1945 Three POW camps were established in April on the Coltano estate. They were known collectively as The Disciplinary Training Center and individually as PWE 336, 337, and 338. The camps housed German Nazi and Italians sympathetic to Mussolini. Famous poet Ezra Pound was interned here briefly before being extradited to the U.S. (Webmaster note: see comments by Rob Yoho who has written a history of the Disciplinary Training Center below.)

1951 In June, Camp Darby was formally dedicated in memory of BG William O. Darby. Camp Darby was created as a line of communications and supply through Italy in support of U.S. troops in Austria.

1955 Coltano was used by the U.S. Air Force. They had a radio site designated as Site 13/9L located about one kilometer east from where the site is today. It is the fenced-in concrete area with the fuel tank at the end of the road east of the present day site.

1962 The present site was constructed. The Army installed a 1KW Tropo system linking SETAF and USAREUR. At roughly the same time, the Air force moved their assets from their site to be co-located at the new Coltano site with the Army. The Air Force installed what was called the Germany-Italy Microwave System (GIMS) using Seimens-Halske sidebank radios. The Air Force also moved in a 10KW Tropo system to link Coltano to Spain, Greece, and Turkey.

1965 22 Signal Group, U.S. Army Strategic Communications Command (USASTRATCOM) assumed command at Coltano. Its mission was to provide strategic and tactical communication for SETAF and EUCOM. Part of its mission involved providing secure intelligence communications from the U.S. Navy 6th Fleet to Army Switch Coltano (ASC) to Germany; Ft. Detrick, Maryland, U.S.A.; and Okinawa, Japan.

1966 The Commanding General, USASTRATCOM-EUR, signed General Orders No. 21 dated 7 March 1966. The General Orders No. 21 implemented the formation and activation of STRATCOM-EUR Mediterranean Region Headquarters to command signal units in Italy, Iran, Ethiopia, and Turkey from Camp Darby.

1968 On 12 February, Region Headquarters deactivated and the unit became Signal Group Mediterranean.

1971 On 17 November, Signal Group Mediterranean was re-designated as Signal Operations Battalion Mediterranean.

1972 The unit became Signal Support Agency Mediterranean.

1973 Under the direction of the project officer LT Russell, the Marconi Monument was mined from the marble quarries of Carrara and transported to its present location. Ambassador John Volpi and Colonel Vincent Russo dedicated the monument.

1976 On 1 December, 509th Signal Battalion establishes headquarters at Camp Darby. The 509th Signal Battalion assumed the communication responsibilities of the Signal Support Agency Mediterranean (USASTRATCOM). The GIMS was replaced by the Digital European Backbone System (DEB) utilizing Rockwell 518 (AN/FRC-162/5) radios. The Air Force installed an Automatic Voice Network (AUTOVON) switch.

1978 Construction for the satellite earth terminal (AN/GSC-39) began.

1980 Mobile satellite terminals were berthed here (AN/TSC-54 and AN/TSC-86) in support of worldwide tactical missions.

1984 The 509th Signal Battalion received European Theater maintenance award for three years consecutively: 1984, 1985, and 1986.

1990 In the early nineties, the DEB was upgraded to incorporate more modern digital radios and multiplexers (AN/FRC-171 radios with AN/FCC-98 and AN/FCC-99 multiplexers). The Digital Switch Network (DSN) replaced the AUTOVON switch. The Commercial leased Digital Mediterranean Improvement Program (DMIP) was put in place to furnish the required connectivity to Spain, Greece, and Turkey.

1991 The 509th Signal Battalion Headquarters was moved to Vicenza.

1992 The Army 1KW Tropo AN/GRC-66 system was deactivated.

1993 The Air Force 10KW Tropo EMT MARK system was deactivated.

1998 On 25 April, short-wave radio enthusiast celebrated International Marconi Day at the original ratio building. Using a 50 meter tower and transmitting on a 20 meter SSB of the Radio spectrum, a special event radio station operated beside the original radio building with the call signs IY5 PIS.

2000 The 509th Signal Battalion was notified to de-install the terminal and the military presence is ended at Coltano. All communications at the site was transferred to civilians.

CORRECTIONS and ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
(Source: Email from Rob Yoho)
I've been extensively researching the Disciplinary Training Center (more formally the Mediterranean Theater of Operation US Army Disciplinary Training Center or MTOUSA DTC) since my father was an Army training officer at DTC during the war and the Occupation.

