Over the course of the years that the 11th Sig Bn (and its predecessor) operated radio site, the sites were also given codenames such as:
Radio (Relay Site) Mercedes
Radio (Relay Site) Morgan
or
Radio Site Golf Bravo
Radio Site YS
Radio Site BB
Who can tell us more about this?

(1) I was stationed on Relay Morgan from mid 1974 to late 1976 and have a few stories to tell.  I also have a minor update to the list of Terminal sites...specifically T-72 (I believe) at Germersheim Army Depot.  This site was shut down in 1974.  I was then reassigned to Relay Morgan. (Source: Mark Forsstrom)

Radio Relay Rover
Other than a few days of initial briefing at HQ in Darmstadt, I spent almost the entire time in Germany atop Mt. Melibokus at Radio Relay Rover. Mostly I have fond memories of the people I worked with on the mountain and too many stories to recount here in detail. Considering all the other possibilities at the time this was a very satisfying job which we took quite seriously. It sure beat being shot at but we did have to ‘lock and load’ when Russia invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. We had to keep the site locked down for a while and maintain guard duty at night as well as tend to our ‘normal’ work routines. The good news is that nobody decided to invade our site!

Having read the ‘Mountain Men Of Melibokus’ article on this website I can tell you that in the fourteen months or so that I was there our routines were pretty similar. Compared to some of the other sites Rover was not a bad installation as far as being stuck atop a mountain goes. There was a living quarters building with a shower room, kitchen, large day room, and sleeping quarters for onsite personnel. The operations room was a separate building as was the generator building.

While there in 1968-69 we still had the old steel towers which were not easy to work on especially in the winter and in bad weather. Thankfully it wasn’t something that needed to be done every day but yanking low-loss cable up there was quite a job.

In those days we ran two shifts of 12 hours each, two day shifts, two night shifts, two days off. This certainly beat HQ daily formations, guard duty, motor pool duty and endless inspections. We ‘mountain folk’ avoided HQ in Darmstadt as much as possible.

There was a ¾ ton truck that we used to go food shopping at the PX once a month (We pooled our money to do so) and to get up and down the mountain. We didn’t have an official cook but if you cooked something edible that everyone else liked, you were the chef that day! Mostly we consumed a lot of processed foods. Rice-A-Roni was a big favorite. There was an abundant supply of water from very large storage tanks in the basement. We never did run out, but the one winter I was there we got pretty low before the German civilian water truck could get up to the site.

We also were able to secure a steady supply of first run movies and had our own projector, but no screen, the dayroom wall worked pretty well however in that regard.

Not much in the way of recreation was available at Rover but there was always the mountain to walk around on. Not far from the site was a visitor, tourist viewing platform and a small restaurant. We would get lunch there sometimes and a good rate as we also supplied the operator of the little tourist cafe with coffee from our food shopping sprees. This was a good arrangement for everyone as he was able to serve excellent Maxwell House Coffee instead of the crappy German brand and we got cheap bread, cheese, and sausage.

It didn’t take long to settle into the routine on the mountain. Yes it was isolated especially in winter. Occasionally if we were working together one of the guys who lived in town with his wife would take me down the mountain with him and I would spend the night with them and have dinner, which was a treat.

Having two days off gave us plenty of opportunity to explore the local area, the towns, historic places, scenery and meet the German people. Bensheim, Jugenheim, Heppenheim, Auerbach, and many more where interesting destinations all close by. Darmstadt was especially pretty at Christmas time.

Our visiting technical specialist repairman Dennis Stroupe was into fine dining and on several occasions I went to some excellent food establishments with him and he was instrumental in honing my food appreciation skills.

Personnel came and went and eventually we were assigned a new SSG site chief. We did not mix well and I knew sooner or later he would find a way to remove me from Melibokus and he did. I was just about a short timer by then (three months to go) and so it wasn’t much of a hardship for me as I did have some support at company HQ and I soon had a clerking job till I left for the US and home.

No more glorious sunsets on the mountain, but morning formations, guard duty, and inspections. At least I had basically a 9 to 5 job and a snack bar for lunch. I was lucky enough to get an early separation for the holidays and my effective date of separation was December 20th, 1969.

I have never been back although I think I still would like to do so someday. After exploring this website and other it appears that the Melibokus site no longer exists. The new concrete towers are still there and the tourist site. I even managed to find a Melibokus webcam. The views remain as spectacular as they always were. Melibokus webcam: http://www.melibokus.com/

The "Kitchen trailer" had 2 refrigerators (one for food and one for beer provided by the beer distributor), a bathroom used rarely for baths only. We had to heat water in 5 gal gerry cans on the drip heaters. The Bar was big enough for a couple of small tables. We would occasionally have parties with the Locals after the gasthauses closed. Not visible to the right of the sleeping trailer was a bunker we used to store cases of beer. I was told it was originally for ammo, but found that hard to believe.

There was a shed behind the Radio Room that was for fuel, grease, oil and other flammables. For some reason there was a large patch of moss on the north of the end of the Radio Room, which we kept well watered as there was no bath room or outhouse.

The radio building was directly below me in the above picture. I believe the reason for 2 towers was space, one tower was pretty full. I've included a picture that shows the horns. I believe we had between 4-6 shots. I don't remember where they all went, but I believe one went to Wertheim. One of them was actually bounced off a "mountain" and not directly pointed at the other end.

