Get a load of this. I knew Tom Cadell. In 1955, I was only 12 years old. I was a local German boy that lived in Oberkochen. I used to hang around a lot in that hut (log cabin) that this Relay Station was located in. I also knew the other two fellers he mentioned. One of them was Don Coffmann (? spelling), the other guy's name I cannot recall, at the moment.

I wonder if you can find out if Tom Cadell is still alive and, if so, do have any contact info.

I will now turn around and write an article that goes more into details of my unusual story. I will attach this article to an e-mail.

Info: In 1953, the call sign there was 'Able'. I often overheard the operator trying reach some other station. "Victor Zulu, Victor Zulu, Victor Zulu, this is Able - Over."

He would repeat this for a few minutes. Then he would put the mike down and say something not suitable for print. I was only 10 years old then. He would then look at me and say: "Don't you ever say what I just said."

Each morning, days a week, mail and courier runs are made to all units of VII Corps. Regular stops are made at Goeppingen, Ansbach, Nuernberg, traubing, Augbsurg and occasionally Regensburg.

The unit's aircraft are given maintenance checkups at the end of every flight. After 30 hours of flying, the planes are xxx down and given a thorough inspection. This efficient upkeep is credited for the unit's no-mishap record since the 34th came overseas in 1951.

I enlisted "RA" in Apr of 1957 at the age of 17. Did my basic at Ft. Ord, my second 8 weeks at Fort Gordon in July, and in September after a nice cruise on the Upsure I became a member of Co. A. 34th Sig BN

The first couple of weeks in Germany I found myself in isolation, at Kelly Barracks because of an outbreak of some sort of flu that, by the way, kicked my ass. I finally was assigned to Co A. at Flak Kaserne. Co B was also there but no other 34th Companies at Flak,they were all at Kelly Barracks, and as I recall they were Hdqrs Co, Co E and Co D. There was not Co C that I ever heard of anywhere.

Around Nov of 1958, as I recall, a few guys from Co B and Co A were sent TDY, to become Honor Guards, for The 7th Corp Under Gen. Uncles. That lasted about 4 or so months. We were all sent back to our original Companies. This was probably done because we were all such goof offs, and we outstayed our welcome.

We were billeted at, I believe, D Co under Captain White. Just before Christmas during the Kinderheim campaign, where you pick a picture of an orphan and got him or her gifts, a PFC Martinez from Co B and I, also a PFC, thought it would be funny to add a picture of a PTV Gooch from Co B to the board.

Capt White found no humor in this prank and I found my self on extra duty for four weeks, It was cut short because the Capt., after two weeks gave me a break because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

When we all got back to our respective units everything returned to normal. Spending weeks on end setting up spiral 4 cable for upcoming field maneuvers, and weeks after, taking it all down. And when we were not in the field we were testing and maintaining the equipment, Mostly those crappy heavy reels and cable hocks.

I had been in Germany much longer than any of the guys I shipped over with because I was RA and they were US or ER. I was about to accept the fact that I would remain in Germany forever.

The day after Christmas 1959, I got orders to ship home. To this day I don't know why but on Jan 9, 1960 I was put on a plane from Frankfort flown to Brooklyn, Transferred to a plane to LAX then flown up to Oakland, and told to report to the base.

Since our orders gave us 5 days to make the trip the other guys on the orders decided to go home and see their families for the extra days. I had no money so my choice was to report, as the ordered. I was issued a bedroll and told to report in the morning for a briefing. At the briefing they handed me 100.00 travel pay and a DD214 and said Good Bye. I grabbed the money and ran.

Altho my enlistment was officially up in Apr, they apparently gave me a break and I said THANKS !!!

I have been a member of the Krabbenloch Facebook page for a couple of years now, and a I have never come across anyone I served with. There are a couple of guys that were a Co B at the same time as I was in Co A but our paths never crossed. I am still looking for guys in Co A at the time I was.

At no time while I was at Flak Kaserne did I hear of any move away from Flak. There was a 7th Army Transportation unit at Flak as well. I heard recently the reason the troops were moved is because they found hazardous waste material all over the Kaserne, and the move was cheaper than the cleanup. Just hearsay though.

I noticed a picture of a PFC Smith on the photo, on your site ( he is the third from the left) of four guys. I may have known. He was from Marietta GA and we called him Gene.

If you would like I can send a few photos, Let me know.

This is all factual and accurate as far as I can remember, its been a few years since the experience.

Men ot the 34th Sig Bn made the changeover without a hitch in operations.

According to Sgt John C. Clark, a wire chief with Company E of the 34th Sig Bn, the improved service provided by the new equipment more than compensates for the headaches involved in its installation.

