Col Graham R. Evans assumed command on 29 October 1961.

HHB, 10th ADA was originally on Will Kaserne in Munich, along with a tank battalion. HHB then moved to Darmstadt.

Ernst Ludwig Kaserne in Darmstadt was small, built around a parade ground in the middle. One day Col DuParc passed the Btry commander in the middle of the parade ground. He was unhappy with the captain's salute. Spent 45 minutes there practicing saluting.

When we first set up, the enlisted men were quartered above the first floor, which was the headquarters with staff offices. Later the orderly room and enlisted were moved to the bldg next to the front gate.

In one of your articles mention is made on the Air Force semi gas truck rolling down the mountain side. There's a story there too.

I was looking at your article on 10th Gp. and noticed a difference in the unit crest. I think the one you used must have been a earlier version. This is the crest we used in the late 60s. Not a biggie, just noticed the difference. Also wanted to thank you for the information on your site.

Webmaster note: I did some research and found that the version of the insignia that I show on the 10th ADA Gp/Bde page was authorized on Nov 10, 1969. So, the version you show must have been the one worn by 10th Group prior to that. I am adding a copy of the older version to the page.

We had KL-7s and KW-7s with a microwave signal terminal next door at the 11th Signal Battalion. Our superior unit was Cowboy (HQ of the 32nd), of course, we were Cricket, and we had four subordinate units, Cork, Chain, Caisson, and a fourth one I can't recall at the moment.

The comcenter was located in the HQ building of 10th Group and was manned by 10th Gp personnel. The Sig Battalion supported us in repair of equipment, except for the crypto stuff that we had to take to Frankfurt. Cricket was the call sign for both tac lines and teletype equipment. I don't remember any other equipment that we used in the comcenter.

The comcenter was originally in a small room on the second floor with an iron door that could be bolted only from the inside. While I was there, we moved to the room next to it that use to be the dayroom. We put up partitions and made it a three room suit. I remember when we moved that iron door, it was quite a project. We had to put bars on the windows and I remember Boiler coming up stairs to find out what all that noise was as we were hand drilling holes in the concrete to install the bars.

I had been an instructor at the Signal School at Fort Monmouth before going to Germany and while I was at the 10th Group, I constructed a new patch cord assembly for the comcenter that made it possible to send the same message to all subordinate units at the same time. We didn't have that capability until I put that contraption together. I had worked on it at the shop in the basement where the mess hall was.

When I first came to Darmstadt, Colonel Clarence Davenport was the CO of the HQ of 10th Group. I saw on the Internet that he passed away recently. After he retired from the military in 1972, he went back to school and became a teacher just about completing his PhD in education.

I was doing some research and ran across your webpage about the history of 10th ADA Bde.

I was assigned there 15 Jun 1985 thru 30 May 1988. There were many changes during this time and I will do my best to help update your webpage.
HHB 10th ADA Bde was located at E.L.K. in Darmstadt.

C Co, 11th Sig Bn was located next door and was in direct support of the Bde HQ.

When I arrived in 1985 there were 3 Hawk battalions assigned to the brigade.

Sometime in late 1985 or early 1986, 2 of the Hawk Bn's inactivated and 2 Patriot Bn's were activated. These were the first 2 Patriot Bn's in Europe. I want to say they were 2/43 ADA (Hanau) and 4/43 ADA (Giessen) but I may be wrong. The one remaining Hawk Bn was 3/59 ADA (Wildflecken).

Hope that helps some.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
(Source: Email from Pete Zenner)
10th ADA was the first European unit to field the Patriot missiles in 1986.

Two BNs -- 2/43 ADA and 4/43 ADA -- were upgraded.

The 3/52 in WIldflecken remained with the I-HAWK missiles until their deactivation.

In 1988 these Patriot Battalions also were the first to get upgraded with an anti-missile improvement called PDB-2 (Post-Deployment Build).

That's the view (above photo from Wikimedia). We were surrounded by forest.

We would leave Kaserne, drive out of town, go thru a small town, deuce and half just made it thru the narrow street, then onto gravel road up the mountain.

In addition to the radome, equipment vans, generators, there was a small wooden building, just down hill from all the equipment that was used for eating, some sleeping, or meetings. Also we had a small motor pool with a couple mechanics. We were a tight knit group.

At headquarters in Darmstadt, we were referred to as the "Animals at Butzbach". Don't know why. I think there was a name for the site, "Lite Site".

I've seen the pictures of the tanker accident. I arrived after that all happened. That tanker rolled a few hundred yards down the hill. The guys that were there when it happened thought it was sabotaged. But who really knows.

The details of the equipment at the AADCP/GCC Griesheim has been described by others on the site. Without an associated radar, it was a work-in-progress. Real-time air pictures were provided by UHF and landline feeds from 4ATAF Control and Reporting Centers Boerfink and Messstetten (backup). UHF and landline communications were established and maintained with four battalion operations centers, 10th Group Headquarters, HQ 32d AADCOM and Allied Sector III operations center. CW2 Howard Burns was a miracle worker with the salvaged C&C equipment, maintenance and with the required comms. The manual Group AADCAP/war room at Griesheim has also been described elsewhere.

