9th USASAFS Gallery
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 Thanks to all who have contributed photographs.
The Headquarters building of the 9th United States Army Security Agency Field Station which was located on Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. The mess hall is the low structure to the right of the building. Across from the mess hall was the motor pool and another building of about the same size branching off to the right, forming an L shape with the HQ building. Both contained barracks. Across the street from the HQ building was one of the Clark AFB swimming pools (not shown), and located about 100 yards up the street to the left, was the Clark AFB Airmans Open Mess (EM Club). I believe it was called the Coconut Grove. Photo credit Jim Murphy.
 
The seven of us were all coming up on short-timer status, i.e. 30 days left in the army. Normally a short-timer at the 9th wore the regular small VO ribbon (after he drank the bottle - of course). We thought we would try something different and bought a gallon of VO, and all signed the LARGE ribbon, and the last to leave got to keep the ribbon. Photo credit Jim Murphy. ASAGP7.JPG (59781 bytes)
 
Once a year we had two big events. One was the annual 9th ASA picnic held at the riding stables, the other was maneuvers where we 'attacked' the operations compound (I got caught). The first picture shows De Palma, Mintner, and me at the annual picnic, and the second picture shows me posing with a major and a spec 4 (Carmody?) for propaganda pictures for the company record. Photo credit Jim Murphy.
 
These three pictures show a few of the bars in Angeles, Pampanga Province, the town outside of Clark AFB. The first is the 'famous' primary 9th ASA beer drinking hangout called The Plaza Cafe. We virtually owned the place and it was THE hangout for years before I got to the PI, and its reign ended in mid 1962 when 'it' and the whole block behind it burned down. The second picture shows the picturesque Lenny's Bar located in an old Villa. The third picture shows a new bar (in 1961) called The Hub. Kind of plastic and tacky inside. Photo credit Jim Murphy. pimontage2.jpg (84570 bytes)
 
pimontage1.jpg (59307 bytes) These are some snapshots I took with a tiny Minolta 'spy' camera. Actually the camera sucked as they all came out blurry. The inside shots were taken at The Plaza Cafe and the Silver City Kiosk. Photo credit Jim Murphy.
 
Almost everyone that served in the ASA in the late 50's and early 60's remembers the venerable boat anchor boombox. The Collins R390A URR, a general purpose high frequency radio receiver.  Image credit Jim Murphy
 
When I got back to the USA in November of 1962 and cleaned out my wallet, I found these cards that I had collected during my wanderings in the town of Angeles. Artifacts courtesy of Jim Murphy.
These two photos show two places the 9th ASA frequented. The Rotonda Kiosk which was across the street from The Plaza Cafe (you have to look close), and Chew Chis restuarant. Chew Chis was where we would have Trick Parties called Roll Calls. We would chow down on Fried Lumpia, Fried Rice and San Miguel Beer. The Roll Call would happen after the meal. As each mans name was called he would chug a beer (how original). Both photos show our two main modes of transportation at the time, a Jeepnie and a Calisa. The Calisa was a horse drawn buggy. We used the Jeepnie to go to and from 'town' (Angeles), and then the Calisa to get from bar to bar. Photo credit Jim Murphy
You could have very good shirts hand made in Angeles tailor shops. Just to show our individualism, and to show off in a juvenile way, we used to have Drinking Shirts made. They actually looked like bowling shirts. We went through several designs until we saw this design on somebodies back (he had designed it). We had to have one like that. So, was born IMHO the best Drinking Shirt design I had ever seen.  Image credit Jim Murphy.
 
I dug around my old pictures and found some more faces to present. I cannot remember the name of the troop at the lower right of the pictures. Anybody out there reconize him? Bill Spellman, always charming, gives a one-finger salute to the camera. John DeLongs picture taken outside the barracks at Ft. Devens in 1960. Photo credit Jim Murphy.
 
This is the last of the my pictures with people from the 9th ASA. Jesse Walling and I co-owned a Vespa Motor Scooter we would use to go to and from Ops and on-base saloons. Had some exciting rides back to the barracks after a few beers. Photo credit Jim Murphy.
 

 

Another view of the 9th USASAFS HQ building close-up. The photo is vintage 63/64 and was taken by Maj. Ed Wiedemer, who was CO of the 9th USASAFS at the time. Other photo's by Maj. Ed Wiedemer are available for viewing at http://www.whoa.org/72/wiedemer/

  

 

 

 

 

 

A rare 1963 or 1964 view of the outer perimeter where our operations/commcenter was located. This view shows the operations building with the Elephant Cage in the near distance. Photographed by Maj. Ed Wiedemer, CO, 9th USASAFS. Other photo's by Maj. Ed Wiedemer are available for viewing at http://www.whoa.org/72/wiedemer/
1961 Photo of  PFC Lon Mitchell inside the 9th ASA barracks. Photo credit Lon Mitchell.