of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Traveling by train is much less stressful than flying. The sleeping car attendants and dining car waitstaff gave excellent service. (Tipping well does help.) One gets to know people. My train ride lasted almost exactly 48 hours. The plane would have taken most of one day anyway. In my mind it was worth it.

RIDE WANTED

RIDE WANTED

My lovely daughter, Megan is able to join us this year and is flying into ABQ on Thursday 10/8 at 2:20pm. If her arrival synchs with anyone else, she’d sure love to catch a ride to Ruidoso. BTW, she’s small and doesn’t take up much room.

Please let me know ASAP.

Can’t wait to see you all…

…Shea

Photos from Bad Aibling

Got these photos of Bad Aibling Station from Julie Rhodes. (Note from Dee: some of the photos are actually short videos, so if one loads slower, wait for it)

Interesting. I recognize some, half recognize others, don’t recognize several. It’s like a parallel universe.

The tree by the tennis court is still there, where we had a tarp covering several cases of Maxlrain Bier which enabled us to perform at our highest levels. That’s what I remember the best.

The Chance has a new parking lot.

I wonder what language the natives speak now. In a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, 10,000 years from now, people, if people still exist, will live in different realms and speak different languages. Alas, we won’t live long enough to see how this prediction turns out. All power to the tribes!

Zippo Flippo Harpo.

Mister Maddog

Visit to Bad Aibling

Hi guys,

Ty and I arrived in Bad Aibling not too long ago and before checking into the hotel, we drove to the old base to check things out.

We first pulled up to a German guard and gate, and when I asked if this used to be the old American base, he told me to go up the road some more.  He said he thought it was ok for us to look around.

I didn’t know there was a German station there. Was it there in 1968?   We drove up further and found another gate which was open with some ominous looking signs that might have meant private or whatever, but we went in anyway.

The road took us straight to the round domes, which I thought used to be satellite radar dishes. We passed a fairly decent “tennis court” and another one that was completely run down with weeds and grass growing within it.

I took pictures. I’m not sure, but I think your tennis courts may have been the one grown up with weeds. We then drove up the road where the bowling alley, teen center and Commissary used to be, then to the snack bar, and beyond to the barracks.

All in all, I took about 120 pictures, but will have to wait until I get home to upload that amount of photos.

I found the the new hotel that was in the newspaper clipping you sent
me, and there’s a daycare center close to the main entrance. The
main entrance doesn’t have a gate anymore. It looks like they’re
making apartments out of a few of the barracks.

The outside of the snack bar looks the same with the steps and all. The inside of the snack bar is completely renovated, and it looks like they’re making it a bar or something. We didn’t go inside anything except for the snackbar and there were workman there.

Through the windows of one the barrack doors was a big emblem on the wall that read “truth conquers”. Do you remember that?  I tried to get pictures of every building.

Through the windows of the commissary were the same ramps and entrance doors, and the old commissary hours of operation. The teen center looked the same. The officer’s homes close to the main entrance were still intact, but the trees and bushes and grass were overtaking everything.

The flag pole is still there in the green center. Someone mows that green center area. Most of the base is grown up with weeds and looks like its been uninhabited for a long time.

Bad Aibling looks different to me. There are many modern looking
buildings. While traveling around Garmisch, many of the towns looked
very touristy. I don’t remember that from before. It certainly has
changed.

We went to where the American hotel was at Eibsee close to
Garmisch. It used to be called the General Walker Hotel. I asked
the girl at the front desk what the history was of their hotel, and
she said that it was an American Hotel up until 1979. Now it’s a
really ritzy place and very posh for the wealthy Germans. I had to
ask permission to go in and take a look around.

New book opens in Bad Aibling in ‘68

PLEASE NOTE…This is not an endorsement from the Balta blog.  I have not read this book, nor has anybody that I know read it.  This novel, the first of a trilogy,  is a self-promoted effort from a retired ASA veteran.  I have no idea if the guy can write well.  Doug Gitt forwarded this posting from the ASA newsletter, thinking since the book trilogy begins in Bad Aibling in ‘68, it might be of interest to us. Dee

New Member Robert Flanagan writes:

―I am retired ASA (1976), and a recently joined member of OSS. Many of you may remember me from our trail-crossings over the years.