The DTC was actually not related to POW camps and was located in Metato just north of Pisa on the south bank of the Serchio River (and just east of the Via Aurelia). The purpose of the DTC was to rehabilitate US soldiers convicted of crimes with the goal of returning them to duty. Ezra Pound (a well known but controversial expatriate American poet) was in fact incarcerated there for a time, charged with treason, before being turned over to US civilian authorities. DTC is best known for that episode even though it didn't have much to do with its primary mission. I'm fortunate to have a written unit history of DTC and my Dad's photos.

I also read on the official Camp Darby history site about the POW camps. I had wondered where those were located. I figured they'd be in the same general area around Pisa but didn't realize they were at Coltano.

The most fun was working out at Coltano. I worked for a civilian, named Toyota, who was installing a computer to monitor the communications channels and write outage reports. All in all it was an interesting assignment.

The AUTOVON building had just been built and hadn’t gone active when I was there. One evening when we were leaving to head back to the base we could hear the MP’s yelling over at the AUTOVON facility. They had their own security at the time. It seems one of the guards had been playing with is pistol and had dropped and lost a cartridge. They had all the MP’s in the place crawling around on their hands and knees looking for the bullet. Don’t know if they ever found it.

Another interesting story about Darby. When I first arrived there was an old long wave communication site down closer to the base off the road to Tirrenia. They were in the process of closing the facility when I got there so I never got out to see it. They had the site grunts dissemble the station and crate it up and get it ready for shipment back to the states. That task was accomplished. Not long after the last crate was sent down to the pier in Livorno, Washington called and wanted them to reestablish the site and get it back on the air. They accomplished that task also. Shortly after it was done Washington decided that they really didn’t need the site after all. Darby was instructed to take it all apart again. This time when they removed the cables from the equipment instead of using the intended connectors they used fire axes and chopped the cables up. Just as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow once all that equipment had been sent down to the pier again some in Washington came up with an idea for the sites reuse. When they were informed that new cabling would have to be supplied, Washington forgot the idea.

We both missed most of the fun at Darby. When France kicked NATO out some of the people that were deployed to Darby were “Beatniks” in US Army uniforms. They had protest marches and all sorts of odd behavior at the base. I got there at the tail end of that and had to deal with a lot of crazy drunks. It really was an interesting time back then.

• (Photo 1) This is the Tech Control section. The Spec5 is sitting in front of the test board where daily performance measurements were taken on select circuits to monitor system performance and potential issues. At the top of the cabinet are speakers that constantly monitored the different system order-wires. An always live circuit monitored by all stations on the system for monitoring, troubleshooting and maintenance purposes.
  
• (Photo 2) This is some of the REL-2600 Troposcatter equipment that fed the two large billboard antennas facing south for the connection to Site 4C and then on to Spain, Greece and Turkey. Notice in the lower part of the equipment you can see the old electron tubes. What it does not show is the 10,000 watt, liquid cooled klystrons (2 each) mention earlier. These klystrons were a liquid cooled electron tube that was about 3.5 feet tall in a cabinet that was about 6’x6’x6’. The liquid pump and heat exchanger were in the adjoining mechanical room with the HVAC equipment. A lot of liquid was pumped through this thing in 2.5” pipes. I had the pleasure of being in the room when the 10,000 watt amplifier sprang a major fluid leak! That was an exciting day. Fortunately no one was harmed, but that link was down for several hours.
  
• (Photo 3) I want to say picture 3 is the Siemens-Halske SEL-8000 LOS microwave radio that was used on the Mt. Cimone link and then on into Germany. But I am not sure this picture is from 13/9L. The background doesn’t look right for the timeframe I was there. The radio was very reliable and required little maintenance attention.
  
• (Photo 4) This is the AN/GRC-66 microwave equipment that was used on the shot to Site 046, also known as Finale Liguria and then on into Germany. The system shown looks like the base system that had a 1, or was it 10, watt output. When I was there the system had auxiliary power amplifiers in another 2 cabinets, one on each side of the shown equipment that brought the power up to 1000 watts to the 2 each 30 foot antennas facing west.
  
