HOG Mania: Hess Reunion Website

A quick overview for people who might have stumbled onto the site by accident and aren't sure what to make of all this:

This website is dedicated to a United States Air Force base that was located on the outskirts of a sleepy little town in Northern Germany called Hessisch-Oldendorf. The main base, as well as a number of smaller radar sites around the area, had been originally built and occupied by the Dutch Army in the 60's. The Dutch moved out at some point in the early 70's and we moved in. The U.S. Air Force officially occupied the base from 1975-1991 at which point it was closed down permanently. Those of us who were stationed there lovingly referred to the base as the "HOG", (hence the title "HOG Mania").

A number of people have contributed stories about the history of HOAS. If you have any interesting stories about the history of the base, please feel free to contribute.

CANNON AFB & 609th TCS MEMORIES
by MSgt Harvey Hartman, TxANG

I was assigned to the 609th TCS right out of Radar Maintenance Tech School (Keesler AFB) and I arrived at Cannon AFB in October 1972. At that time, the 609th was still fairly new to the base (I don't know exactly when the 609th arrived) and it was set up on the back perimeter of Cannon, mostly in portable Quonset huts. Radar Maintenance had the only permanent building and it housed our workshop, office, and T2/T4 Ops training consoles. Additionally, it had the only toilet for the entire compound so, for a squadron of 150+ men, it saw a lot of traffic. The 609th was a typical TAC CRC and had the usual AN/TPS-43 Radar System, "Rubber Duckie" Operations complex, Tech Control van, TRC-97 Microwave vans and antennas everywhere, a handful of S-280 shelters that were scattered around and used as deployable workshops, and a littering of noisy AE24U-8 turbine generators, fuel cells, M35A2-6X6 trucks, etc. My first impression was that of a rag-tag traveling circus and the more familiar I became with the mission and people of the 609th, the more I realized that my initial impression was pretty accurate.

During my first two months, I learned that Cannon was hit by a small tornado during July of 72 and that our original radar antenna was destroyed. To get us back into operation, SMAMA in Sacramento (Electronics Depot for the west coast) sent us TPS-43 ser no 2 which was Westinghouse's demo unit and was pretty demo'd out. However, the antenna was still in good shape so we married it up with our -43 radar van, ser no 19. I remember the radar van #2 quite clearly though. It was my first day on the site and quite a snowstorm was blowing. (I'm from Houston and that kind of weather was quite new to me!) Well, since the -43 was still new to the USAF (in fact, the first TPS-43 questions didn't show up in WAPS tests until sometime in 1975) none of it was taught or even mentioned at Keesler. Imagine my surprise when, after learning radar principles on the massive FPS-20 series at tech school, I was led through a blinding snow storm to this TINY little aluminum box and was introduced to my radar! I didn't know it at that moment, but this was actually radar van ser no 2 and was dummy loaded since its antenna was now permanently assigned to van no 1. However, Sacramento's instructions to us were to troubleshoot it in our spare time so it could be shipped back to Depot and used as a spare unit. Now, for those of you who never had the privilege of cutting your teeth on the original "A Model", the Synchronizer (which developed all of the system timing signals) occupied most of the right wall of the van and was housed in a card rack approximately 3 feet wide by 6 feet tall. This rack was filled with no less than 39,603,340,583,381,830 2inX3in plug-in circuit boards! (By comparison, the TPS-43E model that most of you are probably familiar with produced all of its system timing on just two 8inX12in boards!) Well, all of the circuit boards for #2's synchronizer were dumped loosely in a big cardboard box on the floor of the van! Okay, so this wasn't exactly an ORGANIZED traveling circus! It wasn't until I went off to TPS-43 school at McClellan AFB (Sacramento) in January 73 that I learned what all of those friggin boards did.

