Holiday mishap part of Naval station’s history

While reading John Keibel’s book “Behind the Barbed Wire: History of Naval Weapons Station Concord,” I ran across an interesting event that happened there in 1966.

Remember, the war was going on in Vietnam and the station was very active. So it was quite unexpected when hot air balloonist William Berry made an unscheduled landing at the highly restricted weapons station – wearing a bright red jumpsuit. Flustered Navy officials weren’t sure whether he was a super-spy or Santa Claus. This was Dec. 6, mind you.

As the Oakland Tribune reported on Dec. 9, 1966, Berry’s golden blue gondola was trailing a 30-foot sign reading “holiday magic” when it plopped down behind the military fences during a picture-taking tour of the Concord area.

Navy guards hustled over to the balloon and at first were inclined to say “Hi, Santa.” But they lost their good cheer when they spotted cameras dangling around Berry’s neck. Navy brows furrowed even further when they discovered Berry had a passenger, also a cameraman, identified as Dieter Gaebler, with credentials that showed he was born in east Germany.

Officials alerted the FBI and the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office and hustled Berry and Gaebler into the Navy security shack, where the balloonist began some rapid-fire explanations.

Berry said that he and Gaebler, a Munich photographer “along for the ride,” were getting aerial shots of the Concord area for a magazine. They had taken off from the Concord Inn, the hottest place to stay in Concord at the time, before noon. Berry said he didn’t want to fly over the classified weapons station, but naughty winds swept him over anyway.
He said the winds were blowing him toward a hill he didn’t feel he should try to climb. So he had no choice but to nest amid the station’s grass-covered ammunition storage igloos.

After a few hours of query, Berry’s story was so incredible they believed him. He was released and allowed to truck his balloon off the grounds.

As you can imagine, everyone got a good laugh and a great story to tell.

Carol Longshore has been a Concord resident since 1950. She is a community leader and past president of the Concord Historical Society. Send comments and suggestions for future topics to editor@concordpioneer.com.