• (Photo 5) This is a picture of the Tech Control station that had the teletype links to other stations and DCA (Operational control HQ of the communication systems). The operator is probably coordinating with another station in regards to a circuit performance or issue. Each night a report was generated on the teletype paper roll or tape with holes punched in it reporting the day’s actions, outages, test results, etc. This tape could be from 5 to 30 feet long and any mistype would make it invalid. At midnight this tape was run through a teletype reader sending the report to headquarters. I have seen many a Tech Controller pulling their hair out trying to get it right before the deadline.
  
  Of note in the front right of this picture and the 5th picture from the top of the webpage was a brand new, “automated” circuit test and conditioning system. This is the panel with all the colored squares/lights/buttons which represent specific circuits. Coltano was the pilot site for this system and they worked on it the entire time I was there. Remember, this was the pre-digital world and the analog systems were subject to a multitude of outside influences that could impact performance. The idea was to constantly monitor and report on the special circuits. I’m not sure this automated system was ever fielded to other sites.
  
• (Photo 6) The equipment on the right is the mux/demux equipment. I want to say it is an AN/FCC-17. This equipment takes many voice level circuits and merges them into one stream sent to the radio equipment for transmission to the distance site and then the process is reversed on the far end.

I volunteered for the Regular Army in May of 1966 (yikes, almost 50 years!). I was interested in electronics, and it was very early in the computer age. I found the 34D20 MOS (Automatic Data Processing System Repairman) which was a 36-week course at Fort Monmouth. The Army was starting to use computers for various functions, and the early ones required a lot of service. They were transistor operated (no tubes!), but they were full sized transistors and the boards were still huge.

I graduated from the course nine months later with an automatic promotion to Spec. 4 (E4) and awaited orders which I assumed would be to Vietnam. Four guys from my class, including me, were, instead, being sent to Italy, much to the relief of my parents. After waiting months for a security clearance, I was assigned to the Coltano Signal Station which was an amazing facility. I still tell people about the giant billboard antennas which, because of the photos on your great site, I can actually show them.

The Console Remote Equipment (CRE) was, as I recall, part of the first digitally operated switching system the Army bought (hence the need for a 34D20). It was connected to 7 or 8 tributary sites which, we were told, were nuclear missile facilities.

The CRE training was done at an Army facility in Mannheim, but I do not recall the name. I believe it was part of STRATCOM-Europe, perhaps in Funari Barracks.

At the Coltano signal site, the CRE was located in the larger of the two rectangular buildings in back of and closest to the billboards. You can see the entry door off of the parking lot. The equipment was in the rear of the building directly behind Tech Control. I do not know the name of the section, but it was in the same area as shown in Larry Tallman's interior photos. The Company size unit we were part of was called Microwave Tropo Company led, at the time, by Capt. John E. Rickert.

We worked 8 hour, rotating shifts at Coltano. My boss was a Spec. 7 (E7) which designation doesn't exist anymore. The CRE was so reliable, I barely recall having to service it. We had more problems with the lines coming in and out which kept the Tech Controllers and Radio Repairmen busy. We shared the facility with the Air Force which was responsible for the lines going south and east as far as Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, while the Army handled the lines going north of Coltano toward Headquarters in Germany.

Camp Darby was a nice place to live, and the Army beach in Tirrenia kept us occupied between shifts. I was promoted to Spec. 5 (E5) in 1968.

I was honorably discharged in April of 1969. I completed college on the G.I. Bill, and spent my entire career in the mortgage business (still working). I'm married with two children and four grandchildren. I still think something about my Army service almost every day.

Thanks so much for your help and for this great site that brings back many good memories.

I was in the US Army at Coltano, July 1967 - Sept 1969. Living at Camp Darby, working at Coltano. Long time ago. I was a microwave radio equipment repairman, fancy name for a floor washer or whatever.

I remember one time they wanted me to work in the power plant. There were all Italian nationals working there. The power came in on big bus bar. I still remember...30,000 volts at 34,000 amperes. They told me it was enough to power the city of Pisa.

When I finished I was SP/4, but training SP/5 people who got that rank directly out of school. The school was at Ft. Monmouth, NJ.

I used my time there for other purposes, and saw: Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, Lichtenstein, Monaco, France, Israel, and Austria. The Army was generous in making available much sightseeing.

We would go up to Berchtesgaden, Germany for religious conferences many times - one time going to one denomination conference, another time to a different group. Lots of great sightseeing there. I had a personal friend who was the primary person on Radio Monaco, so saw his stuff there. The radio station in the mountains above Monaco was built by Hitler, and the radio tubes were water cooled.

