Working on a Garbage Heap
Electronic Espionage in Berlin
During the 60's
Not actually a "garbage
heap" but rather a mountain, eventually named "Teufelsberg" ("Devils
Mountain") built from the bombing rubble remaining of Berlin buildings
destroyed during WWII
The US Army's ASA (Army Security Agency) snagged this high ground from
the isolated city which was located on the relatively flat plains of
north eastern Germany as the ideal location to erect antenna's to
listen for radio communications leaking from the far reaches of eastern
Germany and Poland.
To process this valuable intelligence, the Army broke the "Army
Intelligence" oxymoron and used brilliant and highly skilled
technicians and translators who enlisted for a single hitch to meet
their mandatory draft obligations which were in effect from the time
Berlin was sealed off by Russia and the east German government through
the end of the Vietnam era when the draft was finally ended.
When I served in Berlin as a German-English translator from 1963-1964,
the
unit name was the 78th ASA-SOU (Army Security Agency, Special
Operations Unit) but the name changed many times over it's life until
the cold war finally ended and the "wall" came down.
Because of the structure of the unit and it's cadre and the strict
secrecy contracts we signed, most of those who
served here for a single enlistment ended up loosing contact with the
friends and associates they had in Berlin when they served, and, while
there are a number of military veterans' groups and forums which serve
career military reconnections, they are less than ideal forums for
those who didn't serve beyond their first enlistment.
To help those who only served a single enlistment reconnect with others
they have served with, In 2007 I originally set up a yahoo group
to help people reconnect. Over the past several years yahoo gutted and in 2020 finally closed yahoo groups.
We managed to transfer and archive over 12,000 messages and over 1,000
images that were posted and taken by 78th enlistees who served in
Berlin during the 1960's as well as many
links to other ASA Berlin
related sites and a files section that includes books, memoirs and even
recordings of the Army Language School's Russian Choir plus strange
things like translated forms to request your Stazi records.
In early 2020 I founded a Google Groups 78th ASA Forum which is open to anyone and everyone who
served with the ASA or knew and connected with anyone who was there
during these turbulent years. If you were in Berlin during that time, please join us.
To join the 78thASA forum, start by requesting membership at the abov site and submitting;
your name (then and now)
the date(s) you were in Berlin
your job in Berlin
and, if you remember it, your work trick
or, your relationship to someone who was there in the 60's & 70's
Some Personal Memories
I was posted to the walled city of Berlin,
assigned to the 78th ASA-SOU,
from early 63 to late 64, German/English translator at the recording
desk,
first at the east tower of Templehof, then Teufelsberg, and bus/truck
driver on the side, sp4 when I was finally shipped out to Frankfurt in
late 64 for
announcing my intent to marry a Berliner and remained there (except for
one illegal trip back to Berlin) until I was discharged in the spring
of 65.
We could hear the machine guns on the East/West fence from our barracks
at Andrews. Somewhere, I have a few hundred b/w photo negatives
from all over Berlin including walks along the wall but none of our
sites. That first winter, having grown up in south Georgia,
Berlin taught me the true meaning of "Cold" and how important the right
clothes are when I came close to frostbite simply waiting for a bus at
2am.
We watched the single engine plane escaping from Poland buzz Templehof
and land, watched the DC4,5,6,7's disappear between the rows of
apartment buildings
before landing. Sat on the Temphof East tower roof and watched
the sun rise at 1:30am in the summer and managed to tour most of the
interior of the hanger building and roof seating when things were quiet.
Didn't (can't) drink then or now, so did more prowling around Berlin
than many, most of it via one of the, then newfangled, "10 speed" bikes
to the point where I could get to most parts of the city faster than by
car, bus or subway. The Ku-damm was a frequent destination
for us trick workers since there was still high activity after
midnight. Wansee and pfauen (sp?)island were favorites as well as
the parks around the Winged Victory monument.
Berliner Currywurst was my favorite street food, and I finally got used
to the German mustard in the Stuebens ...never got used to
sauerkraut though.
Was part of the 78th infamous mess hall sedition plot (there was no
"plot")
where every first
enlistment member of the unit decided to not show up for lunch one day
to get the message out, through the mess head count, about the state of
our food... the worst I ever experienced in three years of wearing Army
green...
Even though our pay was in the range of $75 a month, it was possible
back then to eat out for lunch and dinner, but the Army breakfasts were
great and since there were five breakfast meals due to the tricks, they
filled in most of the hunger spaces which probably accounts to the fact
that breakfast is still my favorite meal of the day... any time of the
day.
Despite the threats, the food did get better and, ultimately, no one
was
imprisoned.
When I arrived, the unit was still in a state "lockdown" following the
eastern retention of a unit member after his accidental drunken transit
out of West Berlin and into East Germany by S-Bahn... so, the general
environment during my stint was
very hard core "us against them" where the "us" were those on their
first enlistments, and the "them" were the cadre who didn't seem to
know or care
what our job was, and that division came across as hate with a passion
and we were faced with it generally before, after and in addition to
our 11-12 hour work shifts. The regular sound of the East German
machine guns underscored
the importance of the mission, so we worked our asses off to assure it
was carried out and accomplished despite any interference from whatever
the source.
The translators at the 78th were in the majority... and that plus the 3
year
enlistment requirement set the average education level of the entire
unit at 3.5 years of college ...which also reflected in the
corresponding
re-enlistment rate of .0625 percent!!! (less than 1 reenlistment per thousand)
That
education level dropped dramatically when language school instituted a
four year enlistment requirement, then got worse when people stopped
signing up for language school and
the army had to sent two year draftees to Monterey who then showed up
with
just over a year left to serve, often leaving before the,
very disgruntled, four year guys who arrived before the 2 year
conscripts did.
We would stumble across the unit's resident guitar virtuoso practicing
in the
halls and closets, regularly join college scholars debating philosophy
and then swim in the Olympic pool and return to talk our teenage
roommate, who's trip through alcoholism was well under way, out of his
sweat soaked bunk and back into reality.
I accidentally won the unit pool on Clay's heavyweight championship
fight... watched
Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech from Schoneberg plaza, then,
later, was swamped by Berlin strangers on the streets and in buses
asking me if "it" was true and why we would kill him.
I came to Berlin a rule follower... doing everything asked or expected
"by the book," which, in the army, only seemed to lead to more work and
additional
duties. By the time I left it seemed that the best approach was
to do the exact opposite of what was asked or expected... such as
writing my own three day pass signed by Capt. Mike E. Maus, and then
boarding the military train out of Frankfurt and using that pass as
passage. As
another example, over a year of rotating
shift duty had taken it's toll, but, despite many requests to get off
of shift work onto "straight days" for months, it didn't happen, so,
hence the announcement of intent which removed me from my mos and out
of Berlin.
Strange
thing though, everything worked much better when in that mode.
Decades later, I had an unexpectedly strong emotional reaction the
night the wall came down.
...it was an interesting journey...
Beverly Howard
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