I arrived back at Cannon after -43 School in April of 73. While I was gone, radar van ser no 2 had been shipped back to Depot (I have no idea if it was ever made operational) and construction had been started on the 609th's permanent building. As it turned out, the small building that radar maintenance occupied was the cornerstone of the larger building. This building (typical US Government concrete block construction with no windows) was finished during the summer of 73 and most of the portable Quonset huts were packed away. While this new building gave the members of the 609th a sense of permanence, we were still treated by everyone else on Cannon as if we were red-headed step children. And really, who could blame them. We were located on the back of the base and few people on "main base" really knew what we did. Plus we were different than the usual run-of-the-mill USAF in that we bloused our boots (which nobody else did back then) PLUS we wore those really cool blue "bippies" with our fatigues once each month. I suppose this "red-headed stepchild feeling" was probably common with all of the TAC Control Squadrons scattered throughout the US because all of us were located on the back 40 of each base.

Anyway, after TPS-43 School, I really got into this new digital technology and learned everything that I could about this exotic (at the time) radar system. Eventually, I became quite knowledgeable on the -43. While located in New Mexico, the 609th fell under the 602nd Group that was located at Bergstrom AFB in Austin, Tx. The 602nd had identified three 303X2s at three TAC units in the US that were considered TPS-43 "experts." The idea was that when the local TPS-43 maintenance shop couldn't diagnose a particularly tough problem, the closest "expert" was dispatched to help the unit get their radar back up. This generally resulted in getting The Call at odd hours and on weekends. I know this because I was one of the three. The three of us called ourselves The Wrecking Crew because we were called in only after the radar was a total wreck. I was sent TDY EVERYWHERE and for the most part, had a lot of fun (thankfully I was single at that time.) I had notes in my C&Ds that even Westinghouse didn't know about their own system! Looking back, the AN/TPS-43 was quite an advanced and exotic piece of equipment and I enjoyed working on it. And this was a LONG time before computers entered the average family's household. And what's more amazing is that there wasn't a single "computer processor" in the whole van. While it was a genuine digital system, they were all just flip-flops, nand, and nor gates. In other words, simple diode logic! Not bad for a 1960s design, huh?

During my assignment to the 609th at Cannon, we participated in almost every TAC war game west of the Mississippi and many of those on the east side as well. Since the Viet Nam war was still in progress, the military budget was fat and money was readily available for training deployments. We must have participated in 6 or more deployments per year until the budget was severely cut back in 1975.

I re-enlisted in March of 75 and, as was typical of radar maintenance and ops personnel back then, I received orders to a remote radar site in Alaska almost before the ink had dried on my re-enlistment papers. I left the 609th, and lots of friends, on May 5th, 1975. While I was gone, the 609th was moved to Germany and the 81st TCF was moved into the old 609th's building at Cannon. (See John Borden's excellent letter about the beginnings of the 81st elsewhere on this website.) I was reassigned to Cannon and the 81st in November of 77 and moved right back into the same buildings that I had left 2-1/2 years earlier! Only this time the radar was an old defunct TPS-44 that the 81st used while it waited for its spanking new TPS-43E system, which it got sometime in 1979. Since this website is not about the 81st TCF, I'll forego the details. Let it be known though, that the 81st was just a shadow of the 609th in that it was smaller and participated in much fewer exercises (mostly due to Viet Nam being over and Jimmy Carter was in office.)

However, one TDY of interest was again due to my familiarity of the TPS-43E (I attended TPS-43E School at Keesler in winter 77 and spring 78.) I was sent to Saudi Arabia to augment the 82nd TCF (Hollomon AFB, NM) in the fall of 80 when the Ayatollah Kohmeni threatened to strike the world's largest oil refinery in Dhahran and thus, draw Saudi Arabia into the Iran-Iraq war. We set up the 82nd's -43E in Al Jubail to monitor Iran's movements. This was long before Americans had much of a presence in S.A. and we were not exactly welcomed by the common citizen. However, the Saudi royalty loved our guardian presence and made regular visits to our radar site. Interesting to say the least! I separated from the USAF in February 1981 while the 81st was in the process of packing up to transfer to Japan.

