Giebelstadt, Germany

Memories of Giebelstadt
1950-1956

Web site comment - Were you assigned to Giebelstadt between 1950 and 1956? We sure would like to hear from you. Feel free to send us an email message and let's work towards getting your memories on our web site.

Matuszek, Clarence "Matt" - I arrived at Giebelstadt on June 1, 1951 and was stationed there with the 603rd AC&W Squadron as a Radar Plotter until sometime in April, 1953 when I was sent on 60 days TDY to our detachment #1 in Hof. While there the CO asked if I wanted to stay, which I did until April, 1954 when I returned home on emergency leave.

I frequently attend the annual EAA [Experimental Aircraft Association] convention/show in Oshkosh WI. Lots of old airplanes etc. When examining a B-25 a few years ago the owner asked if I was old Air Force, which I am. Then he asked where I served, and I told him he would have never heard of the place in Germany. He insisted...where? I said Giebelstadt; he answered "I know where that is; I was on temorary duty there in the late fifties... "that is where they had a sign on the barbed wire fence that said if you crossed it, you would be shot, and they meant it!" I asked him what he was talking about. He said, "You know, where they had those big silver planes which were heavily guarded." I replied that there were no permanent aircraft at Giebelstadt during my assignment. Then he told me that they were U-2s, before they were painted black, and this was where some of the early U-2 flights orignated.

When I attended a 603rd reunion later that year I told this story to my former CO in Hof, Germany. He responded, "Don't you remember "Spotted Dog"?" and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Although I had forgotten that code name, the moment he said it I remembered exactly what is was. During the last few months at Hof we took our radar plots of aircraft on the other side of the Iron Curtain [primarily East Germany] at the end of each day to the CO's office and re-plotted them on a big, locked up roll-down map in his office. The intent [successful] was to use the concentrations of plots in order to locate the air bases on the other side. He said our early "intelligence" work was one of the reasons that the U-2 overflights were started. My response was that it took me 42 years to learn that I had done something specifically productive as a radar operator in the USAF.

Paganotti, Erika - I was a German girl, and in the summer of 1950 I was 21 years old. I lived in Schweinfurt Germany which was located northeast of Wurzburg. I frequented the USO Club in Schweinfurt and it was in this manner that I learned about dances which were being held at Giebelstadt. Transportation to and from the dances at Giebelstadt was organized by the USO Club in Schweinfurt. Entrance to the dances was free for us girls. The dances were held in the Airmens Club and both alcoholic and soft beverages were available. I do not remember the exact details pertaining to the dances such as how often they were held, or how long they lasted, but I do recall attending quite a few of these functions. As a rule, there would usually be between 20 to 25 girls who went. I do not recall ever seeing anything at the base, since we were not allowed to leave the Club and wander around. The bus took us directly to the Club and we all left together the same way we were driven in. The music at the dances was a mix of live bands and on some occasions, records were played.

Tompkins, Richard - I arrived in Giebelstadt in October 1953 and I departed in August 1956. I was trained as a radio operator and our post was on the back of a two & half ton truck, one of those huts built on the bed. We were located on one of the old taxiways, half mile away from the radar site. My final 18 months were spent heading a small three-man team as a cryptographer, located in the HQ building. Months before leaving in l956 a super secret "weather squadron" arrived and before they got their own crytpo center up and running, I did a few of their messages. They took over a portion of our base including one of the large hangars built by the Luftwaffe. They launched large balloons, which prevailing winds took east across the Soviet controlled part of Europe and over Russia. Some were shot down, and later most were retrieved in the Pacific by the Navy. They were not weather balloons, of course, but the huge gondola contained cameras, the forerunner to U2s.

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