SPC. Cathleen Croitz-Holman
U.S. Army – Intelligence Analysts
Field Station Berlin
Teufulsberg, Germany
1987 - 1992
U.S. Army – Intelligence Analysts
Field Station Berlin
Teufulsberg, Germany
1987 - 1992
Cathie Croitz-Holman was born in 1969 in the Catskill Mountains of New York in the town of Ellensville, smack in the middle of the old ‘Borscht Belt’. “Half my family worked at Grossingers.” Her family moved to Florida where she graduated from Clearwater High School in 1987. “I had always done very well in school.”
Cathie had a scholarship to Loyola in New Orleans but still had to pay out of state student fees. Her mother said, “I’m not co-signing loans. Figure out how you are going to pay for it”. Cathie thought about it and decided to go see an Army recruiter. “What the heck, I’ll do a couple of years and use the GI Bill to go to college.”
“I knew I didn’t want to be a Marine,” Cathie said, “because their motto was ‘We Are Looking For A Few Good Men,’ and I didn’t like the Navy uniform.” Her friend had recently enlisted in the Army and came home on leave telling stories of all the great things he got to do. The Army seemed appealing, and she enlisted. She scored well on the ASVAB test and was assigned to Military Signals Intelligence.
Cathie reported to basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. “I went June through the end of August. Not the place you want to be in the middle of summer. It was absolutely terrifying. I wasn’t used to people yelling at me and making me run. I didn’t want to run. We were the first cycle of all females that our drill sergeants had to deal with. They didn’t know what to do with us.”
Cathie found basic training challenging. However, she also found, “You find strength within yourself that you didn’t know you had. Which is what I think basic was really all about.”
After basic training Cathie headed for her Advanced individual training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. She completed this 24 week program and was assigned to US Army, Field Station Berlin, Germany. Initially she thought this was a horrible assignment but in retrospect it was likely to be one of the premiere places to be at that time. She worked at an American listening station in the Teufulsberg section of Berlin which rose 394 feet above sea level making it an ideal location for a listening center. Teufulsberg is a man-made hill created from the rubble of heavily bombed Berlin in WWII. The hill has four distinct radomes which are landmarks. Radomes are large circular structures which enclosed radio antenna.
Military Intelligence involved intercepting foreign communications, analyzing them and writing reports which would be distributed to the NSA, the CIA, the White House, and other agencies depending upon the target. Cathie was an analyst, and she was responsible for writing the reports with the information someone else had intercepted.
To fully understand Cathie’s experience, it is important to understand the history of Germany and the politics of that time. At the conclusion of World War II Germany was governed by the Allied Occupational Forces and was divided into four sectors. The United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union each controlled a sector. The city of Berlin was surrounded by the Soviet sector, and it was agreed that Berlin would be divided into four sectors. One sector for each Ally. Between 1945 and 1949 there was a constant tug-of-war between the Soviets and the other three Allies. The Soviets wanted to influence the rebuilding of Germany with its Communist ideology, whereas the other three Allies promoted democracy and free trade. In a very short summary, The Soviet Union retained control of its sector of Germany and created a new country called East Germany. The other three sectors formed the new country of West Germany which went on to have it’s own elections and government. West Germany ultimately went on to have a prosperous industrial economy while East Germany languished under Soviet control and suffered chronic shortages of poor quality merchandise and a discontented populace enjoying virtually no freedoms.
This was the situation when Cathie arrived in 1988. There is one additional fact of great importance. The East Germans, with the help of the Soviet Union, constructed an elaborate wall and other fortifications to prevent East Germans from escaping Communist control. This was known as the Berlin Wall. Checkpoint Charlie was the crossing point between East and West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie was heavily guarded and from time-to-time desperate East Germans would attempt daring escapes. Some made it, the others were shot by the East German guards.
Cathie described crossing from West Germany to East Germany as walking from a color movie into a black and white movie. U.S Troops were able to cross into East Germany to shop. She recalled looking into the windows of the stores in East Germany and seeing “really cool stuff in the store front” but empty shelves inside the store. When they asked about the merchandise being displayed in the windows they were told, ‘that is only for display’. The exchange rate was very favorable for exchanging the Deutsche Mark (West Germany currency) into Eastern Marks (East Germany currency) however there was not much to buy. Cathie recalled eating at some fine restaurants with five-star food and service. These were usually patronized by Soviet Officers and very inexpensive by western standards. Cathie recalled that although tipping was not the norm in East Germany, “We would make sure we would tip.” Their tips were usually comparable to a year’s wages for the East German wait staff. “It was always interesting to me to see the buildings in the East with the windows that looked over into West Berlin bricked up so they couldn’t look out.”
