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8612TH A. A. U. Camp Chitose II-1954 |
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Pvt Jim Brock in August 1954. Just to send home. HA. |
I enlisted in the Army Security Agency on April 2, 1953. Served in Japan at 8612 DU, APO 181 from 1954-57. The post shown below is where I spent most of my tour in Japan. The Quonset huts were heated by oil burning space heaters, that some time got to be cherry red. The snow got a lot deeper than shown here at times. The second to the only paved street on Hokkaido ran in front of the Mess Hall, starting at the Guard Shack (not shown) to the left in front of the Orderly Room (Hqs Bldg) to the left and running to operations. The other one ran from Chitose I to Sapporo. The Company Area was covered by these stanchions holding hot water pipes off the ground. The mess hall is shown on right with white panel of windows. First hut this side is 106 and the next is 104 (not shown). Across to the left was the Orderly Room, coming this way was the supply room and then 105, 103, and 101 (not shown) the last on the left. I lived in 106 when I first arrived and met guys by the name of Harold Norrod, Dick Holsinger, Bob Wier, Shorty Richardson Ken Leidy, Bob "Bloop" Cummings. All but Bloop are Cooks. Robert Fussell was a pole lineman in the Antenna Field. He was some kind of a good guy. Bloop and I arrived at the same time and lived temporarily with the Cooks until we were assigned to a trick barracks. I went to trick two and to live in 105. PVT John White was on that trick,with Don Deming, Jackie Wilson, P. B. Lee, Sgt Kurtz, Dick Laurie, Hank and Don Buie were TA types in Ops, along with Bob Craft. SFC Bierbauer was Motor Sergeant, MSG Kutnarowski was Mess Sgt. First Sergeant Cormier reigned in the orderly room and Maj Ben McKibben was the CO. Cpt McNutt was motor officer. CWO Hannah was in Ops, Lt Hal Flemming, Lt Blackburn, CWO Gracie, and MSG Howard were in Ops. I was a PVT 2 in Radio Printer in Ops. SFC Moe Nutter was my first Boss, SFC Ed Eggeiston was my Trick Chief, SFC Bob Shake was a printer TIC somewhere, WOJG (WOEGEE) Taylor was known as Shakey Taylor. SFC Larry Grimshaw was in DF, Ron Dakin in Morse shop. John Davis in Voice. Chuck Dawson and Jim Estep came into Printer later in '54. Don Austin was in TA. He had been stabbed by a 1st Cav Division soldier with a letter opener. Had the Half-moon operation familiar to lung wounds victims. Henry Friedle, George Kitrinos, Jim Edge and Larry Stanbro were Cops. SFC Jordan was in charge of the MP's. Jay Heim was in personnel, with CWO Gaylord Mosure and SFC Dave Baker. In August or so SFC Bill Wood and SFC Frank Ingrassia arrived at Camp Chitose II. Bill replaced Sfc Moe Nutter as NCOIC of Non Morse and Frank became NCOIC of T/A with Wo Gracie. Jess Baker left about that time. Bill and Frank lived in the cadre room in 106. There were many rambunctious pennocle games played during their short stay in the barracks before their wives arrived. Help me out if you have memory of others in April 1954 and later, until March 1957. |
Brings back a lot of memories, which I'll try to document and get off to you ASAP. The photograph is a good one, although for the life of me I can't remember the stanchions running down the center of the street. Could they have been something added after I left in the late fall of 1954. If Robert Fussell is the guy I am thinking about, he was first assigned as a ditty-bopper but couldn't cut it, partly because he had hands the size of a baseball glove and fingers that would span two keys on the mill and cause endless problems. As you noted, he was a good guy whose morale soared when he got the outside job keeping the antenna field in good repair. (That is the guy.) I was a Watch Officer, OIC of the Voice Section, and Maintenance Officer from late fall of 1952 to late fall of 1954, transferring to Tokyo just before the big fire that destroyed the operations building. Some more names: SFC Owen