"Field Station Holiday Inn" by Bill Kratzer wkratzer@cfl.rr.com

I served in the First Operations Bn.,USASAFS Augsburg, during the 1978-1980 time period. It has been almost 19 years since I was assigned to the First Operations Bn., and I am sure that this amount of time has clouded memories. I will provide the background to refresh your memory about the rumor, which came to my attention during my final tour within INSCOM, 1981 to 1983. A rumor, which was started about me, by someone with a real sick sense of humor and apparently not much intelligence either.

Despite the oulandish nature of the rumor, you would be suprised just how many people thought the story was really true. As a matter of fact, five years later in 1983, while I was teaching the Electronic CountermeasuresOperators Course at Fort Devens, a SSG and still with a TS SCI clearance, my students were still asking me if what they heard about Field Station Holiday Inn was really true. My response to them was, "Use your heads people, if such a story were really true, would I still be doing what I am doing today? I must say, it provided me with some big laughs in those final days teaching at the Intelligence School.

Now, here is the rumor that was circulated and how it got started.

In approximately July of 1978, my SCI access was suspended, and I was removed from my job as a 98G Czech and Pulled out of the COF at Gabligen. A month later, in August 1978, my Top Secret Security Clearance was revoked.The rumor got started that I lost my security clearance, because I went up to the Holiday Inn in Augsburg Germany and asked the room clerk for a room on the 8th floor facing the Czech border. The MP's and CID came up there and caught me copying Czech morse code signals and trying to telephone tips back into the site.

Fascinating isn't it? Well, that's how the rumor went. It was a very creative piece of fabircation. Actually, after reading about the INSCOM people that left their intelligence posts in Germany, because the spirits told them to go to meet the UFO at a beach in Florida, it makes me wonder. Would I have believed this rumor if I had heard it about someone else who was a prior O5H? Most likely! O5H's were known to go crazy sometimes. Like the O5H who came out to Gablingen back in1973 or 1974, wearing nothing but a white sheet. He proclaimed he was Jesus Christ and wanted all his people to come to him. This really happend! It was no rumor. Well, who knows, maybe O5H's really were prone to going off the deep end. It was rumored that the dits drove people nuts.

Now, let me tell you the real story that your were never told. I arrived and was assigned to 1st Opns Bn. on 21 April 78. At that time, I was a 98G Czech. I had just come from the Defense Language Institute, Monterey via Goodfellow AFB, Texas.I was an E-5(SGT) at that time ,and prior to Monterey and Goodfellow, I had been assigned to the 504th ASA Gp, Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, GA, as a 94B (Cook). A cook you ask? Yes, that’s what I said, a cook. In December of 1976 I had requested reclassification out of my PMOS of O5H, due to a P-3 hearing loss. Someone, who obviously had a sick sense of humor, decided that I, despite all of my other qualifications and training, should bereclassified as a cook. A reclassification that really put a sour taste in my mouth (no pun intended).

At the time they reclassified me, I had a secondary mos of O5D, was cross trained as O5K, was cross trained as a 98C Traffic Analyst, was fluent in German, and had a good working ability Russian and Polish. I had a diploma and honor roll certificate for completing the 76Y, Unit and Organization Supply Correspondence Course, had completed the Flight Training Prepratory Course from Ft. Rucker, had completed courses in Medical Records Preparation,Hospital Admission, Disposition, and Reporting, Introduction to Military Medicine and Surgery, from the 71G Medical Records Correspondence Course, and I was Graduate of the 7th Army Non-Comissioned Officer's Academy at Bad Tolz, West Gemany. My pro-pay scores for my previous MOS of O5H were 133 and 136.

All of this education and professional training and the Army makes me a cook. This was very upsetting to me. At HAAF, I had the worst attitude of my entire military career. They tried to force me to cook. I burned their food. They made me carry food in from the cooler, and many times I dropped their crates of eggs, and other things. I did everything that I could to force them to throw me out of the mess hall. It worked. I ended up in Unit Supply working as a 76Y, Unit Supply. My extreme unhappiness, coupled with my immature age of 21 at that time, caused me to do things that made it appear that I was not a responsible and trustworthy person.

I had my hearing rechecked and there was a noted improvment ad it was upgraded to P-2.It was now time to get the hell out of this cook's MOS and return to the real world. I had to go all the way to Alexandria Virginia, DA MILPERCEN, to talk to two MSG's in the Logistics Branch. They told me that I could be a master chef. I told them that I did not want to be a Master Chef, and if they did not let me out of the 94B MOS, and put me back in the intelligence field where I belonged,they could throw me out of the Army.I was dead serious too. I showed them all of my training and background told them how I felt and left to return to Savannah. I must have made them feel real sorry for me, because shortly after I got back to Savannah, I got my notification that I was being reclassified to 98G German (I was fluent in German) and being reassigned to DLI, Monterey for Basic Czech. So, it was off to DLI and then on to Goodfellow, AFB, and finally on to Augsburg in April of 1978.

In August of 1978, after my Bring Up To Date Background Investigation, I received a letter of Intent to Revoke Security Clearance from CCF at Ft. Mead. This was a result of my behavior at the 504th ASA Gp. I had already been working at Gablingen since April of 78 as a 98G. Prior to receiving this letter of intent to revoke, I had to undergo an interview with some agents from the Defense Investigative Service. I was really nervous. I did not want this to happen to me again. There was a Sergeant First Class,who became good friends with me during that time. He and I spent many long hours talking about the pending interview. Having investigative experience, he spent many hours talking with me, telling me the do’s and don’t of being interrogated. He gave me a lot of confidence and reassurance going into that interview. I think he told me the best way not to get trapped, was to answer a question with a question.

I went through the interview, it went OK, I guess. After it was over, a few days later I was then pulled out of the site, my access removed, and then I was reclassified to 76Y and reassigned to HHC and the Property Book Office at Gablingen. This was a real let down for me, after working so hard to getback into the Intelligence Field from the 94B MOS. However, I kept my cool, went to work there, did a hell of a job for them, made E6 and set my sights on returning to COF and my 98GMOS.

In September of 1978, I assembled one of the most extensive rebuttal packages ever put together. It contained 34 pages, which consisted of a 6 page letter from me and 28 enclosures. All of these letters of support, good recommendations and other things that I had done, prior to and after Hunter Army Airfield, turned things around for me. I had a lot of people go to bat for me and it worked. Thirteen months later, in January of 1980, after another background investigation completed on 29 June 79, my security clearance was reinstated and I was returned to my 98G MOS and my work back at Gablingen. Their are very few people who lose a security clearance and get it back. I was one of those people. As my old Commander Maj. Bruni (now O6 Ret) said ,it was "A Nice Recovery."

In 1981 I returned to DLI for the Intermediate Czech Course and Graduated ahead of my class and with honors. I was then reassigned to Ft. Devens as an instructor in the ECM Operators Course. I taught there until July of 1983, at which point went on terminal leave and got out of the Army.

To those of you who took the time and effort to assist me in my successful rebuttal, I am eternally grateful and you know who you are. To the others who heard and believed the story,now you know the rest of the story. Finally to those who started of you this rumor, Thanks! It has provided a lovely and ridiculously funny piece of entertainment for us all.