As a memory tic: Having previously served seven years in the USMC, I joined ASA and served 16 years: Devens 058, 1960; Asmara 60-62; special asgmt 62-64; 3rd RRU, White Birch A/TC Mar 64-Aug 64; NCOIC Air Section TSN Aug 64-Mar 65; DLI-Russian May 65-Apr 66; VHFS Apr 66-Jun 66; Rothwesten 184th Opns Co/319 ASA Bn/17th ASAFS and Gartow NCOIC for ―winter change‖ Jul 66-Sep 67; made WO1 Jul 67; Bad Aibling Sep 67-Sep 68; 224th RR Bn (Avn)/S-3 Opns, TSN Sep 68-Dec 68; 1st RRC (Avn), Cam Ranh Bay, mission controller on P-2Vs Jan 69-Aug 69; Unit 10 Sep 69-July 73; USASASA, VHFS July 73-Jan 76 (Retirement).

I have recently completed, after many years’ work, a book which is in its final few days of the publication process and will be available through a number of sources within a couple of weeks. I would like to publicize this book as widely as possible, as this is a personal publishing process and I am responsible for my own advertising. On the publisher’s scale, such ballyhoo is exorbitantly expensive.

This book, a novel—Involuntary Tour—is Book I of ―The ASA Trilogy, three linked and contiguous novels that cover a period from the late 40s-1969. The trilogy is dedicated to ASA. All the action, all characters, all settings are ASA. The settings are primarily those locations where I was stationed, naturally providing me the background and experience to adequately define the scenes.

The story (the full trilogy) features two protagonists: a career ASA warrant officer and his friend and fellow servitor, a career ASA NCO. Neither of the protagonists is me, though I will admit to certain similarities, ―look-alike in instances. One of my strengths as a writer is a good ear, and I think readers will hear in the narrative, as well as the dialogue, the bright, sarcastic and ironic tones of the many fellow soldiers we served with in that special world. The story supports more characters than War and Peace, and the reader will think he recognizes many of them, though, as with the writer/protagonist gap, none of the characters are a single person from our past. All story personalities are amalgams of many people and/or pure creation. This is, after all, a work of fiction.

Book I opens in Bad Aibling in ’68, and there follows a long back-story segment of Viet Nam in ’64-’65, with a few other flashback vignettes. Book II, Dragon Bait (projected for publication Jan-Feb 2010), again begins in Bad Aibling ’68, contains back story segments of Asmara ’60-’62, Rothwesten and Gartow ’66-’67; more Bad Aibling ’68, and Viet Nam ’68. Here again, a few flashbacks define other venues. Book III, Falloff (projected for summer 2010) is set almost entirely in Viet Nam in ’69, with a few vignettes/flash backs.

Listen up, save on car rental at the reunion

BJ’s the MAN!  Smoller, BJ and I are going to rent a car together for the reunion and we’ve been independently checking AAA, Expedia, etc and the going rate (with taxes) is a whopping $661 and up.  That’s if the pickup and return is ABQ.  If you specify another rental office in Albuquerque the price is VERY different.  Example:  BJ just booked a  car rental with Budget and, like I said, the rate is $661/week at the airport.  Offsite (5 miles away), the same car is $238/week… Nearly $425 less!!!.  You guys are smarter than me and probably knew this already.

On another note, you might want to check the local attractions by going on www.roadsideamerica.com and check out the ‘Love’ statue in the center of Ruidoso.  Lots of other roadside attractions in the area, too.

CUL ARAR,

…Shea

Mikey Two-Eyes!

Yunz: Two great eyes looking out on HogWorld after lazer surgery on
August 5th and 26th.

ME VERY HAPPY!!!