In addition to the others mentioned elsewhere, here are some of the names and ranks that I remember from my time at the Group Control Center, Griesheim: OICs MAJs Donohue and Law; CPTs Haripar and Heinz; MSG Greene; SFC Worrick; SSG Estes; SSG Martin; SGTs Beavers, Portwood and Curtis; and SPC Reuter. CPT Haripar later commanded HHB, 10th ADA Group.

I remember the Griesheim AAF that serviced both the HQ 10th ADA and 32d AADCOM, plus a MEDEVAC element. The European Stars and Stripes headquarters was nearby, and a small “press club” (bar & restaurant). The Army MCC/GCC element was in a former Nike complex across from the airfield.

The operations section was housed in a large building with a unit status board and a large custom-built conference work table with required communications and classified documents and SOPs. The Group war room with its manual plotting and status boards and staff seating was directly adjacent to the operations room. Immediately outside were the two command and control vans with consoles and comms. One of the trailer vans was for used for system maintenance, test & repair.

Another interesting tidbit that I now remember is that 4ATAF/AAFCE apparently did not like or approve the MCC move from the Wasserkuppe -- where the command and control of SAMs was co-located with Air Force elements -- to Griesheim, where it was not.

At Griesheim we had only our air pictures data fed from a CRC, and voice communications with Allied Sector III for status reporting.

Once in Griesheim, the GCC was required to develop an operational working relationship with the 69th ADA Group MCC (its OIC was an Army ADA Lt Col) located at CRC Lauda for command and control of both IHAWK groups. This included associated comms with 10th Group BOCs (less 2/62 ADA) and Griesheim GCC, and eventually required a GCC forward element to be deployed to the MCC in Lauda for command and control of the 10th Group’s three IHAWK battalions in an air battle situation.

At Lauda, the 10th Group GCC forward was allocated two consoles for this purpose. Myself and SGT Portwood served as the 10th ADA Group Group Control Center Forward personnel. I was one of the designated several Surface to Air Missile Allocators (SAMAs) under CRC Lauda. I was billeted at Lauda for 2-3 months for that purpose, while my Ops Sgt traveled in from Wuerzberg every day. We underwent an AAFCE Tac Eval with the CRC Lauda and 69th ADA Group MCC in June 1976.

The details of the equipment at the AADCP/GCC Griesheim has been described by others on the website. Without an associated radar, it was a work-in-progress. Real-time air pictures were provided by UHF and landline feeds from 4ATAF Control and Reporting Centers Boerfink and Messstetten (backup). UHF and landline communications were established and maintained with four battalion operations centers, 10th Group Headquarters, HQ 32d AADCOM and Allied Sector III operations center. CW2 Howard Burns was a miracle worker with the salvaged C&C equipment, maintenance and with the required comms. The manual Group AADCAP/war room at Griesheim has also been described elsewhere.

In addition to the others mentioned elsewhere, here are some of the names and ranks that I remember from my time at the Group Control Center, Griesheim: OICs MAJs Donohue and Law; CPTs Haripar and Heinz; MSG Greene; SFC Worrick; SSG Estes; SSG Martin; SGTs Beavers, Portwood and Curtis; and SPC Reuter. CPT Haripar later commanded HHB, 10th ADA Group.

Also had a maintenance semi truck which had all of the equipment necessary for site electronic and maintenance repair. Our other location was in Korea and training site at Fort Bliss, Texas.

My memory is not complete and all photos are gone. We were parallaxed to the radar. Which means it was at another site and we could be could located anywhere within the main radar's sweep range. It was as though we were side by side.

At that time the Air Force still had ID priority of airspace. So we were compatible with Air Force (equipment) for ID. We were mostly concerned with the Berlin corridor.

Each missle battery within their own OC had a radar to track targets. We electronically handed targets to them. Much the same as an airport control tower. We controlled everything in that three hundred mile radius and handed targets off to each missile battery and their radar tracked only the assigned target. So everyone would not fire on same incoming.

We wore the red artillery scarves as part of our fatigue uniforms.

Would love to find others who were at Ernst Ludwig Kaserne, Darmstadt, Germany.

Can anyone provide additional details on this mobile (alternate) command unit of the 10th Arty Gp?

