The 6912th was based at Tempelhof
Central Airport, a civilian airport dating from the early 1900s. Tempelhof consisted of one massive building
nearly nine/tenths of a mile long in a incomplete circular shape. The 6912th was situated in the
easternmost section of the building, referred to as Head Building East. The
operations center was located on the sixth floor, with the other floors
dedicated to personnel, logistics, storage, and gym.
On the first day of arrival at the 6912th, a new linguist was given a tour of the sixth floor with brief explanations of
the tasks each section performed. The
following paragraphs are a review of what the new arrival would have heard from
his tour guide. This information is
excerpted from Cold War Warrior: A Memoir written by Retired MSGT
Warren “Molly” Knight. When I read it
for the first time, I was flooded with memories of those days long past.
Airman Jim approaches you and begins:
“Hi, my name's Jim. Call me Tank. Before
you ask, I am a Dash-A. Again, before you ask, that means German
linguist. Let's start back at the entry door to this
floor. Here is the security box to the
door…remember the code…don't write it down.
The code will change from time to time.
If you forget it or miss out on the change, you can use the phone
located right there near the box, and someone inside will come and open the
door for you. The only problem with
that approach is if they are busy and no one comes along to hear the phone
ringing… well, you know how that goes. When
that happened to me once, I just reached in there and punched all the buttons
with a properly irritated smack. Then
some nice air policeman came up to the elevator and another up the stairs and
let me in. They were not pleased, so I
don't recommend that approach. Remember
the code.
“The door over to your left is our Armory. If there is an alert and your assignment
causes you to need to be armed, there's where you'll pick up your weapon and
any required communication device. Otherwise,
you might be assigned to destruction or burning or maybe even trying to figure
out what is going on by means of your regular job.
“Back through the main door and to the
right is the part of our crew who works in the dark and writes with grease
pencils (Radar.) They have fascinating
equipment. You could end up working in
there. If you don't, sometime when you
and they are not busy, get them to show you the things they can see and do with
their equipment. It is indeed
fascinating.
“Further down the hallway here is the
inside phone I was telling you about. It
is a non-secure line. If you hear it
ringing, answer it by repeating the phone number and that's it. Say no more; you might be asked to go get
someone here on the floor. Do so.
“Through this door straight ahead is where
you'll be working...at least initially. Over
here to the right is the ditty-bop (Morse Code) position, and that fellow there
is an analyst. He can read what the ditty-bop
types and write what it means backwards.
“Directly behind that position is the Search
position. You will be trained to work
there as a short-term rotating task.
I'll likely be the person who shows you how to do that when it comes up. Over there further to the right is the I/A (Intelligence/
Analysis) Coordinator's desk. They don't
relieve (change shifts) when everyone else does, and they talk on the intercom. Every now and then, they'll jump up, type up
a short teletype tape, and send a message off to someone elsewhere.
“The room behind them is where you'll store
your headsets and pick up a patch cord from one of the pegs there on the wall. Make sure your operator number is on your
headsets. Never use someone else's headset…it's not healthy and it erases the
frequencies the headset is good for. (joke)
“You will learn how to operate those tape
players in that row while holding one of your headset speakers to your ear with
your shoulder, making the tape go forward with your foot and backwards with
your finger…all the while typing. You'll
get so good at it that you can do it without thinking, but you do need to be
sober.
“And this device is a degausser. It erases tapes. You put the tape on this way, flip this
switch, turn the tape in this direction slowly with your finger…hear that
buzzing growl? Turn your body in this
direction. If you don't do it just like
I told you, the machine will sterilize you.
You will have no children. You do
not decide which tapes are to be degaussed. Sergeant XXXXXX makes that decision for the
dash A’s (German linguists.)
“See that wall of audio tapes? If anyone asks you where we should store them,
don't say the basement. We did that one
winter. It got so cold down there that
the oxide fell off the tapes.
“Here in the center of the big room is the Mission
Supervisor’s desk. His job is to worry. Don't
irritate him…he's got enough to worry about.
“The fellow over there wearing the headsets
with a microphone and leashed to the thing that looks like a dog run cable is the
Voice Controller. He'll be your immediate boss. He'll know what you're working on at all
times…that's his job.
“You'll note that there is an air
conditioner in every blacked-out window over behind those receiver consoles. In fact, they're all along the wall and into
the adjacent rooms. It surely causes the
German nationals who might be out around the hangar to wonder about all those
air conditioners running at full blast in the middle of winter when it's
freezing out. They keep the smoke down
in here, too. It's not part of your job
to adjust the air conditioners, but you will note a number of people working in
their T-shirts.
“On the other side of the ditty-bop room is
the door to the Communication Center. Don't
try to go in there. The people who work
there have different badges. They are
trained to glare at you if you try to go in there. In this doorway here to the left is where the
Reporters work. They look at the information the Analyst writes backwards on
the other side of that translucent wall so the Reporter can see it forward. Then the Reporters write little reports and
hand them through that window to someone in the Communication Center for
further communication. As we keep going
through this door, we'll see where the Flight Commander's desk is located. He spends a lot of time in the Reporters’
area when not otherwise commanding. Beyond
that is where the Voice Analysts work. They
separate 6-ply pads into one-ply stacks and package up the stacks for the
Courier. You might be assigned to this
section after a while. Otherwise, expect
to work a few hours on some midshifts helping with the stacking and packing.
“Back out to the main room and further back
through the door at the end is the Blue Room (Electronic Surveillance.) These
people work in the dark, too, but there's always an eerie light from their gear. I cross-trained back there for a few months
when they were running a little short. Great
job!
“The burn room is back here in the corner. Flip that switch on for the exhaust, put a
burning paper in there on the hearth, turn that valve, and pray. Don't blow the place up. Turn it off in the reverse order. My roommate will likely be the one to train
you in burn-bag burning. He loves to
have burn duty because we do that on midshifts, and if you get the hang of it
you can get the job done in a couple of hours, tidy up the room, and head back
for a needed shower as you do sweat in the burn room. That metal ladder is a way you get to the
roof and our gear (antennas) up there. Maybe
I can show you around there someday.
“In this little room is where we store the
floor mopping and waxing equipment.
Until you get a little rank or some time in grade, you’ll become
familiar with this equipment when our Flight has midshift on a Sunday. You'll agree that’s a fine looking, heavy-duty
mop and mop-wringer bucket. There's no
finer mop-ringer bucket anywhere. Learn
to use it right. Don't even think about
running the buffer until you have been properly trained. A buffer operator cannot be bouncing off our
people or our equipment. That's it.
“I'll turn you back over to Sergeant XXXXXXX
who will probably get you some side-saddle time with one of the old timers
today. Be advised…that in no training
anywhere have they prepared you for the massive explosion you're going to hear
in your headsets here at Tempelhof.”
End of Tour
My first impression upon
listening was the incredibly poor quality of the Russian transmissions, and I
began to realize that I was about to embark on the most challenging mission of
my life. Over the next two years,
technology helped improve voice quality, but, even at best, listening,
comprehending, translating, and deciphering communications required every ounce
of concentration one could muster.
In September of 2011, many of
us who served in West Berlin during those exciting years of the Cold War
reunited in Berlin for a last reunion.
Time had done to us what the Soviets could not do. But even Father Time cannot diminish the
patriotic pride felt by those who were the Silent Warriors of the Cold
War. We did our job.
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