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PENTAGON In 1972 while on the Inspector
Generals Team at Northern Communications Area, Griffiss Air Force Base, New
York, I received a telephone call from an old buddy, Colonel Bill Gish, that I
knew when I was stationed in Sonderstrom, Greenland. Bill was assigned at the Pentagon and was looking for someone
to replace him. It was normal
procedure at the Pentagon for the incumbents to find their replacements when
their tour of duty at the Pentagon was up.
At this practically time I had just been advised that I had been selected
for an assignment to Southeast Asia, in all probability, Viet Nam.
Bill said he was in a position to get that assignment canceled if I
wanted to come to the Pentagon. Several
telephone calls were made between Bill and myself and it was decided that I
should to go Southeast Asia and come to the Pentagon upon my return to the
United States. I arrived in Washington DC with
Loraine and Jan in June 1973. We
checked into a motel about three miles South of the Pentagon.
I called Bill at the Pentagon and found out that he wanted me to report
for duty as I recall Bill and I had a real
long trip getting to Berlin. We
departed Dulles on schedule and we were about half was across the Atlantic and
lost an engine. Some high officials
in New York issued orders that the air plane return to New York.
We landed in New York at about the same time we were supposed to be
landing in London, England. We were put in a motel in New York and had gone to bed and
within about two hours there was a knock on the door telling us to get dress
they had our air plane repaired and we needed to get to John F. Kennedy Airport
as soon as possible. We boarded and
while taxing to runway for take off the plane stopped. Would you believe that air plane had a flat tire and we sat
on the plane over two hours before we finally took off. Our connection at Heathrow, London Airport, was real tight.
Heathrow closes at 12 midnight (reason being noise abatement) and we had
only about ten minutes to get to our connecting flight to Frankfort, Germany.
We made the flight, but our baggage did not.
We got a motel in Frankfort, and got a flight onto Berlin the next
morning. Our bags showed up in
Berlin a day after our arrival. In addition to our business in
Berlin, Bill work in a little sight seeing for me. I had been to Germany in 1955, but this was my first visit to
Berlin. It was interesting to see
Brandenburg Gate, Check Point Charlie, the Berlin Wall and many other historical
sites. However, the social event
was a disaster. Bill took me to a
night club for diner and he order a bottle of champagne.
When the bill came it was almost $400. The restaurant wanted nothing but
Deutschemarks for payment, neither of us or even us together had that kind of
money. It was very late at night
all money exchange facilities were closed.
Bill let them hold me hostage while he went back to the Bachelor Officers
Quarters and woke up a few people and borrowed the money until the next day.
Bill was real surprised and upset at what had happen.
He read and spoke German, in fact he was married to a German lady.
He did just not pay attention to the menu.
The menu was all Greek to me. As
one gets older you always have something else to learn.
I really enjoyed the German food. Berlin
was a very interesting place. This
was the first of several visits I would make during the next four years.
One had to stop and recall that Berlin was still an occupied city from
World War II. There was a very highly
classified project associated with Berlin and the air traffic control facilities
associated with air access to Berlin. There was and unclassified nickname for this project called
"Bamboo Tree". I was the
sole Air Force Officer responsible to insure the success of Bamboo Tree.
Basically the project included Air Traffic Control Radar's, Radio's, and
Navigational Aid's that could operate and provide error free service in a very
hostile electronic environment. This
was a very expensive, complicated, and secretive program.
I had three major civilian contractors:
General Electric, Magnavox, and Texas Instruments, that I worked with in
developing the equipment to support this program.
It was am extremely interesting program to work.
It not only involved military aircraft but some civilian aircraft.
At this particular time the United States Air Carrier supporting Berlin
was Pan American Air Lines. Pan Am
had 51 scheduled flights a day into Tegal Airport (located in the French
Sector). Of course Air France was
the French Airline and BOAC was the British Air Line.
All Commercial flights used the Tegal Airport.
The US Military airfield was Tempelhoff.
Tempelhoff was used primarily for the Berlin airlift right after World
War II and was where one of the US pilots would toss candy out of the aircraft
on every flight he made into Berlin. This
candy operation became very well known throughout the world. One of the primary reason for
this trip to Berlin was for me to meet the folks in charge of the quadripartite
parties. This included the
Russians, French, British, and American. These
where the parties in Berlin who administered the flow of air traffic into and
out of Berlin. At the end of World
War II the Metro Metropolitan Area of Berlin was divided into four parts,
each of the above countries administering there own part.
