Observation Post Alpha - Observation Post Alpha

Observation Post Alpha

Observation Post Alpha was one of four U.S. Army observation posts along the Hessian German domestic border. OP Alpha was manned by the 1st Squadron, 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment stationed in Fulda and re-flagged as the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in 1972. To the north were two other observation points, OP Romero and OP Oscar, manned by the 3rd Squadron, stationed in Bad Hersfeld. The 2nd Squadron was attached to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, to the south. Jeeps and helicopters were used to patrol the areas in between, with occasional increased border activity with armored vehicles. Today, "Point Alpha" is the name of a museum on the road between Geisa (Thuringia) and Rasdorf village (Hesse). OP Alpha fulfilled NATO defence reconnaissance with its view of Geisa, then the western-most city of the Eastern Bloc; the Warsaw Pact had counterpart observation posts on their side of the Iron Curtain.

The OP overlooked the Fulda Gap from atop a 411-meter hill, lying in the centre of the NATO defence line — from where NATO expected a Warsaw Pact invasion. The name OP Alpha dates to its being the first such point; geography also allowed monitoring Communist radio traffic. At the first sign of an invasion the OP Alpha crew would have withdrawn, as the actual planned battlefields to meet a Warsaw Pact invasion lay a couple of kilometers to the west.