75th / 600th USASA Company History & Recollections
The company was activated and organized following the pull out of US Forces from Austria in the mid 1950s. Original location was in (Udine/Pordeone possibly--Then moved to Aviano) Aviano, Italy and consisted of a small intercept, processing and direction finding operation on the Aviano AF base (NOTE From John Rhuark: I arrived at Aviano in the dark of the night on 3 Nov. 1957. The unit was then designated as Det D, 7227 USAF Support Group as a cover designation). A few short years after organization the company headquarters moved to Vicenza, Italy in support of the 1st Missile Command and SETAF leaving only the direction finding mission in Aviano. The company gained or activated Signal Security operations--055 detachments in Verona and Camp Darby (probably other locations at times that I knew not of or can not remember at this late date).
The company was originally designated (Keep in mind the note above) the 75th USASA Company and redesignated the 600th USASA Company in the summer of 1961 or early 1962. The company operated the aforementioned SIGSEC detachments and two Radio Direction Finding Detachments (Det A in Ravenna, Italy and Det B in Lecce, Italy). The Aviano detachment had moved to Ravenna in March 1961 and the Lecce detachment was activated a few months later (In 1965 the Lecce detachment was deactivated and the operations moved to the San Vito Air Force FLR-9 site.). The Company was deactivated in 1967 or 1968 and the remaining DF activity personnel responsibility assumed by FS Bad Aibling. I don't know at this time the results of the 055 SIG SEC requirements after the Company was deactivated. The Ravenna Detachment was closed shortly after the the consolidation of ASA operations in FS Augsburg in 1972 and the closure of Field Stations Rothwesten, Herzo Base and Bad Aibling.