TO ALL ASA COMM UNIT VETS ODDS & ENDS V...

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TO ALL ASA COMM UNIT VETS

ODDS & ENDS V 5/29/10

When Harry Beatty sent me a CD with some 100 converted 35mm slides, I was puzzled by one particular picture. His photos were not in any particular order, so I never associated the actual chain of events that occurred. I emailed him back and asked if the guy getting back on the beer barge (first photo) was one of ours and what happened to him. Harry didn't know him, so I skipped using the photo.

Lo and behold, it took Jackie Doggett, Ken Doggett's widow and a Frankfurt native, just one look to solve the mystery of how the guy ended up in the Main River. When she saw Harry's "Tour of Frankfurt" picture of the bridge by the beer barge, she spotted it right away. NO, the guy didn't fall off the beer barge. NO, he didn't fall out of one of the paddle boats. NO, he didn't suddenly decide to go for a swim in the murky water of the Main. NO, he wasn't thrown off the beer barge by his buddies having some fun with him.

In actuality, the goofball dived off the Sachsenhausen Bridge into that dirty river water. (See photo three — left center of the bridge and then photo 4) All I can sa is it must have been one hell of a dare or bet for him to do it. As Jackie emailed back to me, "Who's the NUT jumping off the bridge?"

Here's the goofball getting back on the beer barge.

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Here's his buddy towing him back to the beer barge.

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Here's the actual picture where we all missed seeing him jump off the bridge, except for Jackie.

Here's the jumper highlighted and with a close-up inset.

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As most of you know by now, I am fascinated at how Frankfurt looked before our time in Germany. Here is a photo of that same bridge in 1945.

Here is another photo dated 1911 showing the beautiful medieval quarter between the Romer and the Cathedral. This jewel of medieval Europe was devastated in WWll and was only a parking lot in our tour in Frankfurt.

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The Sachsenhausen Bridge spanned the Main River at the lower right corner of the photo.

Since we're at the beer barge, here's the continuing saga of Ron Santini and Mark Kraft, the two buddies from California whose service numbers are one digit apart. Together - they went to high school, enlisted and went through basic training, went on to 723 school, came over on the same ship, worked and roomed together on Alpha Trick, and then went home on the same ship. You can see from the photos why these two enjoyed the beer barge so much.

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Their fellow Alpha Trick mate and good friend, Dan Thacker, had a lot of fun putting this collage together.

And now that we're all loaded from drinking too much at the beer barges, let's stumble back to Gutleut Kaserne and see a few photos.

You will now be entering Room 314 at Gutleut Kaserne. The room was better known as "Valhalla" to its occupants. The term "Valhalla" has inspired various works of art, publication titles, and popular culture references, and has become a term synonymous with a martial (or otherwise) hall of the chosen dead.

Note the nameplate on the door. The nametags were inserted to match the bunk arrangement so that a CQ runner could locate an individual in the semi-dark (no lights, flashlight only) to make bed check or if someone asked for a special wakeup time.

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Seeing that nameplate on Room 314 reminded me again of Ron Santini, who liked his room nameplate so much that he unscrewed it and took it home to California with him. Note his and Mark Kraft's service numbers on the tags. I wonder if the army has a statute of limitations on nameplate theft. Shhhhl

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Home, sweet home - great shot of the Gutleut hallways and inside our rooms.

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SOME PHOTOS TAKEN ON LEAVES, PICNICS, AND PASSES:

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Family portrait of Ernie Carrick in uniform with wife and son.

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Family portrait of the Carrick's in period Dutch costumes.

Love the wooden shoes, or more correctly, sabots. Did you know we get the word "sabotage" from these? Frustrated Dutch workers in the 15th century would throw their sabots into the wooden gears of the textile looms to break the cogs because they felt the automated machines would make human workers obsolete. Hence, they committed sabotage.

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Henry obviously enjoying the fresh air and sunshine (among other things) out at the sand pits with some newly acquired friends.

Having a beer and a braut with the boys.

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A smartly dressed Ron Radenz cruising the streets of Paris.

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Jim, or Mac as we called him, was quite a cycling enthusiast. He once flew from Frankfurt to Scotland with his bike as baggage and did a ten-day biking tour of his ancestral country. The photo above appears to be a short camping trip with Frank Lenton. We used to joke that if war broke out, ASA guys would be issued weapons but no ammo. The army apparently felt we could do more harm to our side if we had loaded weapons. And so it was with Carl Enos and his hometown friend Ron Carreiro. Their altercation while on leave in Paris had to be settled with baguettes instead of dueling swords. You might remember Ron as an ASA Security MP upstairs in the Farben Building. After giving a hand to the Frankfurt ASA photo and design group, the officer in charge liked Ron's work so well he had Ron's MOS changed from MP to a 951 Illustrator MOS. In civilian life, Ron was a freelance designer/illustrator and later an advertising and design teacher in the public schools.

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M y Special thanks to Dan Thacker for his work with the photos.

MEMORIAL DAY

ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON

THEM

FRED GERSTNER [email protected]

HELP ME OUT - Does anyone know the city or state Jim Sloan was from or who he hung out with in Frankfurt? Jim was on Delta Trick, but I don't have enough information to track him down. I spoke with his buddy Jim Powell, but he was unable to help me after all these years. Any help would be appreciated.

TO ALL ASA COMM UNIT VETS ODDS & ENDS V...

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