During her time at the listening center in Berlin there were several significant world events that occurred; The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Desert Storm happened in 1991. “There was major world history happening all around me when I was there.”
Cathie recounted the situation leading up the fall of the Berlin Wall. There was civil unrest at the time in some of the eastern European countries under Soviet control. The populace was looking for more freedoms including traveling outside of their countries. At one point 10’s of thousands of East Germans descended upon Checkpoint Charlie. The crowd was too large for the few guards on duty to handle and they flooded into West Germany. In addition, the Soviets were pulling out of East Germany which further emboldened the crowds to cross. Eventually, the crowds began knocking the wall down.
Although the U.S. personnel were instructed to stay away from the Wall, curiosity was too much and Cathie and some of her fellow soldiers grabbed some chisels and hammers and went down to the Wall to take their swings and become a part of history. Cathie remembers the crowds at the wall being very large.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, the weakening of the Soviet Union and the desire of the East German people for a better life resulted in the reunification of Germany into one country.
We talked about how a significant portion of today’s U.S. population has no idea how bad it was for those people living under communism. “That a government could control you that much. It’s kind of scary.”
Cathie recalled her 17 year old brother coming to visit her. They went to a night club, and he asked some guys from East Germany if they drove Ford’s. “No Ford, Trabant”, was their reply. The Trabant was manufactured by a state monopoly in East Germany and there was a 10-13 year waiting list for the car. Its construction was poor and its reliability was terrible If that wasn’t enough, it was slow and loud.
After 2 years and 10 months in Berlin, Cathie’s next duty station was Fort Hood, Texas (Fort Cavasos). “Not a place anyone really wants to be.” Cathie left the military in July of 1992.
Cathie has spent considerable time raising her four sons. One son became an Army Ranger with multiple deployments. She also developed a brain tumor and thankfully the doctors were able to remove all of it. Today she spends a lot of time working with veterans through the VFW and other organizations to assist with benefits.
Cathie said she would have liked to have continued with the Military in the intelligence field but the demand of raising four little boys required her full attention. “You take all of the little pieces and you put them together into a picture that makes sense. I loved my job and I was good at it.”
Thank you, Cathie, for being part of the Cold War efforts that brought an end to communism in eastern Europe and led to the reunification of Germany. Millions of European citizens also thank you.
Cathie had a scholarship to Loyola in New Orleans but still had to pay out of state student fees. Her mother said, “I’m not co-signing loans. Figure out how you are going to pay for it”. Cathie thought about it and decided to go see an Army recruiter. “What the heck, I’ll do a couple of years and use the GI Bill to go to college.”
“I knew I didn’t want to be a Marine,” Cathie said, “because their motto was ‘We Are Looking For A Few Good Men,’ and I didn’t like the Navy uniform.” Her friend had recently enlisted in the Army and came home on leave telling stories of all the great things he got to do. The Army seemed appealing, and she enlisted. She scored well on the ASVAB test and was assigned to Military Signals Intelligence.
Cathie reported to basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. “I went June through the end of August. Not the place you want to be in the middle of summer. It was absolutely terrifying. I wasn’t used to people yelling at me and making me run. I didn’t want to run. We were the first cycle of all females that our drill sergeants had to deal with. They didn’t know what to do with us.”
Cathie found basic training challenging. However, she also found, “You find strength within yourself that you didn’t know you had. Which is what I think basic was really all about.”
After basic training Cathie headed for her Advanced individual training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. She completed this 24 week program and was assigned to US Army, Field Station Berlin, Germany. Initially she thought this was a horrible assignment but in retrospect it was likely to be one of the premiere places to be at that time. She worked at an American listening station in the Teufulsberg section of Berlin which rose 394 feet above sea level making it an ideal location for a listening center. Teufulsberg is a man-made hill created from the rubble of heavily bombed Berlin in WWII. The hill has four distinct radomes which are landmarks. Radomes are large circular structures which enclosed radio antenna.
Military Intelligence involved intercepting foreign communications, analyzing them and writing reports which would be distributed to the NSA, the CIA, the White House, and other agencies depending upon the target. Cathie was an analyst, and she was responsible for writing the reports with the information someone else had intercepted.