Month-Long Job
Clark, together with three men spent nearly a month removing the old switchboards from their mobile carriers and replacing them with complex circuits involving thousands of small wires.

Clark explained that during a peak period the operators were able to handle nearly twice the telephone traffic they had been able to handle using the old units.

I did notice that on your site you reference Det-8 in Würzburg... and my recollection was that for the 34th Signal it was Det-9... we manned the radio relay facility compound that was located up on the hill in what I recall was a park or maybe it just seemed like one because it was kept so neat and the locals like to stroll there on the weekends. I was only there for a couple of months, but have some good memories, before going to Stuttgart.

This paper is a short recollection of the creation of the 93d Signal Brigade (Corps) in the Federal Republic of Germany in January 1980. I was a junior officer in the 34th Signal Bn (Corps) prior to the creation of the 93d Signal Bde and was later assigned to HHC, 93d Signal Bde as a staff officer in the Brigade S-3 section. I was first assigned to the 34th in December 1978 as a 2LT and served in several capacities in the battalion until August 1981. At that time I was reassigned to HHC, 93d Signal Bde and remained there until March 1983 when my tour in Germany ended and I returned to the U.S.

2. 34th Signal Bn (Corps)

The 34th Signal Bn (Corps) was the signal unit that performed the tactical communication mission for VII Corps, prior to the formation of the 93d Signal Bde. This means that the 34th provided communications when VII Corps was deployed in the field. Communications for the Corps and all its units when in garrison were provided by the fixed station signal units that were part of 5th Signal Command. The 34th Signal Bn's mission was to install, operate, and maintain (IOM) tactical communications systems between the VII Corps headquarters elements and the major subordinate commands (MSC) of the Corps. The MSCs of VII Corps during this time (1978 - 1983) were the 1st Armored Division, 3d Infantry Division, the 3d Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division (which was forward stationed in the FRG, the remainder of the 1st ID was at Ft. Riley, KS), 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade, 72d Field Artillery Brigade, 210th Field Artillery Brigade, 7th Engineer Brigade, 11th Aviation Brigade, and 2d Support Command. When VII Corps was alerted and deployed to the field, the 12th Panzer Division was placed under the operational control of VII Corps and included in the MSCs that the 34th provided communications to.

The doctrine employed for Corps communications at this time followed the standard U.S. Army signal doctrine to provide communications from higher to lower, left to right. The 34th Signal Bn (Corps) provided communications from the VII Corps command posts (CP) to the CPs of the VII Corps' MSCs (including 12th Panzer Div) in what was termed a 'command' system. In a Corps command system, as distinguished from an 'area' communications system, a large signal center was established at the Corps Main CP and line-of-sight (LOS) multichannel radio, very high frequency (VHF) frequency modulated (FM) voice radio and high frequency (HF) radio teletype (RATT) systems were installed between the Corps Main signal center and the CPs of all the Corps' MSCs, plus the Corps tactical CP and the Corps Rear CP. Additionally 34th Signal Bn provided a multichannel radio system to II (GE) Corps at its main CP, the corps to the right of VII Corps. The 32d Signal Bn (Corps), the V Corps signal battalion, provided a multichannel radio system to VII Corps Main and another communications system was provided by 7th Signal Bde, the USAREUR tactical signal brigade, from USAREUR to VII Corps Main.

At this time corps signal battalions were equipped with the following major types of communications systems:

a. Multichannel radio: The multichannel radio in use was the AN/GRC-50 UHF radio. This system used the pulse code modulation (PCM) multiplexers and was capable of providing 12 or 24 voice grade channels over this radio systems. The 34th Signal Bn installed these multichannel radio systems between the Corps Main signal center and all of the Corps MSCs.

b. VHF FM radio: The VHF FM radio that was used at this time was the AN/VRC-12 series radios, which were single-channel voice radios capable of encryption. The 34th Signal Bn operated several radio retransmission stations in the Corps area for the Corps Command, Fire Support, and Intel radio nets.

c. HF RATT: The RATT rigs in use were the AN/GRC-122 RATT shelter with the AN/GRC-106 HF radios and TT-98 and TT-76 teletypewriters. These provided radio teletype service between the Corps CPs and the MSC CPs.

d. Tactical Automatic Switch (TAS) telephone switchboards: The AN/TTC-38 tactical automatic switchboards were installed at the main signal centers and all the telephone switching for the Corps communications network.

e. Communications Center: CommCen's were established at the major Corps signal centers. This consisted of S-280 shelters with TT-98 and TT-4 teletypewriters on which teletype circuits were maintained with all of the other signal centers that the communications network was connected to.

f. Patch Panel: AN/MSC-32 Patch Panels were the center of each signal center. All of the multichannel radio systems circuits were terminated at the patch panels. Individual teletype circuits from the CommCen and telephone trunk circuits from the AN/TTC-38 telephone switchboards were installed over the multichannel voice channels to patch panels at the distant end signal centers.

