Guestbook

Found this on internet tonight. Chuck was at Bitburg for at least two tours once with Matadore (?) or Mace A(?) and with Mace B - Job Control.

Charles Rondall Sisson
Copperhill, Tennessee
Aug 18, 1936 – Aug 30, 2019
Atkins Funeral Home - Blue Ridge - Blue Ridge Obituary
Charles was born on August 18, 1936 and passed away on Friday, August 30, 2019. Mr. Sisson retired from the United States Air Force after nearly twenty-three years. A private interment followed at the Sisson Family Cemetery with military honors provided by the United States Air Force Honor Guard. Memorial contributions may be made to the First Baptist Church of Blue Ridge, 907 East Main Street, Blue Ridge, GA 30513 or The Gideons International.

I was honored to volunteer to be the president of the association for the next period. Hats off to Max and Jerry for all they do. I had a great time at the reunion, the fourth one I have attended. I don't (didn't) know too many of you as I was not married and only 18 when I went on the Mace B. Did not socialize too much other than with my fellow Guidance techs, none of which are part of the association as far as I can notice. I will try and capture my thoughts on the Mace and what it did for me in later entries. Suffice it to say it got me started off on the right foot for a 35 year Air Force career.

My TM71A career began at Lowry during 1961-62 where I met and married my present wife. Then on to Orlando 1962 and Hahn 1962-66. I spent my entire time in Germany as a Maintenance Mech 1 (TM76A ATRAN guidance) at Hahn Site IV (Wuscheim). We lived a few miles from Site IV in a little village named Reckershausen. The town folks took us right in and we became part of their community (no one spoke English so we learned German)! We wouldn’t trade these experiences for the world! Left USAF in 1966 and went to work for Telco companies as a datecomm/telcomm engineer for 39 years. Retired in 2005. We sure have a lot of great memories of the folks we met in the USAF!

I received a recent call from the daughter of Jim and Marge Harrison asking that I give Marge a call. Marge told me that Jim Harrison, Hahn site VI weapons tech. 1964-1966, had passed away.
Jim Marge and their young daughters lived in Kirchberg and would always invite a few of us; me, Jim Schmaltz, John Ray and others, to their apartment for Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday dinner and sometimes Sunday meals. We last saw Jim at the Denver reunion. Both Jim and Marge were both special people, making the holidays so much better for some young, single airmen! Bless you both !

Lance Moorman Nuclear Weapons Launch Technician at Sembach & 887th TMS Grünstadt passed away earlier this week. The link to his obituary is:

https://www.armeshuntfuneralhome.com/notices/Lance-Moorman

I was stationed at Bitburg, from January 1968 until it closed in 1969. I was a tech 4 can't remember the team #
I do remember some of the other team members. I may spell their name wrong but here goes.
CCC Cpt. Al Myers
CCC Wilber Holt(s)
Tech 1 Battin(spelled that wrong)
Smith
Harris
Al Glosser
and myself Pat Vetter
Great people to serve with after Bitburg I went to Wheelus AFB in Libya. and then to England (Bentwaters)

To Joe Heeter, reading over old entries I ran across your 3/28/17 entry mentioned Agent Orange usage on Okinawa Missile sites and connection with Prostrate Cancer. Curious, I worked site #1 as a Mech 1, crew 5 from Sept '61 to March of '63. I suffered the consequences of Prostrate Cancer, surgery, radiation, etc. and have survived over 20 years since.
FYI

Lackland 1959, Lowry 1959 60, Orlando & Cape 1960, 61. Okinawa 1961 to 63. AFC 31170 guidence systems control Mech 1. Crew 5 at Bolo with Capt. Klintworth.
Home base Kadina, 873TMS.

Spent my tour after Lowery and Orlando the city, not yet Disney World, at Bitburg 1962-Feb 1965 in the 71st TMS with Logan E. Wing III (Hi Logan), Steve Burguss, Edward Schmutzer(deceased), George Wolfe, Raymond Pageau, LCO. Lt. whats his name , Launch crew 8 @ Edenheim, TM76B underground site. I have pictures of site under construction by German builders. I can't recall everyone yet, the NCOIC and Mech 1 but I think I have it in my military records somewhere.

Ought to mention to Wolfe if he is still out there that I crashed his drunk 1954 VW on some black ice en-route to the sister base a few miles downstream.

When I returned home I made a phone call to Klarchen in Bitburg at her job, a big shock to her since I spent my last 30 days in Germany in the hospital for stomach problems and never had a chance to talk to her before I left. And no, she wasn't a bar girl, she worked in a factory job.

Last I heard from a guy who emailed me from Bitburg doing research on the 71st Missilers for the town, reported to me that he knew Klarchen and was still there. Lost her phone number by then but strange he would know her in such a small town.

Never found out what information Bitburg was able to find on the missile squadron, apparently the German people were not allowed to discuss or say anything about the base, German law. Never heard or found out if anyone knew the fate of the missile monument near the barracks, if anyone knows give us all a holler. After Bitburg I spent 2 months making Williams tractor trailers and dump trucks then went to Hill AFB for 36 years as civil service Aircraft Mechanic on F4, F101, F16, F18 navy blue angels birds which the navy has a whole new concept of aircraft maintenance by flying them to unusable and airworthy condition and dumps them in the ocean after removing any spare parts like engines sill running and actuators etc. Perfect jet for carriers, could be airborne before the end of flight deck. Then during the Vietnam era I was sent TDY to modify the F4 with major upgrades with ejection seats changes and EMT radar jammers blocking GLM missile attacks, very effective defense system still used today by all jet fighter and base organizatoins.

Logan and pageau and burgess I have a new email address and was out of service with no internet for a few years because Utah has been working on this new fiber optic service which seemed to take forever to get working.

I plan to attend the reunion this year with a lady companion yet to be found. If interested I would like to hear from anyone who was there new this little shit head. email tactech3@outlook.com. catchy name huh. I retired from civil service in 1998 and learned new trade in Electronic care systems and emission systems and that the global warming is hoax and fake compiled information they could be a million years out of sync with millennial who are fumbling through life as education dumb with ancient dark ages fears and ignorance of any scientific facts.

I arrived at Hahn a week before the assassination of President Kennedy, a depressing way to begin a new assignment. I was trained extensively on the AANC at Orlando, so I was naturally assigned to the MPT in the periodic maintenance area. Became MPT crew chief. A SMSGT showed up from USAFE Hq and was looking for guidance system guy and took me with him to Wiesbaden for a change of pace in my last year.

I happened to be reading one of our postings in 2012 when the TM-76B Mace Display was completed in Indiana.
FYI- in 1959 when we first inserted the TM-76A Mace into Sembach to replace the Matador, we had a display that we took to Paris LeBourget Airfield to display in the International Air Show in June 1959. We also took the MM-1 Terracruzer. This Mace display was painted White like the one in Indiana. I also posted a picture of the display at that time June 1959 FYI.

Recently assembled model of TM-76 Mace and Terracruiser Launcher. Picture attached

A1C, Edward T Nangle, Jr, 46350B, Nuclear Weapons Mechanical Specialist, 38th TMW, 587th TMG, 822nd TMS, Sembach AB TM-76A Mace Flight A, April 1959, 822nd TMS Standardization Board Member April 1959-1960. Completed the model in August 2018.