I joined the Texas Air National Guard in 1990 and was sent TDY to, of all places, back to Cannon AFB in 1992 to install some airfield equipment. By coincidence, the place that we used as a temporary workshop for that 2-week job was the old Wideband/Ground Radio shop in the old 609th/81st building! The building was not used by a TAC radar unit any more and it functioned mostly as a storage building for the main base Comm Squadron. However, in an ironic twist of fate, the old Commander's and First Shirt's offices, and Orderly Room had been converted into the Veterinarian's Office for Cannon's Security Police's military working dogs. How appropriate!

During the 11 years that I had been away from Cannon, quite a few changes had occurred. Almost all of the old WWII era wooden buildings had been replaced with modern brick buildings. While the new buildings looked good and were much more modern, they lacked the class and character of the old wood buildings. A new Base Exchange complex was built at Cannon while I was assigned to the 81st but many of the "auxiliary BX functions" (Garden Center, Clothing Sales, etc) were still housed in old wooden buildings scattered around the base. However, by my return in 92, all of these stores were either moved into the Main BX complex, or were housed in new brick buildings of their own. In fact, Cannon's appearance had changed tremendously since I first set foot on it in October 1972 and many of the locations that I had memories of were either now in new buildings or gone entirely. Time marches on I guess.

Well, this is long enough and I imagine that most of you had to get up twice for pee breaks. I hope that you've enjoyed my trip down Cannon's Memory Lane because I sure have.

MSgt Harvey Hartman
Texas Air National Guard
LaPorte, TX
281-929-2572, ext 229
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From "Slick" Mike Edmonds

I remember:

    * not wanting to go to Germany...then, believe it or not, not wanting to leave...
    * 4 DM to a dollar (THAT didn't last long)...
    * crawling upstairs after my first German beer...
    * walking to "the mountains" to raise spirits (and to drink them)...
    * riding the "Duty Train" through East Berlin to paricipate in high school track meets, football games, and music festivals...
    * after living in the dorms, not wanting to leave them...
    * for my summer job disposing of (in various manners) the rabid rabbits...
    * getting nipped by the Hamilton's dog (thanks, Chris: "Oh, he won't bite...") and lying about it so I would not need to get shots.

From Iron Mike Daniels

...the exception of the Turkish strip bar.

(How the hell did I miss that???!!!...) That comment reminded me of the report of the Bremerhaven prostitute that "adopted" us at the high school dormitory. I was informed that she had purchased a couple of televisions (one for the girls dorm, one for the boys). No confirmation as to other gifts she may have bestowed on us (boys)...

From Joe Wheatley

...My wife and one year old son lived in the Rodental Gasthaus for 60 days until we could get into base housing...

My family (Sgt. Bill "Nasty" Nalley, the basketball coach) stayed at the sanitorium. I kept my door locked, and my martial arts skills honed...

A story from John Borden who was assigned to the 609th at Cannon AFB in New Mexico for about three years. How many of you knew that the 609th originated there? I didn't. Read on...