My military close friend, Rocky Roman [from Puerto Rico], and I went to Elba, the island where Napoleon was exiled. Great trip! Wish I could get in contact him again!

Back in those days we also had microwave bases in Iran and Libya.

One thing not noted elsewhere is that from Coltano we shot over [microwave] to the island of Sardinia. From there I think they shot over to islands owned by Spain.

Since I worked at Coltano at the time of the photos on this page, it is possible that I was in some of those photos.

I remember they told me of a workman working on the tower died when power accidently was on. Birds who flew there would explode, so I was told.

outside the coltano buildings there were the original concrete slabs from marconi.

the local farmer had a ram he would pasture on the property. i fed it bread and it would butt me.

At coltano there were two constant hums, one at 1k and the other at 4k.

One time driving back to Darby from Coltano at 3 am, I totalled the "carryall" [I think that is what it was called] going over the RR bridge. I flew 75 feet through the air and landed on the roof. The vehicle was totalled.

Another time I was assigned to wash the floor inside the transmitter. So, I flipped the circuit breaker [to stay alive] while I cleaned it. Then flipped the circuit breaker back on but nothing happened. They had all kinds of upper rank people to try to figure it out...because of lack of use, the circuit breaker was bad, had corroded.

One guy who must have hated it there, did sabotage just before he got out. He went into the control room, and bent the needle on the thermometer, so everything would overheat.

Sometimes at night at Coltano the four of us would play a long card game. Bruno and Jim Davis and me and one other. I never played that game again. Bidding and melding and such.

One time I ate at the Italian army mess hall at Darby. Tripe and vino, as I recall.

I hated the revolving shifts, except we hardly ever had inspections. They never could figure out if we were supposed to be sleeping or working or on 3 day pass.

One time at Coltano the water purifier did not work and I got sick.

They had a sample in a jar of a grass snake - poisonous, but it looked like a blade of grass.

I remember the huge diesel generators with huge flywheels. They were held in reserve if power went out. As I recall, six generators, 50 hz.

I remember finding a piece of wood painted white in the mashed potatoes, and another time finding a piece of plastic bag in the strawberries. You had to be careful at the mess hall.

Much memory is lost - it has been over 50 years ago. Hoping some of this is of help to you.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
We worked in building marked as B in the annotated aerial photo of the Coltano site (see above). The power plant was in Building C. I think the Crypto guys worked in Building D. We had no contact with them.

A few more memories:

Driving between Darby and Coltano, we would drive on the original Appian Way, built by Caesar. It was very close to the Coltano entrance.

Also when driving we would need to watch very carefully for the farmers plowing with oxen, when they would appear on the road. Oxen are too slow to get out of the way.

The Bruno mentioned earlier is Bruno Suligoj, now living in Gorizia.

The locals had guinea hens they would let run wild in the area. But if you hit one on the road.... the Army had to pay for that bird, and all the eggs it would ever lay, and all the chickens those eggs would hatch, and all the eggs they would ever lay, and all the chickens that would hatch from those eggs, etc. A real "golden egg" situation!

The actual site name for the link using the 30 ft. dishes was Site 046, located up in the hills above Finale Liguria (not Savona), and from there across Switzerland to Feldberg in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) in southern Germany. That link gave a lot of problems in the winter because of the distance, the Alps, and the snow. It was tropo but not all that powerful.

The 60 ft billboards shot down to an Air Force Site 4C on Mt Limbara. And the tower at the corner of the building was the link to Mt. Cimone. They later added a repeater on a hill outside of Pisa (Mt. Serra?) to improve the quality of that link.

The Mt. Limbara and the microwave to Mt. Cimone were actually US Air Force links and when I reported to Coltano (Site 13/9L) in May of 1969 there were US Air Force tech controllers standing watch with the Army tech controllers. They were gone shortly thereafter??

Building "C" was the generator building. There were 8 LARGE generators, I mean BIG. Also 2 smaller diesel V8's in a "no break" configuration for the most critical loads.

The Fuel Storage area was the fuel storage for the generator building.

Building "A" was for the satellite dish and was not there back in the 1970's. Also, the perimeter road was not there in 1972, added later.

I was in the AUTODIN building only about 4 or 5 times the whole time I was there... they thought they had all the secrets... hahaha.

