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

Great news!  Tears in my eyes.

Hugs to all, Brian

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

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

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.

Tomorrow we’ll head a little north to Kleinhohenrain (about 7 km) and
see my old home. The countryside is absolutely beautiful. I love
the huge farm houses with their barns attached to the main house.

We stay tonight and tomorrow night, and then we head to Berchestgaden.

Can’t wait to share my photos with you all.

Julie

(Next is Julie’s original comment on Balta blog.)

Hi,

My husband and I are getting ready to take a trip to Bad Aibling (in two weeks), so I decided to google the place and see what was on the internet. Your blog site came up and surprised me . I was in Bad Aibling from 1968 to 1970. My father was Richard Young who was part of Project Wildbore. I haven’t been back since 1970 and wanted to find out if you could still visit the station, if anyone was there, or if it was completely locked up. I’ve read that it has closed.

Does anyone remember much about the Wildbore group? Our family lived off-base in a little town called Kleinhohenrain, but we had base privileges and went to the American high school in Munich. We took the Army bus to get there from BAS. I remember hanging out in a cafeteria, going to the movies, using their dark room to develop pictures, going to the teen center for dances, and visiting school friends in their homes on base. I know no one is going to know me, but it would be nice to find out if anyone knew some of the people my father worked with. It would be nice to connect with them if possible.

I’m really looking forward to revisiting the area and seeing Garmisch, Berchesdaden, Munich, Chiemsee and other towns in the area. I expect to see a lot of changes since 1970. I was only a teenager then, and have wanted to go back for years. Our family had the best time living there. It sounds like others feel the same way from what I’ve found on the web.

Thanks for letting me comment on your site. It’s been fun reading other comments from people who have been there.

Julie (Young) Rhodes

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.

I began keeping a journal in Viet Nam in 1964 for what I hoped would develop into a novel. That it’s taken me 45 years to bring it to fruition is merely a matter of priorities, inspiration, and dogged determination. I had a living to make, a family to raise: after military retirement I worked for a major tech corporation for 13 years and returned to school, finishing my bachelor’s in Communications; added a Master of Arts in English; and a Master-of-Fine Arts in Creative Writing; then taught college English, American Lit, and Creative Writing at three colleges.

I have a website under construction which should be up and operable within a very few days. This site is connemarapress.org (Connemara Press, my business name) and will carry the listing of this Book I (and later, Books II and III), as well as my other two books and a third book to which I contributed. On the website, when ready, prices, S&H, and tax will be provided, as well as directions for ordering the book(s) directly from me.

This will be attractive to anyone who might wish a copy signed and/or inscribed at no extra charge. It will also indicate methods of payment, including PayPal; and will further direct potential buyers to my publisher’s website, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Ingram, and some thousands of other bookstores where the book will be available.

I welcome information about any links or group addresses you as recipient can provide me. And I trust that after you acquire your own copy, and read and enjoy it, you will lobby for the book to all and sundry. I look forward to hearing from you, and to know that this tale (only one of thousands of stories yet un-told) will be, finally, in the hands of those about whom and for whom it was written.

Thanks,

Robert Flanagan

304-856-1635 work & FAX; 304-856-3866 home & answering machine

<connemara@frontiernet.net>‖

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

ME VERY HAPPY!!!   

Today, August 17, 2009, marks the 40th anniversary of the very first BALTA Function, the Tennis Tournament held on post at Bad Aibling Field Station. The ongoing activities of BALTA and the persistence of the powerful BALTA CONCEPT provide proof of the long-lasting importance of our seminal event of August 17, 1969.
————————————————–
BALTA CONCEPT?    (from John MadDog Freyermuth)

***********

Hi to all BALTA members and congrats on 40 years.
I was the Brit Sgt in charge of the DF Det at BA in the late 60’s. Had a great time down there with you guys, and I lived in the MQ’s with my wife and dog.

I am still looking for a GI who I was great friends with, his name was Mike Lee or Lea; he was a Spec 5 at the time and he was a tech of some sort. He drove a dark green VW Beetle which had lowered suspension and tuned muffler etc.

I have tried all sorts to find out if he is still around but still no luck. Is there any chance that some of your members might know where he is currently. Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers
Denny Byrne Ex Royal Signals Sgt. Retired in 1984 as a Warrant Officer. Denis Byrne denis.byrne@hotmail.co.uk

From Shaky Moore:

That’s interesting because I had already left Bad Aibling in May of that year and BALTA already existed in some primitive form.

we3dunns@bellsouth.net

MadDogs answer to the Dunns email:

Bill & Dottie,

With my usual keen sense for the obvious, I realized that my duties as self-appointed BALTA music provider could be expanded to include travels to and from Ruidoso.

BALTANs will be driving to and from Ruidoso in vehicles equipted with CD players (including most rental vehicles). These days, the CD players in many vehicles will also play CD’s loaded with MP3 files.

I suspect that, during the drive to Ruidoso, there may be dead spots with no FM radio stations. Also, some BALTANs may prefer listening to their own MP3 players than to the prattle of other passengers. (I mean in airplanes, of course.)

The offer: send me an e-mail (maple70@dejazzd.com) with your musical preferences, types, favorite artists and so forth. More importantly ALSO state the types of music you DO NOT like.

Consider whetheryou prefer a regualr CD or a CD loaded with MP3 files. Remember, a CD will hold 170+ MP3 songs; you might want more variety than, say, eight hours of Beatles songs.

We can discuss other options via e-mail.

The catch: none, really. Keeping in mind that a blank CD costs $0.50 and the postage involved, you can “buy me a beer” in Ruidoso….

Doug Gitt