Member Page Ronald Jones

Austria

In May of 1955, the 9491st.was sent on a TDY mission to the Austrian Alps.

The idea was to capture and record signal transmissions from Czechoslovakia

which would be sent to NSA for evaluation .

We traveled by rail to Upper Austria namely the village of Ebansee.(once the site of a concentration camp.)

There we moved our countermeasure equipment up the mountain called Feurkogel. Our equipment was loaded into a cable car and sent to the summit. We billeted in a guesthouse and set up operations facing toward Czechoslovakia. It was a 30 day mission and on May 15 we received the news that Austria got their independence, which meant going from a four power occupation to an independent country meaning we had to leave, and by August we did.

 

StiftsKaserne, Vienna

 

Internal Patrol, Vienna

One of the notable things about my Vienna station was it was the home of the American MP's which took part in the International patrol made famous  by movies like "four in a jeep" and"  the third man". They always ate breakfast at our mess hall. because we had breakfast that you could order what you desired. One morning I was there at breakfast when the patrol came in. The Russian MP ordered  a dozen eggs for breakfast and he got them. When I asked him why so many? (he spoke few words in English) he said  "Russia No eggs". The American MP  then told me these guys haven't seen an egg since they were in the  army.

I have attached two pics. one of an aerial view of the Stiftskasearne and the  international Patrol.

 

Ebensee

Cable car from Ebensee to Feurkogel

(Location of the film "Where Eagles Dare" )

 

Kalenburg

Operations point for countermeasures operations

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