We had a small TV with poor reception. We got movies once or twice a month from the barracks in Wertheim, where we also shopped for groceries and took showers. We also used the local bath house in Moenchberg. There was a retired Sargent Major (Thompson) in town who married a local girl and ran one of the gasthauses. They were good friends to all the guys on the site, kind of like a father figure to us.

I was originally stationed in Würzburg then transferred to Giebelstadt until finally being transferred to Sunbeam in Jan 1967.

We built the second radio tower to the right in the picture. Mike Lee and myself did most of the construction. Before that myself and Buchness fixed up the trailer across from the day room. It was in sorry shape when it arrived from France.

Giebelstadt Aug 1966 - Jan 1967

Was my first duty station after spending around a month @ Emery Barracks in Wurzburg with Company B attached to the 7th Army. I was a generator mechanic/operator, 52B30 if I remember correctly, and we were billeted in BOQ’s on the Air Base. Site had power and the generators were for backup and only started to keep the batteries charged or if the power went out which it didn’t while I was there. Was great as there were two men to a room who shared a regular bathroom complete with shower with two others in the next room. We also had maid service which took care of the basics. Beds were twin size and not bunk – oh yes also had a fridge in the room and laundry services at the end of the building. If I remember correctly there were 12 rooms/24 men to the building.

Being a small Air Base for the radar site it had everything. There was a sports club, movie theater, full size gym complete with basketball court and showers with a steam room. Medical and dental services where also on base as there was a rather large NCO club which for some reason let me and a couple of others become members.

Sergeant in charge was a fellow about 25 years old, Arthur Percopio (not sure of the spelling) from Pittsburg.

Radio Operators where:

When Percopio left he was replaced by an E6 Lee who had served there before going to Nam. Amazing to find that out when he told me I took the long way back to the site when I picked him up from Wurzburg.

Was sent to Sunbeam on an emergency the end of October as they were without power and their mechanic – Weigle from NYC – didn’t have the ability to get the generators fixed. Spent 3 days working in the snow with high winds and freezing weather. Little did I know that this set me up to later replace Weigle. Did not like the place at all – was a big let down from the comfort of Giebelstadt.

Sunbeam Jan 1967 – Jan 1968

Weather hadn’t changed much from October except it was colder and more snow. Oh yes within a month I loved the place. With one NCO at the site and no officers it was rather like home.

Sergeant in charge was an E5 whom I cannot remember his name. He introduced me to the town of Monchberg and spoke decent German and was married to a German gal and lived off site.

Radio operators were:

When Thacker rotated home I was instrumental in getting Mike Lee from Giebelstadt transferred to fill his spot. It helped Mike as it was more money with the FDP and less people with more of a family environment.

In the year I was there site command changed three times – replacements where both transfers from Nam. First was an E6 who spent more time off base, with young German fellows, than being present. The last one was also an E6 who started out good but ended up liking the booze way too much. Had to threaten him off site one night when he showed up under the influence and I being senior ranking – SP5 – man on site told him to get or be reported.

Story on the shed across from the dayroom between the generator shed and the house trailer. When we got permission to build the onsite bar we worked a deal with a beverage distributor and received a couple of tables with chairs for the bar, glasses, a separate fridge to keep the beer cold and delivery every two weeks. We needed space to store the many cases of beer so we used that shed which was the POL shed. We built a new one behind the radio shed using PSP which allowed better protection and ventilation for the flammables.

As stated in my previous email we raised the second radio tower in 1967 with myself and Lee doing the off ground construction of the 6-8 foot sections. We also constructed a helipad from PSP for a prominent inspection early summer 1967 which included a two star general. Was at least 3 choppers that showed up and the lowest ranking man was a captain excluding the pilots and crews. Greens were required and I will never forget that the General and I were having words about the generator system in front of the converted POL shed that was now the beer shed when the German delivery man pulled in for restocking. The General had a surprised look on his face and asked what was happening. The delivery fellow approached for a signature on the invoice carrying two flippys and saluted using his left hand while handing the two of us the beer. Surprised me when the General returned the salute and accepted the beer and shocked me a couple of minutes later when he suggested we enter the generator shed to be out of sight while we indulged. It was then he stated he should put in for a transfer.

Our living quarters were in a small town at the base of the mountain, Donnersdorf. It would take about 10-12 minutes to get to the site, from the house. At the time we were the only site in our company that ran on generators. We had two 30Kw generators that we had to fill with diesel at the end of the shift. We had to use 5 gallon jerry cans. We had to go into Schweinfurt, everyday to sign out our vehicle.

I remember an entry from PFC Katherine Bartelle, about REFORGER 82, I remember a incident. We received the heads up that we were going to have aggressors attack the site. With us up on the top of the mountain. We had the best vantage point. We sent out patrols to both ends of the hill and we laid and waited for them. I do know that they didn't have much info on the site lay out. In the photos of Zabelstein, you can see the German site next to us. The German site had a 3 foot fence on three sides of it. On the back, it was against our 12-foot fence. The attack force jumped the little fence they thought they had it made. That they were on our site. What they didn't know that we had time to put TWO M-60 machine gun nests. When they came around the German building they were caught in the cross fire. Were they surprised. Our site received a letter of commendation.