Yates, NCOIC, Voice Section; Art Johnson, Voice Section; Captains Oscar Jarlett, Justin McCarty, Mac Stevenson, and Leighton, a line of Operations Officers; Lt Ray Toner, watch officer and OIC of DF section, and Lt Heck, Watch Officer. Another good guy, whose name I have been trying to recall for years, was the clerk in Operations who was from Philadelphia if my memory serves me well. (Can anyone help out with this guy's name) Another name came back last night--Major Horton who was Major McKibbon's replacement as CO. (Major John T. Horton became CO in August 1954. He came from Korea. We had a picture of him before he arrived in the Chitose Confidential. He had a Clark Gable style mustache. Every enlisted man tried to grow a mustache with which to greet the new CO. Never heard how he took that.) Bill Christie's Comment. That particular picture made me go outside and start looking for a "duece and a half" to go to town. Ron Dakin's Comment:Great job. What can I do to help. I'm not sure you know this, but my trick was on duty in December 54 when the Op's building burned down. If you need any input, let me know.glad to contribute. |
COMMANDER 1953-1954 |
Maj Ben B Mckibben inspecting the troops |
Maj Ben B Mckibben inspecting weapon |
Maj Ben's Jeep as seen in Chitosetown |
The Front Gate Sign 1954 |
Date: 4/29/02 5:34:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: janeinpcola@webtv.net To: brockjim@aol.com I joined Major McKibben in Chitose in July 1952 and we were there until July 1954. We came back together on a ship and went directly to Fort Devens. Ma. This does bring back lots of memories for me . Our Children have all seen this and think it is wonderful, thanks, Sgt. Brock. Lt. Col. McKibben passed away in Mar. 1970 and is buried at Fort Barrancas National Cemetery here in Pensacola, Fl. Mrs. Ben B. McKibben,Jr. Enjoyed your message! I really don't mind you sharing my note, I remember most of the officers and some of the EM. Would be nice to hear from some of them. Sincerely, Jane McKibben |
Henry "Hank" Buie sends this photo of some of the guys on his trick. I AM 1ST LEFT BOTTOM ROW, EASTLAND AND STARK ARE IN THE SHORT MID-ROW ON THE RIGHT (EASTLAND IN WHITE SWEATER AND STARK IN SLEEVES SWEATER).TERRY ......? IS 3RD IN BACK ROW FROM THE LEFT.I KNOW HE WAS FROM NY STATE AND THAT HE RE-ENLISTED BECAUSE I MET HIM AGAIN A COUPLE OF YEARS LATER AT THE FORT. HOPE SOMEONE CAN ADD/CORRECT THIS INFO. AS A SENIOR I AM ONLY CERTAIN ABOUT ME; THE REST IS A BEST GUESS; I KNOW IT WAS IN 54 AND I THINK TRICK 2 BUT NOT FOR CERTAIN. |
Hank Buie - 1954 |
(Repeat of lettering on picture for clarity.) Trick 3, 1953-1954 Left to right, Ron Dakin, Jim Behrenberg,Jerry Kurtz, Bob Craft, Hank Buie, Pete Reganato. What do you think? Nice looking group for 50 years later. Hooah! ASA Lives! |
PFC Henry "Hank" Buie left and "memory fails" at right. Help! |
Phil Stennis, with steam plant behind quansett 102, the weight room. I think?.! |
PFC Gilley of Ice Floe and Flag football fame. Right Gil? |
"88" Newman second from left, Big Gilley center and Basil Pavlicek front right. Looks like a barracks party. Huh? |
Top Row - Bill Buerkle, ? , Robbie Robinson, Yogi Yberra, Dick Taylor Bottom Row - "Dud" Weatherby, Bob Grove of Electronic Maintenance, Operations |
Bob Kittleson, Dick Ott, SFC Snodgrass, Bob Grove, Dick Taylor, Ron Nicholson, "Dud" Weatherby, Jaques Crevier, ? , Don O'Sullivan of Electronic Maintenance, Operations. |
I'm CPL Lou Marinaccio. I was at Chitose from January 1953 to December 1954. I left just prior to the big fire. |
This is a couple of my friends Ron Dakin and Jerry Kurtz. I was in the same barracks as Ron & Jerry and we were on the same trick. |
PVT Larry Stanbro, MP. Who said all the monkeys aren't in the Zoo? |
Front Gate in summertime. Yeah it got bad in winter. See below. |
Dave Ott Background is the heating plant that provided our hot water through the overhead pipes. |
Charlie Dawson - 1954 |
Charlie Dawson and Jim Estep -1954 |
Charlie Dawson and Sniffles = 1954 |