Of course the divided city was completely surrounded by land under
control of East Germany. Therefore,
the only way to enter and exit Berlin, and not be harassed was through
the air. The legal authority
responsible for the air traffic control were representative from each of
the four powers and they operated from an old building located in the
geographical center of Berlin. This
was a 720 room building that was the Supreme Court Building of Germany when the
Capital of Germany was located in Berlin. Of
the 720 rooms in the building only five were used.
Each of the four countries occupied one room each and then the fifth room
was were they meet. The meeting
room had one very large table. I would guess about ten feet wide and sixteen
feet long. The American and British
sat on one side of the table with the Brit. facing the Frenchman, while the
American faced the Russian. It is
unbelievable what occurred in this room from about 1954 until the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989. It was just an
administrative formality. For
example, each flight that entered one of the Berlin Air Corridors the country
who own the aircraft submitted a document to the Russian representative giving
the particulars such estimated time of arrival at the corridor entry point, the
altitude, estimated time of arrival in Berlin.
The Russian looked or appeared to look at the document and he would place
a stamp on the document which said in effect that "Safety of Flight can not
be assured." The Russian would
them return the document to the representative of the country that gave it to
him. This representative would then
stamp it with a message which said: "We do not care we are coming
anyway." This exchange went on
24 hours a day, seven days a week for thirty-five years. This was a political exchange.
The Russians were trying to get the Western power to work and exchange
information with the East German Government.
However, the US did not recognize the East Germany Government.
This operation was under the direction of the US State Department.
I had to work very close with these people and coordinate all activities
with them. While these folks were
playing political games in the old Judicial Building, the project that I was
concerned about was at Templehoff, where the actual control of all aircraft into
and out of the corridors was taking place.
These Corridors started at a point where they entered East Germany
territory and a direct line to the center of Berlin.
There was a Northern, Central, and Southern Corridor.
Although the agreements did not specify an altitude that the aircraft
would fly at, most aircraft never exceed 10,000 feet in the first years of use.
This 10,000 foot limit was satisfactory until the advent of the jet
aircraft, which needed to operated at a higher altitude to be most efficient.
The Tripartite countries continued to not exceed 10,000 feet until
President John F. Kennedy made his famous Berlin speech in 1963. When
Air Force One was taking off from Berlin, the air traffic control agency issued
instruction for him to climb and maintain 10,000 feet until exiting the
corridor. Air Force One replied:
"Negative to the 10,000 feet restriction, Air Force One is leaving 10,000
feet climbing to flight level 35,000. From
that day forward all Tripartite jet aircraft flew at any level they desired.
The aircraft control facility operated strictly by Americans at
Templehoff was one of the finest, the highest state-of-the-art, immune to all
kinds of electronic interference. It
was also one of the most expensive air traffic control facilities every
constructed. Bill and I finally left Berlin
with me in complete awe. It was
almost impossible for me to comprehend what all I had heard and seen.
Then to try an fathom that I was the guy going to be responsible for the
entire function of the Berlin Operation, in just a few short days when Bill left
the Pentagon. We visited the
American Embassy in Bonn as well as the high ranking Air Force Generals in
Germany. Bill was introducing me as
the new guy on the street for the Berlin Operation.
It was very enjoyable traveling all over Germany on their train system.
Although I was enjoying the travel I kept thinking and wondering how
Loraine and Jan were making it back in Washington, DC, all cooped up in a motel
and did not know a soul. I finally got back to Washington
and spent a couple days digesting the Germany trip. While Bill led me I had heard that the most
expensive place in the world to live was the Washington, DC area.
Housing was not plentiful and it was expensive.
But we finally found a place we could afford, but it was 23 miles from
the Pentagon. It was a development
called Lake Ridge, near Woodbridge, Virginia.
I believe the address was 13009 Sturbridge. I think we paid about
$56,000, a lot of money in 1973. If
you tried to get closer to the Pentagon the prices went over a $100,000
real quick. This house was
not yet three years old, and the folks we bought from had paid only $29,000.
However, this turned out to be a very nice place to live, a real nice
neighborhood, excellent schools, and most of all there were finally some kids
Jan's age which she could play. The
general area was exciting: There was Manassas Park, the quaint little village of
Oquaquan, and of course all of the things in Washington, DC were near by. The Pentagon was all those things that you read about; zillions of miles of telephone wire, used thousands of tons of paper every day, larger than many small towns. I think there were a little over 33,000 people working there while I was stationed there. My office was in the basement and of course there were no outside windows. I remember that one guy had a mural of a Hawaii beach seine painted. He then installed an entire window frame with glass an all. Then he placed the mural behind the window, and it looked like the real thing.
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soon as possible,
around the Pentagon introducing me to the
folks that I would be working with.