To fully understand Cathie’s experience, it is important to understand the history of Germany and the politics of that time. At the conclusion of World War II Germany was governed by the Allied Occupational Forces and was divided into four sectors. The United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union each controlled a sector. The city of Berlin was surrounded by the Soviet sector, and it was agreed that Berlin would be divided into four sectors. One sector for each Ally. Between 1945 and 1949 there was a constant tug-of-war between the Soviets and the other three Allies. The Soviets wanted to influence the rebuilding of Germany with its Communist ideology, whereas the other three Allies promoted democracy and free trade. In a very short summary, The Soviet Union retained control of its sector of Germany and created a new country called East Germany. The other three sectors formed the new country of West Germany which went on to have it’s own elections and government. West Germany ultimately went on to have a prosperous industrial economy while East Germany languished under Soviet control and suffered chronic shortages of poor quality merchandise and a discontented populace enjoying virtually no freedoms.
This was the situation when Cathie arrived in 1988. There is one additional fact of great importance. The East Germans, with the help of the Soviet Union, constructed an elaborate wall and other fortifications to prevent East Germans from escaping Communist control. This was known as the Berlin Wall. Checkpoint Charlie was the crossing point between East and West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie was heavily guarded and from time-to-time desperate East Germans would attempt daring escapes. Some made it, the others were shot by the East German guards.
Cathie described crossing from West Germany to East Germany as walking from a color movie into a black and white movie. U.S Troops were able to cross into East Germany to shop. She recalled looking into the windows of the stores in East Germany and seeing “really cool stuff in the store front” but empty shelves inside the store. When they asked about the merchandise being displayed in the windows they were told, ‘that is only for display’. The exchange rate was very favorable for exchanging the Deutsche Mark (West Germany currency) into Eastern Marks (East Germany currency) however there was not much to buy. Cathie recalled eating at some fine restaurants with five-star food and service. These were usually patronized by Soviet Officers and very inexpensive by western standards. Cathie recalled that although tipping was not the norm in East Germany, “We would make sure we would tip.” Their tips were usually comparable to a year’s wages for the East German wait staff. “It was always interesting to me to see the buildings in the East with the windows that looked over into West Berlin bricked up so they couldn’t look out.”
During her time at the listening center in Berlin there were several significant world events that occurred; The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Desert Storm happened in 1991. “There was major world history happening all around me when I was there.”
Cathie recounted the situation leading up the fall of the Berlin Wall. There was civil unrest at the time in some of the eastern European countries under Soviet control. The populace was looking for more freedoms including traveling outside of their countries. At one point 10’s of thousands of East Germans descended upon Checkpoint Charlie. The crowd was too large for the few guards on duty to handle and they flooded into West Germany. In addition, the Soviets were pulling out of East Germany which further emboldened the crowds to cross. Eventually, the crowds began knocking the wall down.
Although the U.S. personnel were instructed to stay away from the Wall, curiosity was too much and Cathie and some of her fellow soldiers grabbed some chisels and hammers and went down to the Wall to take their swings and become a part of history. Cathie remembers the crowds at the wall being very large.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, the weakening of the Soviet Union and the desire of the East German people for a better life resulted in the reunification of Germany into one country.
We talked about how a significant portion of today’s U.S. population has no idea how bad it was for those people living under communism. “That a government could control you that much. It’s kind of scary.”
Cathie recalled her 17 year old brother coming to visit her. They went to a night club, and he asked some guys from East Germany if they drove Ford’s. “No Ford, Trabant”, was their reply. The Trabant was manufactured by a state monopoly in East Germany and there was a 10-13 year waiting list for the car. Its construction was poor and its reliability was terrible If that wasn’t enough, it was slow and loud.
After 2 years and 10 months in Berlin, Cathie’s next duty station was Fort Hood, Texas (Fort Cavasos). “Not a place anyone really wants to be.” Cathie left the military in July of 1992.
Cathie has spent considerable time raising her four sons. One son became an Army Ranger with multiple deployments. She also developed a brain tumor and thankfully the doctors were able to remove all of it. Today she spends a lot of time working with veterans through the VFW and other organizations to assist with benefits.
Cathie said she would have liked to have continued with the Military in the intelligence field but the demand of raising four little boys required her full attention. “You take all of the little pieces and you put them together into a picture that makes sense. I loved my job and I was good at it.”
Thank you, Cathie, for being part of the Cold War efforts that brought an end to communism in eastern Europe and led to the reunification of Germany. Millions of European citizens also thank you.