I wrote you an e-mail from work last evening when I found your website. As mentioned in the e-mail, I was assigned to the 609th while it was stateside at Cannon AFB. I arrived in April (?) 74 and the unit was reassigned to Germany in 78. I had just returned from 60 Van school at Keesler. I was in ground radio. I stayed behind as the 81st TCF's equipment was pulled from mothballs at Bergstrom AFB, Tx where it's personnel had been absorbed within the 602nd TCGrp. No personnel from Bergstrom were reassigned to CAFB. The unit was remanned with personnel from the 609th immediately prior to the move. We had a line of vehicles and equipment sitting out past our antenna "farm" that no one could disturb until the last piece of 609th equipment was on the plane. Col. Gabriel Chavez was the 609th's CO prior to the move but was being restationed at Cheyene Mtn so he did not cross the pond. Major Lawrence (Larry) Davis became the 81st's new CO. We took the equipment, which was in a sorry state, and began inventories, and repairs. Maj Davis declared the unit operational either on or just before 90 days later. The TAC ORI Team arrived the next day with all the usual fanfare and we began a tear down and redeployment...we drove down the road and returned to set up within yards of our permanent sites. We weren't allowed to use any of our ground stakes, shop work benches, etc. They only allowed us to use our main building for the sake of bathrooms, etc. and of course the briefing room. The ORI Team used the facility as needed. Maj Davis declared the unit "UP and Operational" around 1000hrs. The 1st ORI Team member placed one foot into the door of the TPS 44 van and called the radar maint tech to shut off power immediately and step out of the shelter. He padlocked the door with the unit lock, asked for other keys, went with the tech to get them, went to the ORI Team leader, and we were called inside. The ORI Team Leader stated, something to the effect "A major safety (of Flight) violation has occured which endangers life...The TAC ORI has ended. This unit fails the ORI." We stayed in the briefing room for several hours and were then called to stand tall. A TAC Major General, in flight suit, with checkered scarf, walked in with the words "What the H... is going on with my unit?" He was the 12th AF CO from Langley. We stood straight during the entire briefing. He walked out the door and around the corner with the Lt. Col ORI team leader. He returned and called out Maj Davis. Tense moments later he walked back in with the two men in tow. He then directed the Lt Col to describe what had happened to cause the failure of the ORI. We were only then told that as the inspector placed his foot onto the floor of the shelter the water had squirted up past his boot laces from rivets in the floor. The MG then announced that a full investigation was about to begin immediately and that we would see him quite a bit in the next few days. He walked out to his F4 left. We did see him several more times over the next few days and months. The investigation took place. Col Chavez was recalled from Cheyene Mtn. My boss, SMS Leon V. Mooring who was the maint supt and others went to Bergstrom for the briefings. Sgt Mooring returned and said to me, in a voice, usually reserved for a child's funeral, "I don't ever want to attend another meeting like that. I had to sit there and watch a full bird cry. I have never before seen such a dressing down. Col Chavez was forced to submit his resignation and he was looking at his first star." Col Chavez failed to complete an initial inventory or evaluation of the previously mothballed equipment. He had signed documents that indicated he had done so, but stated that "He knew the 81st previous commander and vouched for the equipment's condition and completeness." SMS Mooring's 1st Lt, (Nameless at this moment), the unit's com maint officer, and all assigned to the present 81st were absolved of any wrongdoing. SMS Mooring and the Lt had requested repeatedly to check the equipment but Col Chavez had refused access until the 609th was gone. Witnesses from the Ops side and the unit admin supported the statements.

The MG returned and informed us of the final results. In front of us all, standing tall, he informed Maj Davis that he had carte-blanc with the 12th. Anything from paint up, we would get the next available. We tore every piece of equipment apart, sent our vans, less wiring and racks to Depot for complete rebuilds. We pulled spare tires, jacks, and batteries out of our M35s and drove them to the bombing range where we got to watch A7s punch holes in them. I don't think the seats had been "creased" in our new trucks! Our AGE painter used the wrong paint on the inflatable shelter and it too was sent to Depot. It took a year to make it back. We got a loaner and were again declared operational. We passed without one single writeup. We had some good times. I separated in May 79.

A message from Larry Probus

There were less than 50 people there when I arrived, we didn't even have a BX. Once a week a bus made a trip to Bremerhaven to the army post there so we could do some shopping!! I wrote a column in the original newspaper on the base. The paper was called "The h.o.g. call". It was the ideal of Steve Nathan who is the guy who I'm nearly sure thought up the name h.o.g. for the base orginally!! The paper only lasted a few weeks but was really popular, of course all of us writing the paper were young and a little on the radical side and that didn't go over too well with the higher ups, so we were out of bussiness and the "Northern Scanner" was born!!

Memories of Hessisch Oldendorf - Mike Wallrapp

As best I can recall, the Dutch were at the HOG in the early sixties. The base was used, as we used to use it, to support the sites at Bad Muender and Schwelentrup. The sites were HAWK missile batteries, which accounts for the way the pads were situated around the hills.

