This story was when they were actively using Tempelhof. Now it’s just a museum. Those were the guard’s words, not ours. Are you planning a trip to Berlin?

I got to Tempelhof in September 1960 and lived on the sixth floor above what became the Terminal. I had a full gymnasium across the hall along with a bowling alley. The Berlin Air Traffic Control Center was just down the hall. I began working at the radar units located out on the field and later checked out in the Center. I had about a two hundred foot commute. In those days we would roam the lower catacombs and it could be scary. We always took two flashlights and extra batteries. You did NOT want to get caught in the dark. Three Army troops lost in the fifties and it was three days before they found an exit by the motorpool. They estimated they were in the dark for eight hours. They were hospitalized for a couple weeks. I was there for four years and have returned many times. In my autobiography I say “I was born on Tempelhof Central Airport on September 5th, 1961 at the age of 19.” I have very deep feeling for Tempelhof.

Yes! Then you know how we felt walking through that old place. It was such a nostalgic feeling. We loved it.

Spooky stuff indeed! I only flew in to Tempelhof once and while it was still an active AF installation, but I remember looking up in the hangars and seeing those cat walks. I can just imagine those swastika’d guards walking slowly along and glaring down with their menacing machine guns.

Greg, I’m sorry no. If you have specific questions, I could probably answer them.

Jan, Yes!