Let's talk about Building "B" - that was my domain. Look closely and you will see 4 distinct sections to the building. The smallest ("3") being the southernmost housed the heat exchangers for the high power transmitters for the shot to Limbara. These transmitters had water cooled Klystrons... make that the mother of all microwave ovens. The longest section of this "B" building was the equipment area for all the microwave, multiplex, tech control, Console Remote equipment, main distribution frame, supply room, front office. There has been something added to the west end of the building ("2") that wasn't there in 1972. The shorter section of "B" was the AUTOVON switch. That went active while I was there 1969-72. I used to go over there during slack times and patch calls thru to the States for the guys from all over Europe. There is a smaller section ("1") that appears to be taller at the end of the AUTOVON that was not there in 1972. Not a clue about that.

I was sent to Rhine-Main AB (USAF) to school on the Siemens-Halskie microwave radio that was used on the Mt. Cimone link, and also to the Console Remote Equipment school at Mannheim (Army). On some spring and fall days I used to climb that tower and you could easily see the Leaning Tower from there. Coltano was't the biggest site by far in Europe, but we linked the 3 major systems to a single point. We had quiet a lot of high priority circuits running thru the house and we had a one of a kind piece of gear, it was called the "Conditioning Bay". The 3 different systems did not have the same impedance and this was designed so circuits could enter on one system and leave on another. It had 2 power supplies and a mouse got in the back of it one nite and took us off the air.

In the bottom right of the aerial picture there are some features in the field. These were the bases and guy wire anchors for Marconi's shortwave antennas... some history there. If you look at the actual Google Earth you can see many of them.

I hope this is of some help to you. Oh, when I was there we were USA STRATCOM Signal Group Mediterranean... never heard of the 59th (Sig Co) while I was there.

(Webmaster note: the signal station has been closed and returned to the Italian government. There is a debate - and some protests - going on right now in the Pisa area about Italian government plans to use the former base as a refugee camp for immigrants from Africa.)

That building location (ID'ed in photo above as "1") as I remember it housed the diesel on demand generators which were GM Diesels monitoring Italian Commercial Power. At the first sign of failure these were on automatic emergency start.

You hated to walk through this area at the beginning and end of the shift due to the fact that, if the weather was bad, the AC was prone to fail and these diesels would start up with a deafening roar. No mufflers so you can imagine and add to that a tin roof.

Thanks to all for the trip down memory lane.

I was assigned to 13/9L from early 1973 to mid-1976. The Signal Support Agency – Med era. This was my first tour of duty out of AIT.

I was originally trained to work in the AUTODIN or ASC site but while I was waiting for my clearance to come through they assigned me as the PLL clerk at 13/9L. During my stay there I received additional formal training in several systems in 13/9L that kept me in 13/9L as opposed to going to the AUTODIN facility. Training included the European Command and Control Console System (ECCCS) which had a Console Remote Equipment (CRE) at 13/9L, the AN/GRC 66 MW Radio and the AN/FCC 17 mux/demux equipment among others. This training and my experience got me to change my MOS from AUTODIN Maintenance to Microwave Maintenance and stay in the Army for 20 years.

I mention the training because the equipment in the numbered pictures on the webpage (see comments explaining the equipment in the photos above).

As for the 3rd picture from the top of the webpage of the overall complex with the facilities labeled, you will note the main gate. This one guard shack controlled entrance to two separate compounds. The compound to the north with the building labeled “D” was the Autodin also known as the ASC facility and it had stricter security requirements. The rest of the structures in the picture were in the 13/9L compound. BTW, do not lose this photo. The current shot on Google is a lot more depressing from an old timer’s point of view. Bldg D has been all but demolished and the rest look abandoned.

As for the 5th picture from the top of the webpage, this is a shot of the old Tech Control section in the main equipment room/space. When I got there in ’73 they were in the process of moving it into an old admin or logistics room near the front of the facility. Front and center is the “automated” test and conditioning pilot equipment.

As for the picture of 13/9L only main building farther down the page with the labels and numbers. Section 1 was a two story Admin and Logistics Annex that was added in the ’74 to ’75 time frame. Logistics was on the first floor with the admin section to include the offices for the OIC (a Captain) and the NCOIC (a Command Sargent Major). You could see the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa from the second floor. Can you guess who had the rooms with the views? Section 3 was the room for the REL-2600 equipment for the shots to site 4C. Section 2 was after my time but they look like condensers for HVAC systems.