The 34th Signal Bn (Corps) consisted of an HHC and four line companies. A and B Co. were essentially identical and consisted of a CommCen platoon, HF/FM platoon, telephone switching and cable platoon. C Co. consisted of three multichannel radio platoons and one cable platoon. D Co. consisted of 3 multichannel radio platoons and one cable platoon, but the missions of the two companies was different. D Co. installed all the multichannel communications at the Corps Main signal center, usually building an AB-216 tower on which to hang all the horn antennas for the GRC-50 radios. C Co. installed the multichannel radio relay and radio terminal sites necessary to extend the multichannel radio systems to the MSCs. The 34th Signal Bn (Corps) was based at Krabbenloch Kaserne, in Ludwigsburg FRG and was pretty much the only unit on that kaserne.

The 34th Signal Bn (Corps) was a big battalion and had difficulty accomplishing its mission within the Corps. The 34th had to commit nearly 100% of its communication equipment to provide communications to all of the required elements within VII Corps. This was problematic in that it was very difficult to achieve a readiness rate of nearly 100% for electronic equipment, wheeled vehicles and generator sets. The Army attempted to improve the communications support in the Corps by accomplishing this mission with a signal brigade, rather than a signal battalion. Thus the 93d Signal Brigade was born.

Click here to read Part 2 on the 93rd Sig Bde Page.

I arrived in Stuttgart on the 24th of Nov 1968 and left in June 1970.. A Great part of my life.

We were the real "BASTARDS" of aviation. We had to beg people to give us missions. The 34th Sig didn't want anything to do with us, and nobody else knew we existed.

We had a Capt. Browning in charge of us and about 8-10 warrants and another 6-8 enlisted at any one time. A Beaver Otter, Bird Dog, between 3 and 6 CH-34s, an OH-23 and an OH-13. I remember taking the 34s to Sembach to load up on C-130s to ship them to the States. That was and still is a great helicopter. Way ahead of its time.

The Aviation section billets were at Kelley Barracks, right across from the flag pole and cannon. We pulled no duties, we just lived there. We worked at the airfield, ate at the airfield and, oh yes, the mess hall there was Air Force and great. I remember the snack bar, a lady named Erma took care of us greatly. And by the way our Aviation Section Office was in the hangar at Echterdingen.

We very rarely had anything to do with the people at Krabbenloch. In the beginning just on paydays -- remember you had to report for pay, but then they started paying us by check and we never saw them. I had a great time all the time...

Came back to Germany in 1977, been here ever since.... Got a daughter, son in-law and two wonderful Grandsons.... Enjoyed every moment of my life, no regrets... From surfing the oceans of Ca. to skiing the mountains... of Europe...

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
When I first arrived we were in hangar 3215 (see map above), first hangar on the right, all to ourselves, when ya came in the gate. Avionics Repair was to the left as you came in and we were on the right.

Then somewhere along the line we moved to the middle of the hangars 1 and shared a hanger with VIP 16th Aviation. I guess that would be 3222, then we moved to 3225 I think right near where a hangar was burned down. I think it was next to the last.

I believe the last hangar was 29 Maintance Co., 3rd echelon repairs and I forget now what ya call them, the Spec 6s &7s that checked our work.

Those buildings identified as "Prefab Bldgs" were either the Air Force housing or where the telephone operators were I remember a bunch of younger German girls working there kinda made our lives a little easier.

I also remember that when we were in hanger 3215 there was a train dock next to our hangar and all around it was junk toilets, sinks, you name it stuff that they say came from France, Paris when then asked us to leave. Boy did they take everything from those buildings, the plaster walls were still attached to the sinks and other fixtures.

Then there was that small pond out back of the snack bar. The rumor was that it was originally the entrance to the underground hangers and storage but it was so highly booby-trapped that they couldn't get in or they tried and people were killed or whatever so they sealed it off. Who knows but it was always a good story to tell the new bees.

... and then there was the old YELLOW flight line jeeps we drove around. I remember if we wanted to cross the runway ya just drove up to the end, blinked your lights and waited for the civilian side to give ya the green light and across ya went. Really unbelievable in those days. Stress Free.

We really had some good times, and the snow drifts were so deep we would jump off our hangar I roof into them must have been 15/18 feet high. But of course ya had to dig your way out once ya got in.