Charlie Dawson-1954 |
Barracks Quonset -1954 |
See the oil stove pipes? There is a Quonset barracks under that snow. |
Snow storm as seen in town -1954 |
Chitose Town shops just after the big one. |
This is a picture of the Operations Building which burned on 29 December 1954. This is me,Jim Brock, in foreground cutting at a softball. Picture taken from the softball diamond in front of Operations. Emphasis of picture is Operations Building not my bad swing.//8-D) |
This is a rough sketch of Operations Building layout. Read from front to back on left of the hall: R/T Transcription, Operations Office, Latrine, Commo Maintenance (Place fire started), ComCenter. Right of Hall: R/P Section with Voice Positions, TA/CA, M/M Section with Voice Positions. Building seen behind Operations is Electronic Maintenance. Smoke Stack is Classified Trash Incinerator. James way Tent building is to left of Ops Bldg. Guard Shack is in front of Door to Ops on the fence line. I think the fire plug was as indicated in sketch, out side the fence. I'm just not sure. Help!! |
Thanks to Ron Dakin and Phil Peters for the pictures. This is the first pictures I've seen of the fire. This is the Operations Building on fire as seen from about the rear of barracks quansett 106.
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Operations Building well along with the fire. If this picture is in the early minutes of the fire then the Japaneses firemen are probably from our local fire station where the fire engine would not start due to cold weather. They are however inside the fence that surrounds the building as seen in the before picture above. The Japanese fire engine from Chitose town took 30-45 minutes to get to the scene. The fire engine from the Chitose I compound near town slide into the ditch and didn't get to the scene until much later than the to other engine.
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Operations Building fire. I know there was windows in the building, but they were very well covered from within. I don't remember what was used to cover them but obviously it didn't take long to burn it off from the inside. I believe the MP's name is Grutkowski or something like that with ski.
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This is the thermite devices which were made to destroy the classified comm center equip in case we had to leave it behind in an emergency. The rectangular, narrow canister setting to the right of the object far left with a handle in the upper left quarter of the picture is a surviving device case. We had these in Viet Nam setting on top of all of our filing cabinets. Last one out pulled all the pins. They do a good job don't they? They were actually in the back room of of the comm center where the maintenance of the equipment was done. It was an accident that caused the stack of devices to fall over. One or more of the pins broke and it was as if someone pulled the pin. No one knew that until the first one went off and started a chain reaction with the rest of them. Perhaps as many as a dozen devices. The hole in the cement floor was about two feet deep and four feet across where they lay on the floor. The major change brought a bought by this accident was that a little wooden weather tight storage shed outside in the compound was used to store the thermite devices at all stations following this fiasco.
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My name is Ron Dakin and I was the Morse Trick Chief on the day shift when the fire occurred in the Operations Building on December 29, 1954.1 was sitting at my console at the front of the Morse room. The room was comprised of Morse operators on both sides of the room and the language group was in the rear on the left hand side. |
AFTER THE GREAT FIRE |
Hank Buie on R&R in Matsushima Bay area by the 16th Corp Sign.. |
My first quarters on Chitose Camp II in April 1954. |
Chitose Angels Cpls Stark, Buie and unk. |
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