We’ve been lucky recently in that a couple of members of the last generation of “Ridge Runners” — those who manned the automated Le Faire Vite system and lived on The Hill — have joined the site. Below is an e-mail from William J. Greene, posted here with his permission, introducing himself and talking about his service.

Joe has already added a post to the Tall Tales forum, and hopefully he and others from that group can contribute more there in the future. And, of course, any photos they have would be very welcome additions for our gallery area.

I was stationed on the hill from about the early summer of 1980 to October 19, 1982. I was one of your “guards” with screw drivers who had to go through an almost year long technical school (the army’s longest), then a 4 month additional school for the Le Faire Vite system. (Check your spelling, and FYI, it means “to do or make quickly”!) We did not live in Rimbach, but I had a lot of good friends there and in the surrounding towns who I still keep in contact with today. We did receive our weekly mail from Augsburg in Rimbach, and the postmaster there was a good friend! Unlike the early bunch of operations/maintenance personnel stationed there, we were 24/7. We lived and slept on the hill, there was no escaping our work. Leave your bedroom turn right the equipment, left to the living kitchen. There were six guys to take care of a bunch of receivers, and all the crypto, microwave radios snow shoveling, grass cutting, and even do tower work! We had next to nill as support, just six kids and a NCO (at times) taking care of business keeping the free world informed of what the bad guys were doing. Looking back they picked us for our abilities to work alone or in small groups, and they always let us screen the new guys who they had selected.

Most of the sites that talk about the remote sites just give the second generation of Hoherbogen or Wurmbeg electronics technicians the “they were not really there to do intel jobs, just trained board swapping MPs with screwdrivers.” For the most part that was the original concept when Harris developed the system, and that is why most of you older vets remember it that way I believe. However, it did not work out that way. It was a highly advanced system that required a vast knowledge of electronics to troubleshoot. If you did not have the skills, transfer came PDQ. So I get a kick out of the “maintenance men/guards” line! We had each a .45 assigned with nine bullets each. Locked in safe were the bullets, and the .45s in another. Both of the safes were locked in the secure shelter with the equipment. Yeah, we could not protect ourselves even from the roving tourist if they wanted in the site.

My complete name is William J. Greene, Jr. Not sure where your list was compiled from. I did work for INSCOM, schooled at Ft. Devens. Got out as a Spec5. Would have re-upped if they could have promised me a career there. I now fly with the Hurricane Hunters (as an engineer) trying to keep the states safe from the storms. LOL! Fighting the good fight, from cold war, to tracking asteroids, to tracking hurricanes. Always something that is after us!

I enjoyed your site. Brought back some good memories like weekly summer parties and snow up the perimeter lights!! But for me there is always a misconception about the second generation of the guys who carried on the same traditions as the first, just we were way ahead of our times with the downsizing we hear so much about today. More than once I was told that it was “more cost effective to loose 6 than the large number of guys that were stationed at Eckstien before.” But like you said, it was the best assignment not only in INSCOM, but the entire US Army if you ask me. The guys there were one of the best teams I have ever had to the pleasure to be part of.

Thanks for your work on the site! Sorry about the lengthy answer to a simple question.

Later, he added:

Bill, a pleasure to meet you. Sure please go ahead and post my email, maybe I will run into some of the Vite guys, although most of them I keep in touch with. I know there is one guy there still living in Germany. Tony Jeter, married a local girl, Lisa Kirschbauer. He has really went local. You might run into him over there. A very gregarious guy to say the least. He never writes, but Lisa and I keep in touch.

I really got to get the old site pictures and scan them in. It is on my bucket list. Share them with the world for prosperity..

Thanks again for your work on the site.

I guess I need to jump in here.  I’m the Tony Jeter that Joe talked about in his post.  And yes he’s right, I’m very lousy in keeping up with my mails.  Not trying to give a bunch of excuses, but I work 12 to 14 hours a day on a computer and when I come home I do not want to turn a computer on.  I’m trying to get better at this.

I would say that he’s right about going local.  I’m a member of a local theater group (I work part time doing theater and concert lighting).  I am a soldiner (read mercanary) in a 15th century reenactment group.  Wjth this group, I study the military arts as practiced in the year 1491.  It’s a great stress buster when you swing a sword around for a couple of hours a week.

Plus I love learning about the hystory of this area.  I find that my “home away from home” has allowed me to grow in ways that not everyone will or can understand.

It’s been a great life, and I’ve had a blast up to now.

TJ

Tony.. I know you have a million stories, maybe even one or two with me in it.. stelathy flag stealing in the night? Or about the empty C-ration boxes, that some one ate? Neatly stacking them back like no one had even touched them! I know you got a million.. !!

Nice to meet you Joe & Tony,
My name is Kaipo Simpson and I was in Rimbach from May ‘73 to May ‘75 in the Air Force and a Russian linguist.
I guess technically you guys were the 3rd generation Rimbachers.
The first generation were those who worked on the hill out of the back of trucks driven up there during the warmer months of the year.
I was in the second generation of those who worked in the Quonset huts.
You guys worked the “automated site”.

It is really great to communicate with those who shared the hill that covered 3 decades of Ridgerunners.

Yup, Kaipo’s right. Great to have some LFV guys join us now. We’re all Ridgerunners, after all.