97th Signal Battalion, 1950s
(Source: "Til" Tillery)
 
This was Herr Stroppel's gasthaus and our main hangout for good food, hot beer, fellowship, off duty fun and Sat nite local dances. It was the closest thing to home you could ask for. Herr Stroppel was in his seventies and a math genius. He could add a four column bar tab in his head and we would have big laugh everytime we checked behind him and he was right.
 
The Bad Liebenzell road, this was a mountainous road, was the shortest route to Böblingen. Sometime prior to my tenure on the mountain, one of the men at Langenbrand was using the Bad Liebenzell road when he hit an icy patch on the road and was killed when his 2½-ton went off the road. After that time, whenever we travelled to Böblingen, we had to take a much longer route through Pforzhiem and then across the backroads to the Radio Company. The route was less steep but much longer.