Jim Post was selected to run both Bad Muender and the HOG in the fall of 1975. Gerry Fegter and myself were selected to be commanders of the 619th and 629th right after the results of the majors? board was announced in Oct/Nov 1975. We were all assigned to the 601st TCW at the time. A total of ten in-country persons were selected to be the initial cadre for the three units. I was the Mobility officer and a controller at the 603rd TCS at Sembach. Our first impression of the HOG was like most of the early arrivals: "Is this a bad dream?". The planners at HQ USAFE, Ramstein, obviously hadn?t bothered to visit the area before deciding to designate the base a concurrent travel assignment for all new assignees and their families. The logic behind the decision was predicated on the fact that the Dutch had just vacated the area and therefore there should be sufficient rentals and base quarters available for all. This was not the case. Jim Post did extensive research in the local area trying to locate all the "available quarters", When we returned to Ramstein, he tried to get the concurrent travel canceled. Unfortunately, both USAFE and HQ AFGMPC said it was too late. Since the first group had already had their orders, it was impossible to stop the migration.

I was the first PCS person to arrive at the HOG in (I think) mid-April 1976. There were several TDY cooks and a personnel specialist from Ramstein awaiting my arrival. They had been there for about a week trying to clean up the kitchen and get the chow hall ready to serve. The first major decision was what time I wanted to eat the next morning. MSgt Parker, Ramstein CBPO and a civilian personnel specialist met and informed me that I had to interview several ladies who had applied for secretarial jobs. They had some English skills and supposedly could type. There was only one candidate who was truly qualified for the job and I hired her on the spot. Although I can?t remember her name, Capt. Jeff Titrude, our Legal Eagle, was quite pleased. The lady in question was married to a Brit soldier and needless to say her English accent was refreshing. Capt. Jim Abbott and the Security Police were recipients of the other selection. I will say that she was a very attractive young lady but her secretarial skills were somewhat lacking which accounted for Jim?s less than enthusiastic "Thank You".

The first week was spent trying to ready the dorm for the bachelor arrivals. Jim Post, Gerry Fegter & myself spent countless hours putting together the wall lockers for each room. Jim continued to scour the countryside for housing. We also had to develop a plan to meet and greet all you new arrivals at Rhein Main. HQ USAFE arranged for contract buses to transport all of you to your new assignment. Unfortunately, most of the arrivals did not go as we had planned. There were lots, or should I say almost everyone, of unhappy people, especially the wives and children. After flying all night to Frankfurt, the families were, for the most part, loaded on the bus and driven the approximately five hours to the HOG with one rest stop along the way. After the first bus load, we made sure the chow hall was ready to serve when the bus arrived. Then the unpleasant task of informing the wives that they were to be relocated off base to one of the many Gasthouses in the local area. We also learned that families were not happy spending their day in a foreign hotel with no TV or American food. So we came up with the shuttle system. Each morning, the blue bus would make the circuit, gathering up all the military and a few hours later it returned to gather up all the homesick families. The chow hall served everyone at least two meals a day. One memorable arrival comes to mind. One wife was not happy when she learned her husband was going to Germany. She was less than pleased when she and the family had to get on a bus and travel for five hours. Her reaction to the HOG was priceless. She announced that she wasn?t staying and demanded to be sent home right now.

As some of us can remember, there were no creature comforts at all. About week two or three, we had a satellite BX. It was a small room in the Headquarters building, only 3 people allowed in at a time. It was well stocked with shaving cream and razor blades, pampers, tampax and jellybeans and not much more. A month later we had a mini commissary. USAFE managed to scrounge up some frozen food cases and refrigerators. I think it was a forerunner to a price club. No shelve, just boxes of stuff. Signs were posted limiting each shopper to one cut of each type of meat and one gallon of milk unless you had nine kids. But things were looking up.

Regressing to the first week, MSgt Parker (remember his name) helped us establish the bar in what was later to be called the Chapel, Bar & Grill and sometime movie theater. Parker made contact with the local beer distributor and arranged for the delivery of bottled beer and some tables & chairs. TSgt Jim Pinckley volunteered and was appointed as the first bartender and manager. All drinks were 1 DM. It didn?t mater if the drink was a beer, Coke or hard liquor. The Brits were kind enough to allow us to purchase hard liquor from their class VI. In fact, the Brits were kind enough to allow all of us to shop in their limited BX, which was far superior to ours.

