Ray Croel shares his photos from 1958-59.  Thanks Ray for adding your memories of Schneeberg.  Each photo brings its own unique experience and captures a moment in time.

( March 21, 2002)

Click here to provide feedback on any of these photos or your comments on their content.

Ray's message:  When I arrived on Schneeberg the cabin did not exist.  There was a much smaller wooden cabin there that the German guards stayed in.  We all lived in the ops building at the time. There were only about 25 of us there at the time, maybe 30 with the off post people. The old cabin was torn down and the new one built while I was there.  After it was done some of us moved down there.  My memory is a bit fuzzy on this but I think it was built to accommodate more people. There were no linguists there at the time and more room was needed for them.  There was nothing else outside the gate. No mess hall or club. The mess hall was still in the ops building and when the supply building was converted that became the "club".

My MOS was 204. As you probably know ECM (Electronic Counter Measures)

I, of course, worked in ops.  To read more about these life and times click here.

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Hi Phil,

The small bridge was a pedestrian bridge at the cabin. There was a driveway and a vehicle bridge just a few feet below it. In the picture of Jimmy Fulmer, a small structure can be seen to the left of the frame (Jimmy's right). It is about five high, three feet wide and about two feet deep. The bottom part is masonry and the upper part is metal.  That was the ammo storage for the German Guards.

Til next time,

Bill Evans

Bingo! It is Jimmy Fulmer, cook, currently residing in Birmingham, Ala. He is leaning against the hand rail of the small foot bridge that led into the cabin.

Til next time,

Bill Evans.

P.S. The original cabin was made of wood and was barracks for the German Guards.  After the Labor Service Units (of which our guards were a part) were disbanded, GIs moved into the cabin.  Short-timer SP4 Joseph "Frenchy" Beaudet of Woonsocket, RI repainted the interior.  I was the second GI to move into the cabin, to keep Frenchy company.  1Sgt Casey and Ops Sgt Merv Balyeat bought, with their private money, new linoleum.  I helped Merv Balyeat install it in the two rooms nearest the road.  The room fartherest from the road was the German's kitchen/messhall.  Under the dining table was a padlocked trap door.  The Germans kept their beer in a small brick vault under the trap door.  Merv Balyeat and another helper installed the linoleum in the third room.  Of course the hasp had to be removed. Merv Balyeat thought he was going to help himself to a bottle of my Maisel Brau, that he KNEW I had, but found the vault empty, or so he thought.  There was space between the top of the vault and the underside of the floor. T hat is where I had my case of Maisel Brau stashed.  The brick part of the cabin was an extension of the original wooden structure.  The steam heat for the addition was extended to original three rooms. Don't recall what happened to the original latrine with its little coal fired water heater.

Bill

Hi Paul,

I was in a near state of panic yesterday when I wrote from work. I went to the Schneeberg site and less that half the usual stuff was displayed. I tried again after I got home and again this morning at work - everything is 5X5.  Yes, that is Jummy Fulmer leaning against the small bridge at the cabin.  There was a vehicle bridge just below it.  Can't tell from Jimmy's picture if it is the old wooden vehicle bridge.  At one point it became too rotten to drive over and was torn out.  No bridge was a problem for a jeep or truck, but was for our cars.  One night Jimmy and I "liberated" some concrete pipe where the Germans were rebuilding a side road off of Route 303 below Bisch.  My poor car was so loaded down it would hardly move.  How we got the pipe back to the cabin without breaking a spring or an axle is a tribute to Opel engineering.  Don't recall where we had been drinking before we "requisitioned" the pipe.   Bill Randall laid the pipe.  We didn't have the proper machinery so Randall just packed the dirt around the pipe by driving a deuce'n'half back and forth.  Did a good job of packing the dirt and waking up the shift workers who were trying to sleep.

Ed Brophy was the volunteer in charge of "procuring" the sheep.  He is not on line but his daughter is. Next time I call, I'll ask him to send his recollection.

Til next time,

Bill Evans

Hi Phil,

Every time some one mentions something, it sets off another chain reaction of memories.  As we all well know winter on Schneeberg lived up to its name.  The winter of '56-'57 was an especially bitter one. Since it had not snowed for two or three days (can you imagine that) no one started the deuce'n'half  that had the snow plow mounted on it. Don't recall exactly what time it was other than it was dark-which could have been 5:00PM.  It was starting to snow very lightly.  Ops Sgt Merv Balyeat wisely decided to make sure the snow plow would be running when needed. The engine was so cold it would not turn over, even with a jumper cable. To warm the engine we put a five gallon can of motor oil in the kitchen sink and filled the sink with hot water. When the oil was warm we poured the entire five gallons into the engine.  This warmed the engine enough for it to turn over, but it would not start.  Bob Gouras let the other truck idle and got a pint bottle of alcohol from ops that we used for cleaning recorder heads (spray cans of starting fluid had not been invented yet) and poured that into the carb.  All this time I was cranking the engine-with the starter of course.  The starter was getting so hot I could smell it when the engine finally caught.  A new policy was put into effect on the spot.  That deuce'n'half WOULD BE started a minimum of twice a day.  But I digress.  I set out to tell you that we too used mother nature's beer cooler when we lived in the ops building wing nearest the gate.  We would push the shutters open and stuff bottles of beer into the snow.  For a real quick buzz we would wait for the beer to turn to slush and drink the almost pure alcohol.  When the snow melted we had a big police call.  The easiest way to get rid of the beer bottles was to toss them over the fence.  The German guards were pissed.  Not only were we breaking bottles in their patrol path - it was their bottles.

Good night to all.

Til next time,

Bill Evans

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