The 601st began assembling the troops and equipment for the new OL at Rothwesten in January 1960.  As we came in we were kept busy posting regs, inventorying classified material, and checking out the equipment.  Then in February some of us went by train from Kassel to Landstuhl (Ramstein) to pick up all the vehicles that comprised a TDP.  We convoyed them back to Rothwesten, where they were inventoried and checked out.  At the end of February I and another SSgt (John Linebarier) were sent to Linderhofe, with about a dozen troops, to get it ready.  We laid PSP for the vehicles to park on, put together wall lockers and beds for all the rooms and moved in office furniture.  During this time we had no mess hall so we ate at Hutten's Gasthaus at the bottom of the hill.
In March all the rest of the troops convoyed the vehicles up from Rothwesten, and we began testing and training.  In April we went operational.
In the midddle of 1961 the 601st came under the 38th Tac Missile Wing.  At some point Linderhofe was handed over to the US Army as some kind of radio site.  I visited it in 1978, and the Army was still there, but they wouldn't let me in the gate.
Linderhofe is SW of Hanover, between Boesingfeld and Lemgo.  It is not a town or even a village, just the gasthaus and a couple of houses.

by Brian Coy
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