Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 16:14:12 -0600 (PST)
From: Donald Shipman dlships@verizon.net
Subj: 332nd Comm Recon Co.
To: wetemp@aol.com
Hi Wade,
I found your website today and became very excited. I shipped over to Germany in the fall of 52 with the 328tn C/R company from Ft. Devens. Half of us were shipped to the 332nd and after arriving in Bad Aibling, I started my stint in Heilbronn but moved with a 9 man patrol to several spots along the border. After the snow forced us to return to the company which was in Hof (as I recall) we soon found ourselves transferred to Coburg with operations at the airstrip above the castle. I spent time at DF outposts and on border patrols but was able to enjoy a fairly long stay at Coburg and Bamberg. Don Strock, E. Paul Flint and I setup a ham station in the attic of the barracks (In Bamberg) WT). My German call sign was DL4AV and I recall Don Strock's was DL4MY. I have lots of good pictures and am in contact with E. Paul Flint via radio quite often. Paul has many good photos. My dog's mane was Killer. I would like to share my memories. I left the unit in August 1954.
Hope this note finds you.
Best wishes
Don Shipman
North Myrtle Beach, SC
W3RFD
New email dated Feb 3, 2006
That guy was most likely Paul Flint. He now resides at Home Lake Veterans home in Colorado. I have a weekly CW schedule with him but have not been in touch for over two months as he had Chemo treatments and has not felt much like getting on the air. I plan to visit him sometime this year. (This remark is because I told Don that I had been in the CW room in the attic of the baracks in Bamberg with a person who was a radio repairman like I was but whose name I cannot remember W.T.)
Don Stock, W7LAN from Annacortes, WA and I were the first to get our German ham license and establish the first station in the attic in the barracks in Coburg. We found a blown power transformer from a BC610 (Transmitter W.T.) and had the Germans rewind the filament transformers and chokes and we built a fine breadboard linear around a 250th. I had an Elmac A-54 H shipped to me from the US and we had a blast. I can't recall Paul Flint's call now but when I contact him I'll get it. He was from Mass.
When the Company moved to Bamberg I was stationed at a DF site or on one of the 9 border patrol so others moved the station and set it up and I never got involved with it again. When I came back to the Company I was stationed at the post where the ammo dump is located. We has two buildings there and there was a movie theater and a Black trucking company. During this period intergration was beggining to happen. Later we moved to the other Barracks where the main part of the Company was located. The moter pool and the mess hall were across from the barracks.
The last two or three months while I was there I ran an intercept op school for new guys comming into the company. As I recall, command changed and the new Captain was quite strict. You had to snap to when being passed by an officer in the hall.
There were only two Negro guys in our company. One was named Dexter Callander and the other guys name escapes me right now .. it could be Callahan. Anyway, as I mentioned, the army was just beginning to become intergrated.
My three years were coming to a close in July 1954 and I was shipped to Bremmerhaven for a troop ship ride back to the land of the big PX. I was disharged on August 27, 1954.
I will try to write about my time with the Agency and include some pictures within the next frw weeks. I'm attaching a photo of me taken while on patrol near the East German border close to Tann, Germany. I'm actually leaning against the Irom Curtain.
We'll keep in touch.
Don Shipman
New email dated Feb. 4, 2006
Wade
Thanks for the info. Jim Clinton doesn't ring a bell but I probably knew him. I'll give it more thought today. You and I could have been neighbors before I moved from Bethleham, Pa after retiring from Bethleham Steel in 1986. Been here for 20 years except for the time I worked in Turkey and South America.
More later. Here's a picture of another career soldier, Bob Cotton standing next to a twenty man cooker at our patrol site near Tann Germany about the time you were arriving in the company.
Don
New page Feb. 17, 2009