Upon arrival in Germany in the summer of 1963, after completing advanced infantry training in Georgia, I was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg. Shortly before I got there, the 24th Aviation Battalion had been given responsibility for a second airfield, near Oberschleissheim, in addition to their authorized home field in Augsburg, but they were not staffed to operate it. I was reassigned to be a ground controller for them at Schleissheim airfield, beginning as a PFC, later Sp4. I worked there from 1963 until 1966.

In 1966, the airfield was transferred to 7th Army to be a Training Center and I was relocated back to the Augsburg field when the 24th pulled out. Some weeks after that, I was asked to return to Schleissheim to help out at the newly established Training Center, because I had operational experience at that field. I agreed and was reassigned to 7th Army but was there only a few months before being shipped back to the States, as my enlistment neared its end.

We controllers were billeted at Base Operations, a WWII building, which was located with the control tower, midway along the perimeter road near one end of the runway and beside the snack bar building. This was about a mile from the 24th Avn Bn Company (I think it was Co. A), which was located at the side of the airfield nearest to the entrance that led into the town of Oberschleissheim. Following the perimeter road around the field led to another hanger that housed a different unit. I believe that was the 9th Cav., but I’m not sure of this. I know that the 24th had CH-34 cargo helicopters, while the Cav unit had UH-1 Hueys.

My thanks to dotspotter62 for the photos of that time. (I can’t explain the 24th insignia on the tail of the Huey.) Being located apart from the rest of the Company and assigned on paper to Battalion Headquarters in Augsburg, I was not close to nor do I remember the names of anyone there.

I do remember some of the controllers stationed at Base Ops with me: There was a PFC “Rusty” Brown, a redhead from Texas, one of our controllers who also took private flying lessons from a civilian pilot instructor located on the field, and Charlie Gladden, a fellow from Baltimore MD, where I came from, also Jonathan Katz from Chicago and a PFC Wade from Mississippi. Not to forget Joachim Golega, a German controller who worked at the Operations Building, in the Bundeswehr control room next to ours. Schliessheim was a joint German-American airfield at that time, with a shared tower but separate ground control operations.

Notable was that the Base Ops building dated from WWII and had an extensive underground basement that was reputed to lead into underground hangers built by the Nazis. The door to that was blocked, however, so this was only hearsay to me. There was a rumor, though, about a German civilian in the area who would occasionally sell Nazi artifacts that came from this installation as he had a secret way in there, it was said. I know there were marks on the ground beside the runway that were visible only from the air and that appeared to be the footprint of buildings long gone or underground.

Also of note is the story I heard that the airfield was never actually bombed by the Allies, due to ground fog that would occur in early morning, when the bombers would come over, and that hid the runway from the bombers.

After 50 years, that’s pretty much all I remember. If you know of anyone who was assigned there at that time and who remembers me, I would appreciate it if you could put me in touch with them. They may remember Sp4 Harris, who had a POV, a Volkswagen with Charlie Brown’s dog “Snoopy” and his doghouse drawn on the side of it. That caused a sensation whenever I drove into Munich, I can tell you!

Thank you for the opportunity to revisit old memories.