Sembach Radioactive Material Burial Site, adjacent to the Kennel area. Photo by Phil Gotterbarm, circa 1968.

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I was SP Ops officer in 1972-73, then 601 Wing Disaster Prep officer. The site was near
the dog kennels. It held old nuclear test samples used to calibrate dosimeters and Geiger counters that were buried sometime in the period the missiles armed with special weapons were at Sembach. As Ops officer, I had supervision of K-9s and Kennels, but couldn't find anyone who could tell me what was in that hole. So we just kept away from it as much as possible.

In 1973, when I was appointed DP officer, I searched base archives high and low, but found no records of what was there. I took out a Geiger counter and checked area, but got no reading, but realized that whatever it was wasn't doing us any good being buried on the base, especially when some of the new Green Party and others were pushing anti-American, antinuclear, and antimilitary feelings. I contacted the USAFE medical and environmental services folks to survey the area and figure out what to do with whatever was buried there (at that point we didn't know what it was). They sent in a couple of NCO's with Geiger counters and other equipment, determined that the radiation level was very, very low, and then dug up what was there (as I remember a couple of metal canisters with the test samples inside). This stuff was then packed more securely in some lead boxes and one of the environmental tech NCO's got a trip home to USA as an escort for the package. Area was then smoothed over and replanted with grass, and that was end of it.

I had hoped it was the Reich Bank's missing gold, but no luck. No sign of Hitler or Eva's bones either. Just some very low level test samples in plastic tubes.

History by Ed Albert