Sgt. Ickes was the first postmaster and did a superb job getting out all those cards, letters and overdue bills.

Colonel John Wojahn arrived in late summer of ?76 and established the 600 TAC group. Major Jim Allerhalagan became the first base commander. Jim Post returned to the 609th as it?s full time commander. LtCol (Dr.) Ted Almquist established the clinic and dental office. The first full-fledged "With Doctor" was our good friend Capt. (Dr) John Stepp. Colonel Ken Bukeima later succeeded Col. Wojahn.

With everything else going on, Col. Wojahn and Maj. A. got involved in the establishment of the local elementary school and the unpleasant task of convincing irate parents that their high school aged children would survive at the newly established Wiesbaden High School some five hours away. They were told by school officials that their children would be well taken care of and that they would be home for Thanksgiving, Christmas & Easter. The following year, they migrated to Bremen, only about 2 hours from home. Others can better fill in this chapter.

Now to the sites. Bad Muender was in good condition and required little renovation. Schwelentrup, on the other hand, was a complete disaster. The buildings were shells only, no windows, no heat, no power, no water. But the troops were not deterred. Plastic was hung on the windows with care. Tents were sent up and work centers established. Unfortunately, the tents were set up about every other day as the wind kept blowing them down. The first equipment arrived at the ?Trup in mid to late fall of ?76. The facilities were eventually renovated by civilian contractors who turned the ?Trup into a show place. Gerry Fegter became the hill commander and managed both units for a time while I was trying to figure how to be the HOG?s budget officer and ensure that we remained with the USAFE?s proposed budget and at the same time construct the 1977 operating budget. A special thanks went to Marti Fegter (Gerry?s wife) who helped verify all my calculations.

We survived the winter of 1976 and were declared IOC in the spring of 1977. In late summer, the USAFE IG descended on the entire Tactical Control System in Germany with the dreaded "Operational Readiness Inspection". Thankfully, all three units assigned to the HOG passes Sept. 1977, the 629th was the first unit from the HOG to deploy outside of Germany to participate in a NATO exercise, OXBOL 77. We were the guests of the Danish military and had the pleasure of camping on the Danish Kaserne at Holstebro. It was the culmination of one of the most trying and rewarding assignments in my career.

Not many of us have had an opportunity to open a base, start an operational unit from scratch and have the pleasure of working side-by-side with so many dedicated and at times not-so-dedicated characters. I departed on 1 Jan 1978 and had the pleasure of turning the "Gators" over to Maj. Mark Nugent.

From Tom Resburg

There was a complex of apartment buildings which had been built by the Dutch for use by their troops and families. When the Americans took over the base the "Dutch Housing" and an elementary school were included as part of the base. We had both APO mail service and a local German address if needed.

From Iron Mike Daniels

Yeah, the base was occupied by the Dutch. Schelentrup and Bad Muender were Dutch Air Force Hawk missile sites.

I was on the FIRST PCS bus into Hess. All the people were TDY from Sembach, except for Maj Fegter (619th/CC), Capt Wallrapp (629th/CC), Lt Col Post (609th/CC) and Capt Burkholder was there. Myself, Glen Morgan (629th Radar Maint)and his wife, Bob Boster (600th Vehicle Maint), and Mike McCall (609th Crypto Maint) were the 1st enlisted permanent party to hit the base.

Zum Tony's was discovered quite by accident by one of the TDY guys and he introduced us to Tony and Boster and myself became it's "most permanent American fixtures". Up until then, we thought the Trefunkdt(sp?) with the $50 bikes with the $1,000 leather clad punks was the only bar in Hess...with the exception of the Turkish strip bar. The dorms on base were a trip (must be the legality of certain substances to the Dutch soldiers). There were bright yellow rooms with black footprints going up the walls and across the ceiling. There were purple rooms with art that looked terrific under a black light. Mike McCall and myself would give newcomers the tour of the "art gallery" as they arrived until Col Post had us paint them in acceptable USAF colors.

