MEMORIES OF JEAN ROSS KONDEK
My father was Col. Franz Ross, Commanding Officer of
Camp King in the late 1950's. I'm planning a trip to Frankfurt this month and
thought I'd add an extra day to go visit the camp but had no idea that so much had changed
and that other than the club house there would be very little to see. So I'm a
little sad but I have had a lovely hour or two "visiting" through your site. On
the other hand, the Taunus is beautiful, so maybe I will try going out on the streetcar .
In the fifty's Camp King was still a pretty raw place
for dependents. My Dad was very committed to getting sports going at the camp and
started the first little league (Called the Little Kings after a cartoon character) there
was no movie theater. In fact he had to work very hard to get a two lane bowling alley put
into the basement of the main office building.
We lived up the hill in the senior officer quarters, at the very end near the back gate.
(Which my brothers and I used to sneak out of.) In fact on Sundays it was opened and a
guard was there so that people could go walk into the wonderful woods behind the
camp. That was my favorite memory of the camp since I loved going out to
explore the woods, there was a little eating place back in there and a horse farm and
other interesting stuff and lots of paths. Like all German woods it was beautifully
maintained.
The big swimming pool in Oberursel was awesome even by American standards. (It was an
Olympic pool built by Hitler, or so we were told.) And I remember being stunned by the
number of men at the pool who had lost an arm or a leg.
The club house was a wonderful building. A bar on one end, a dining room on the
other. Wonderful Teutonic type post and beam architecture. Every Friday night they had
happy hour in the officers club. One
time somehow a wild boar got loose in the club which caused a lot of upset
and a few shots were fired! I got married in the little chapel and the reception was held
in the officer's club.
But, overall, for a teenage girl with a fairly restrictive dad there was not much to
do on the base except get in trouble, or get off base any way possible. But if you had a
date it usually meant going into town on the streetcar and worrying the whole time that
you wouldn't miss the last streetcar back to the camp.
As teenage daughter of the CO I was also pretty visible
which made things twice as hard since I had all the usual teenage hang-ups. (And most of
the people my age were young G.I.s.) But I was aware of the fact that my dad had
made changes on the base and that he was considered pretty important in the local
intelligence community. He was also very committed to building good relations with our
German neighbors and may have been the one who started the Armed Forces Day tradition of
inviting the towns people in to view the equipment. Because Camp King didn't have
any military equipment other than a few jeep, due to Camp King being an intelligence base,
all the tanks and half tracks had to be brought in from other commands. It was a great day
and even now is still one of my favorite childhood holidays.
My Dad came up through the ranks and didn't go to college (Except Army War College in Ft.
Leavenworth) so he was not always comfortable with many of the officers and men in his
command since many of them were highly educated, ivy league schools, etc. Dad would
try to have the traditional parade review once a week where everybody marched in formation
on the parade ground. (That was the empty space where the kids played ball) But the men
were not traditional army types and couldn't march very well. It was a pretty scraggily
review. They were much more comfortable slipping about in their cloak and dagger outfits,
I guess.
Like Harold Von Hahn we were told all the stories about
tunnels and spent some time trying to locate them. We had also been warned about finding
old war stuff in the woods and reporting it immediately, which we did. We were also aware
of the strange kind of people who seemed to be about the base from time to time. Of course
we all knew it was very hush-hush. I even remember the days when all the local Germans
would go for a walk in the woods
since they would pass right by our house but on the other side of the fence. At the time
we thought it sort of peculiar since the men always seemed to walk with their hands behind
their backs holding their wives' pocketbooks. I may be confusing that with the Sunday
afternoon walk since I also recall they had suits on. It was a long time ago.
This was still very much the middle of the cold war so they would do simulated alerts and
would drill the dependents in evacuation procedures. The base fire whistle would sound a
certain sequence of blasts, and we had to drop everything and head home. The women had to
pack the kids into the cars and line up at the gate ready to convoy into Frankfurt.
Regulations said that the car always had to be parked with the nose out, ready to go.
We went to school in Frankfurt, I was a senior at
Frankfurt American High School which served as a dormitory school for kids who had dads
stationed in small outposts. The school attracted some wonderful teachers who, I guess,
were eager to see the world while earning a living. We graduated from the auditorium in
the Frankfurt Zoo and the Hyena hooted throughout the ceremony. After graduating I went to
the U of Maryland in Munich.
Jean Ross Kondek Daughter of Col Franz H. Ross
RETURN TO HOME PAGE RETURN TO MEMORIES