Of note during my tenure, the NCOIC was a CSM with an Italian name on his last active tour of duty. Good guy. He would come through the site around 1 PM bouncing a volley ball saying “everybody outside for PT” (in a heavy Italian accent). We would leave 2 people inside to answer the phones and head out. We would play volley ball, sometimes with 9 people on a side, in the warm Italian sun. Often times we had to quit because the shift change bus with our replacements was coming around the corner. It was rough.

On the other hand, during the summer, anybody that was somebody, especially from 5 th Signal Command, would take a government funded trip to “tour and inspect” Camp Darby and the Coltano complex, and then they would sign out on leave. Two weeks later they would sign back in and take the government funded transport home. It seems like every week we were getting ready for an “inspection”.

The soldiers that supported the Coltano complex were all based out of Camp Darby, about 9 kilometers away. A shift change bus was provided for the people in the barracks. It ran 3 times a day. Life on Camp Darby while I was there wasn’t too bad. It was a pleasant climate. I spent 3 years there and only saw snow on the ground twice. The nearest town to Camp Darby was Tirrenia which was the southern tip of the Italian Rivera. Lots of tourists in the summer. There was even a designated American Beach in Tirrenia with a PX run concession and USO booth at the beach. And there were some great Italian restaurants in the area, and a lot of history not too far away to include Pisa and Florence. The Rec Services Club on base was one of the best with lots of activities, shows and tours each week.

Let me speak a little about Site 046. I was not assigned there, but people from our unit manned the site. I also made an emergency trip up there in the winter to bring in spare equipment.

Site 046 was on a remote mountain top (Google Coordinates. 44.248368, 8.278064) above the coastal town of Finale Ligure and was about 250 kilometers from the nearest US Military facility, Camp Darby. Two plus hours travel time on a good day. It was a radio repeater site where the traffic came in one radio link and out the other. The signal was not broken down to voice or channel level. The site was manned because the radio equipment used, the AN/GRC-66 needed constant maintenance and adjustments. If you checked and adjusted it daily it would work fine. If you went a few days it could get out of adjustment and signal quality would go to …. Remember, this was pre-digital world where everything was analog with tube theory and solid state was in its infancy. There was not a lot of self-correcting circuits in those days. Once you did your daily checks and adjustments, there wasn’t much else to do, except hang around in case something when wrong.

The site typically had about 7 to 11 people assigned full time, to include a medic qualified person, most living on the site in the barracks. Living off site was frowned upon. For one reason, the nearest community was about 11 clicks down a winding mountain road. In the winter time the only way on or off the site was with a snow cat! They got that much snow. I seem to remember it was about a 45 minute ride in the cat to the top. And it was real easy to get snowed in. We did for a weekend!

During this era there was no such thing as satellite radio, or internet for that matter. Remember we were in Italy in the early ‘70s. The site did not get American Radio or TV. They may have had movie reels delivered, but not enough for a new movie every night. So you had your own collection of records or you listened to Italian radio and TV.

One benefit for being assigned there was they got paid separate rations, rations not available. And somehow they had a local, Italian cook or chef to prepare their meals. Once a month they would pool their money, make a run to Camp Darby, get priority treatment in the commissary, and stock up on supplies. Take the supplies back up the hill and the chef would prepare their meals. Not a great weight control program.

As for the site layout. If you Google the coordinates above you will find what is left of the compound. Sorry, no pictures. As you come into the compound the small structure on the right is the guard shack. Not sure of the two story structure directly opposite on the left. The large structure on the south side of the site orientated in an east/west direction was the garage for their assigned vehicles to include a van or two, snow cat(s?) and snow mobiles. I think it also housed the generators. The large structure running north/south on the west side of the compound was the barracks to include kitchen and multi-purpose space (dining room, lounge, TV room, etc). The remaining structure in the compound was the radio room. The pads outside it was for the antennas facing Coltano to the south east and Germany (Feldberg) to the north. In the middle of a winter storm on top of a mountain the trip from the barracks to the radio room or generator could be challenging to say the least. Snow tunnels and rope safety guides come to mind. Who wouldn’t want to be assigned there for 2 or 3 years?

I can remember in the late spring or early summer, down on Camp Darby were it never snowed, while you were getting ready to go to the beach, you would see a flatbed truck deliver the dirty yellow snow cat to the motor pool for its annual service. It just looked out of place.