Klaus was a Dutch soldier that remained in Hess after the base closed. Him and his buddy Franz were also fixtures at Tonys....loved to drink and fight.....if they couldn't find a Turk or another German to fight, they'd fight each other and then drink beer together. Klaus was about 6'3" about 210 lbs. He tried to run a short little Turk off the foosball table at Tonys one night and this little Turk almost cut him to shreds with a Grosse Bier glass.

I was a "gate guard" in those early weeks.....we had no cops. I made me a paper badge and found a toy rubber hatchet over by the KMC so I would greet visitors to the base and patrol the perimeter with my rubber hatchet in my fatigue belt and my paper badge paperclipped to my fatigue shirt......it read "Dodge City". Only deserted my post once to go downtown with a German truck driver up from Sembach......met a couple of frauleins from Rinteln who needed a ride, so Omar took them is his US Army 5 ton tractor, which he crashed on the way back to Hess. Guess we shouldn't have had so many Mai Ur Bocks with the lasses. That led to one of my restrictions. Also, since we were the first Amerikaners that the Zum Tony's crowd had met, when it came up on German father's day, they invited us to there Wednesday to Sunday camping trip and bier and bratwurst festival down by the Weser. Looking good after a 4 day drunk with no shower, lets just say my "chance" encounter with Col Post did not go over too well. That was my other restriction.

In any case the early days were wild, with the Brits from Hameln boozing us up and partying, the Tony's crowd showing us around and adapting myself to the unique "military aspects" of being a stranger in a strange land with lots of good bier ......what a time it was.

From Ace Hunsberger

Shirley & I took over the apartment in downtown Hess over the tepisch boden from Don Vance when he PCS'd back stateside. I knew him through Steve Holton & Bob Iseldyke.

Additionally, regarding the history of the base, yep it was a Dutch base. So was the trup & Bad Mother. The Trup used to be a Hawk Missile and radar site. When Carter was president, the Dutch military (being unionized - hence the long hair, beards etc...) voted to limit their Nato commitment to the Dutch borders, so they close up all their German bases, and pulled back, opening up a few gaps in Nato's defenses etc... So, the deal as I heard it was that the US, Germans, Brits & possibly the Belgians each picked up a site or two... Hence the reason for us Americans being at Hess...basically in the middle of the British section of West Germany.

That's the story as I understand it...

From Joe Wheatley

There is a very interesting history involved with the beddown Of the 600 Tactical Control Group and Hessisch Oldendorf Air Station. I was with the first busload of people to PCS in, but the folks who would know the most would be someone like Mike Wallrapp who sent out the first sponsor letter and came up from the 601 TCW out of Sembach. Involved with the beddown was a tragic helicopter accident which took the lives of several people who were in route from Sembach to survey the air station. I'm not sure but I think the individual who was to be the Commander was killed in that accident. Originally the 609th, 619th and 629th where moving into Hessisch and the 600 TCG was not established until shortly after we all arrived. My first boss was Colonel Post who was the 609 TCS Commander. In addition to being the Chief of Transportation I also set up the first Base Exchange and I was the Chief of MWR for a few weeks. The BX was a one lady operation. Mrs. Worthington who was married to CMSgt Worthington (LGTM) and I would go up to the BX at Bremerhaven and buy commodities for our little one room operation. The first commissary was where the Post Office ended up. People would walk around and look inside standup freezers and items were limited to some many per customer. My wife and one year old son lived in the Rodental Gasthaus for 60 days until we could get into base housing. We were all desperate for information from the outside world since we had no Stars and Stripes or TV and radio. I remember once SSgt Wayne Hill who was set up our first drivers school went over to Holland to visit his in-laws and came back with a stack of Stars and Stripes.

From Greg Diamontopulos

With regards to the original occupants of the HOG. Hessisch-Oldendorf Air Station was the Dutch support base for their two "Home All-the-Way" (HAWK) surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile sites. These two locations would become home to the radar squadrons we all were a part of.