sites2

Rudow Compound, 1974 photo provided by Carl Huffman, (died 2009), and Al Murdock.

It is in an extreme southeastern suburb of West Berlin. Just imagine that you have gone as far south and as far east as you could have gone in West Berlin, and that's it. Now, after you reach the Wall, back up about 75-100 yards, and that's Site 1. It was originally (1956) the 1st Platoon, 279th ASA Company (Frankfurt /Gutleut), later (1957) to become 1st Platoon, 280th ASA Co (Site 1).

Site Two, So where was it ?

The mystery was palpable. Obviously it was not public knowledge. We asked around about that question. We got many conflicting answers, only three of which were consistent and apparently sensible. Here they are:

My recollection is that I had heard that Site Two was at Templehof [before] permanent operations were moved to the hill...

From George DeBuchananne, Berlin 1966-69

When I was assigned to FSB, I recall being told that Site Two had been at

Tempelhof, either shared with or turned over to the folks of the Air Force Security Service. Sometime before my arrival (1970) the Army left the airfield to the fly-boys.

From Denis Spelman, dwspelma at hotmail.com

You are correct regarding the three sites of Rudow, Tuesfelsberg, and Gruenwald. Believe site 2 was originally Templehof. It was manned by the 2d Operations Platoon of the 280th USASA Company. I'll double check when I can, but the records center is currently undergoing remodeling. If there is a change we will let you know.

From a high ranking active duty INSCOM officer with definitive, official, historical knowledge access, through an FSBVG member

So there you have it, and that seems to end the Site Two enigma.

Site Two was...

Tempelhof Airport

From Bill Gunter, FotobillBG at cs.com .

He writes, "We were on the top floor of Templehof [airport building] in an area where it was empty other than the area where we were set up. Going up the steps we could even see shell holes and other damage from WWII.

There was a square, fiberglass-covered structure above that covered our antennas.

I am attaching a photo I took from a Pan Am plane as we were landing in 1967. This was six years after I was discharged and my first visit back to Berlin.

I have placed an asterisk over the structure I just mentioned. On the end of the building to your right is another site. I think they were doing the kind of work you did. On later trips I noticed the structures were no longer there.

We had a small group with only three guys working the evening and night shifts, and sometimes just two."

The U.S. Army Sites that we know about were titled with a number indicating the order in which they were opened for business.

Site One, Rudow

[Photo and caption here from Andy Fraser:

"Al Murdock was NCOIC of Site 1 in 1968. As a matter of fact, he was Site 1. There was no OIC there. You have another photo, black and white, of Site 1 from him already on this site. "

"Those 'shacks' in front of Site 1 (called Rudow by most of us) are actually the cottages of German residents. Since Rudow was really out in the country in those days, these little homes were summer and weekend get-a-way homes, as I recall. They were a place to smell some fresh air (Berliner Luft) and raise some chickens too. Perhaps some were even year-'round homes too. By the way, Site 1 is no longer there..."

Site 4, called Jagen 87

The name for Site 4, Jagen 87, might just be a map maker's reference, like a block and lot number in the Grünewald woods.

Site 4 was usually called just that, but Jagen 87 was the only other name I know. In the FSB's HQ "cage" [where the comm center was] on the second floor at Andrews we usually used the site numbers when referring to sites. Nobody mentions Site 4 much. "Jagen 87" sat down below The Hill in the Grünewald. Both this and the Rudow photo were taken in '68 or earlier.

According to Al Murdock, Site 1 NCOIC,

"About JAGEN 87: It's an 'Altdeutsch' (old German language) expression which means 'section 87. The word JAGEN generally applies to the hunt. The less popular application interprets to "one succeeding the other", as in Jagen 86, Jagen 87, Jagen 88, etc."

From John (Ted) Josenhans, ASA Det. F A57 AAU, on TDY from Herzo base Germany (1953 - 1954) -- JJosenhans at aol.com wrote:

I was just visiting your web site and found it very interesting. I was stationed at Andrews from the fall of '53 until the winter of '54. I was wondering if there were any photos of the ASA shack in Gruenwald from that time. As I remember it was located in the British sector in a field about 500 yards from a Russian tank depot. The 'shack' was about 24 feet square with a fence surrounding it about 20 feet from it. We had loudspeakers outside with AFN playing 24 hours a day so that no one could hear what was going on inside. The outside was patrolled by German guards. My favorite memories of Berlin are: The Rex Casino ( I still have my personalized glass boot that they kept behind the bar and I drank from every night I was there); and The Badewanne night club near the Kufurstendamm (the smallest dance floor I ever saw); and the never ending pinochle game in the day-room. I returned there with a tour in 1973 and visited the Badewanne, but it was then a disco joint. What a disappointment!

Anybody want to publicly discuss the other sites?

Write to sites at fsbvg.org. I heard there were some. I heard rumors. We want photos of them all! What about Site Five, Six, and Seven? Nobody admits to remembering them! Oldtimer's syndrome? I think not. Most likely it's because of the security consideration that we don't want our primitive adversaries to copy our obsolete yet still effective old methods. I've never heard about other sites in the French, Russian, and British sectors (beides Teufelsberg and the British Gatow which were in the British sector). There had to have been many of them. Hmmmmm. Very interesting.... I doubt if we will all ever learn the full stories. How sad. There are many books to be written about these events of the last century's technological Cold Warriors.