We were called to duty (often rousted out of bed) at the first hint of a call sign change, and worked around the clock until the crisis was over. These were the days we earned our stripes… Soon their listener’s knew that we knew-this was the secret cold war. Our monitoring could bring the entire Allied Forces to a silent alert. (Of course, the Allies did the same thing.) Usually these changes turned out to be military training or maneuvers, but the Allies always had to treat them as the real thing-perhaps an invasion of Europe. These changes were usually preceded by changes in the Russians’ radio call signs and frequencies-operational details which we spent months tying to specific military units (ground and air), thus defining their military organizations, or “order of battle.” The Russians changed their call signs because they knew we were listening and that the change would confuse our monitoring efforts. Our work became most serious when the Russians made some move or change in their military operations, changes we were often the first to detect. Yeah, we were kind of a smart-alec bunch of kids, but we did our jobs well. USAFSS RSM Units (Radio Squadron’s Mobile) were stationed from Alaska to Korea, and from Scotland to North Africa… We were then sent worldwide to work in a secret part of the Cold War. (I do know what got me in-a brand new BS degree, and because I had a ham license and knew the Morse code!) We received on-the-job training in communications intelligence (COMINT) at Brooks AFB in San Antonio, Texas. Not that we knew anything about what we were getting into, but many of us had college degrees or other aptitudes that filtered us into the USAFSS. The truth is, we were hand picked for our jobs. Because of the sensitive nature of our jobs, we were forbidden to take leave in the border area near the Iron Curtain, but listening to Russian radio signals across that border was our job. On the other hand, we were all very serious about our jobs, part of a large intelligence gathering enterprise. His translators were evacuated before some of the GI’s, because of the sensitivity of their jobs.) We spent our spare time chasing German frauleins, drinking German beer, snapping our German cameras, traveling throughout Western Europe and dreaming about getting out at the end of our 4-year enlistment. He told us of working with Korean translators so near the front that they became overun and had to be evacuated by air. Jim Schuman, who had served in Korea, was assigned to our section. Although far from home and in the land of a former enemy, most of us privately gave thanks that we were not with our USAFSS counterparts in Korea we knew we had a plum assignment in Bavaria. (Master Sgt. Our daily jobs were part of an Air Force intelligence mission and highly classified. Our unit was the 6910th Security Group, based at a former German air base just outside the beautiful little Bavarian town of Landsberg am/Lech. A bunch of very non-military college-age kids were serving in the United States Air Force Security Service (USAFSS). I remember it like it was last year, but it was really over 50 years ago now.
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