"As a side note, one of the concrete antenna mounts had an inscription (by an anonymous ASA veteran) in the concrete, "To the Men of Det "K" who lived and died for freedom". This was maybe a tongue in cheek statement. No one known to the author died at Eckstein from military activity, however, there was one casualty from Eckstein, Fred Rider. One night, as the legend goes, Fred got drunk and decided that he wanted to see the Czech border. He took a taxi to the border and jumped into the ‘No Man’s Land’ area between the two borders. The German Border Police did not know what was going on. But the Czech Border Guards ran out & hauled drunken Fred to CZ."

"He was later turn over to the Russians by the Czech border police. He was traded about 3 months later for 3 of ‘theirs’. There were always questions about this action? Was it a real chance happening? Was it planned & intentional? In the process, what information was lost to the other side? How much information was given?"

"Fred, upon his return, was taken to the states for an extended debriefing "in the Washington DC area". At the end of the debriefing, the Army kept Fred at Ft. George S. Meade, MD as a base MP. He did not serve in any classified area on the base. He just drove base patrol, and waved visitors onto base until the end of his enlistment." ¹