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102nd
Signal Battalion
Breitsol Radio Site
Looking for more information from military/civilian
personnel assigned to or associated with the U.S. Army
in Germany from 1945 to 1989. If you have any
stories or thoughts on the subject, please email me (webmaster).
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Main Page
1959-61 (Miguel "Mickey" Felix)
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USAREUR Patch, 1955-19..
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| 102nd
Signal Battalion |
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| BREITSOL RADIO SITE |
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| (Email from Miguel Felix,
102nd Sig Bn, 1959 to 1961) |
Miguel Felix with "Rube", site watch dog
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I understand that Breitsol used to be a German hunting lodge before WW2 and a German radar station during WW2. The concrete blocks that anchored the tower legs were made into flowers beds.
The Air Force had a similar site at Breitsol but the buildings were prefab. The 3rd Infantry Division, Audie Murphy's old outfit, had mobile radio equipment set up in trucks and in the basement. They would rotate about every 3 months as I think it was a reward as it was great duty to be stationed at Breitsol.
There was also a German microwave relay station operated by a German couple. The wife would sew patches and stripes and do other sewing task for us. We would give her coffee and cigarettes as payment.
We had a German cook who we would pick up every weekday at a nearby village. She would cook lunch and dinner for us. Her name was Anna Haas and she had a great sense of humor. She had never seen a Mexican and she thought that I was half black and half white. We had a full size kitchen and dinning room but no mess hall. She was a great cook, I gained weight the 2 years I was stationed there. By the way the cook did not speak English but we had Sp 5 Burger who spoke German fluently as his parents were born in Germany.
We would go in Würzburg once a week for supplies and we would pick up 3 movies at the rail road station. We shared the movies with the Air Force. We had a cinema scope lens and a regular one and a wide screen in the living room. We would set the projector in the kitchen and shoot into the living room.
Regards Miguel |
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102d Sig Bn - 1959-61
Breitsol |
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1. Breitsol det house and radio towers (KB)
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2. Bird's eye view of the site (KB)
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3. Felix with Lorenz equipment (KB)
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4. Members of the 3rd Inf Div radio relay det (KB)
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Anna Haas - Miguel took this picture with her wearing Army boots and holding two bottles of brandy
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6. Old Glory flies over Breitsol site (KB)
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7. Marktheidenfeld (KB) |
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| (Source: The Aschaffenburg Forum, April 10, 1985) |
Breitsol beams signals to community
By Ted Ramsaur
Dozens of remote radio sites all over Europe ensure that a phone call gets from Bremerhaven to Vicenza and that a community receives its AFN television signal. One such site is Breitsol.
Breitsol is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operation owned by 5th Signal Command's 261st Signal Company. Part of Aschaffenburg Military Community (MILCOM), the site is a mini-community made up of a dining facility, single soldiers quarters, recreation room with weight equipment and a tiny PX. |
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Breitsol's mission is to receive radio signals, to amplify them and to send them to different directions, says site chief SSgt. Larry Dewitt. Recently, Dewitt received a letter from 5th Signal's commanding general and an Impact Army Commendation Medal for his contribution during Breitsol's annual general inspection. The Defense Communication Agency's two-week evaluation found no deficiencies in maintenance or technical control. Breitsol has been nominated for "medium site of the year" worldwide, according to Dewitt.
To help with the job of 24-hour communications, equipment at the site comes in "twos" and "threes." If one piece goes down, a replacement takes over.
Microwave radio equipment, dish antennas and associated paraphernalia are a techno-world removed from field phones and PRC-77s most soldiers know. "Our equipment can receive one type of radio signal, convert it into a microwave signal, strengthen it and send the new signal to a distant station," says Dewitt. "Many people think telephone communications is all wire, but actually phone conversations are converted to microwave signals and sent long distances in the air."
The soldiers who keep the airways humming need to have food and SEC Larry Robinson, dining facility manager, makes sure that shift workers and others can cat at odd hours of the day or night.
"We're more like a snack bar than a dining facility," says Robinson. "Kind of like mama takin' care of 'em."
"We're like a family" is the often-heard description of life at Breitsol. The family living aspect and take-care-of-yourself attitude is seen in other ways. Dewitt says soldiers help cover each other's jobs to allow them to enroll in and attend college classes. The grounds are immaculately groomed, with garden and flower pots laid out waiting to be planted. Dewitt's wife, Roswitha, gives aerobics classes three times a week for the wives and female soldiers. |
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Getting involved with the German community is the norm for Breitsol, where most learn to speak some German. At one time, says Dewitt, they had their own soccer team that played local teams all over the area. Now they have individual members on a German track team, Hallen-Handball team and soccer team, he adds.
"When Marktheidenfeld has their fest we have a table up front next to the band," says Dewitt. He also says that site members are continually invited to local events.
Breitsol is called a "remote site," but the "family" there has proven themselves anything but remote. |
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