	Tactical Site:	Finkenberg Hill Recent arial photos of the Finkenberg site: former tactical site #1 (A) former tactical site #2 (A)
	Mobile Deployment Area:	Sickels

(A) From the German Osthessen News website (www.osthessen-news.de)

The other batteries at this time:
A Battery — Bad Kissingen
B Battery — Wildflecken
Headquarters —- Butzbach

People I remember during my service in Fulda:

Lt. John McFarland
Lt. David Eaton
Lt. John Slonina
Lt. Ken Fess
Lt. George Wiklund
Lt. Bob Occhi
Lt. Luciano J. Ercolini (me)
Capt. Charles Ronald

WO Bob McKenzie
WO John Gilliland

Sgt. Morris Acord
Sgt. Okeefe
Sgt. Del Castillo
Sgt. Hannigan
Sgt. Gooche
Sgt. Owens
Sgt. Bates
Sgt. Ford
Sgt Walker

After Hawk Missile Training at Ft. Bliss I arrived in Fulda early in 1970. We stayed at the Europa Hotel for a week or so outside the Fulda Kaserne where one of the officers would pick me up and deliver me to the Tac Site at Finkenberg Hill. There were three brand new second lieutenants (me, George Wiklund and Bob Occhi) who were to replace the other officers who were due to rotate. We spent the first month or so studying the tactical regulations so that we could be TCO certified and be able to pull 24 hour duty on the tactical site. The three of us instantly developed great comraderay as we studied those dry regulations, took walks about the tac site and in good spirits took the jocularity that brand new second lieuies’ had to absorb. It was part of the initiation ritual till we earned our stripes.

Some of us lived in Army quarters and others lived on the economy. My wife and I lived in an apartment in Sickels. The owners, Helmut and Inge lived on the first floor and we on the second. It was all new and nicely furnished and comfortable. I remember sleeping in featherbeds and negotiating rooms with severely slanted ceilings. Soon we adapted to the best the military and the German economy had to offer.

John McFarland was our CO. John had an incisive sense of humor and during his weekly battery meeting he would pretty much keep us all in stitches. Later Cpt. Ronald took over and things got a bit more serious.

On Tac Site we would be ever vigilant for the EMMO teams from battalion, group and 32nd AADCOM. At the battalion level there was a CW3, Mr. Woods, who had absolutely no sense of humor and preyed on new TCO’s. It was a Saturday; John had just concluded his battery meeting; it was my first TCO duty (which meant I knew relatively nothing) and Mr Woods called us for a battery ORE with gas masks. So, there we were, five of us with gas masks plus two evaluators in the cramped BCC. Red buttons on and off, cursors sweeping, barking orders into gas masks, not being able to hear much of anything and sweating big time all the while Mr. Woods standing six inches from me, expressionless and mean. The ORE was pretty much of a disaster and I had the pleasure of reliving the humiliation in front of my crew as Mr. Woods gave the out briefing in great detail in the cafeteria. Some hours later when the furor had subsided, I got a call from Cork 5……”Lieutenant why did you f… u…..the ORE?” Cork 5 was the battalion XO whose name I forgot but we later became friends and would laugh profusely as he recounted the episode at my expense, of course.

Life in an SP Hawk Missile Battery was pretty much maintenance and training. Equipment always broke down and we were forever dispatching vehicles for parts. The year was a constant preparation for inspections and exercises by various headquarters: CMMI, Tactical Evaluations, ORE’s and Battery Missile Firings in Crete.

The last couple of years of duty I spent at 10th Group Headquarters in Darmstadt which is another story.

Luciano J. Ercolini

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The Self Propelled Missile Battery consisted of:

a) two self propelled platoons
b) one towed platoon
c) generator section (45kw generators)
d) motor pool section
e) radar section-continuous wave, pulse, doppler
f) missile maintenance section (under the direction of warrant officers)
g) headqarters, supply, barracks, mess...etc. (at Downs Barracks for C Battery)

Missile batteries performed their mission under three statuses: 5 minute (hot), 3 hour, and 12 hour. Hence they were to be able to fire a missile at a hostile target within that time period. Each platoon would have 24 hour duty on the tac site and have the following day off. So, there was a constant rotation of personnel. Often the "hot" battery would go down due to equipment outages and the 3 hour battery would have to come up to hot status. It was a dynamic situation. During hot status batteries would run on generator power and other times they would use commercial electricity.

Once a year each battalion had to undergo a tactical evaluation. These evalations generally lasted a week and each unit was evaluated in all phases of their operations to insure capacity to meet assigned mission. Wartime scenarios were transmitted from the originating headquarters through the battalions to the batteries where evaluators would gauge performance. For SP Hawk units mobility was an imortant phase, so one of the paltoons had to be deployed to their mibile site, Sickels for C Battery, and be operational within three hours. Full integration of that platoon with the tac site was an important phase. The whole tactical evaluation season probably occupied several months of the units time.

Once a year each unit had to successfully engage a target at the Nato firing range in Crete. The most proficient crew was selected from each battery and would undergo about a month of simulator training. Then they would be flown to Crete for a week and go through the preparations, testing and firring at an incoming drone. It was an important event as that unit had to live with success or failure for a year. During my service duty in Germany I recollect only one unit which failed.

The SP Hawk Battery had two firing sections: one being towed launchers and the other being on self propelled tracks. The third SP Platoon was on standby and usually lined up on an alternate area of the tac site ready for mobile deployment. Each day the arriving duty and standby platoon would arrive at 8:00 am and relieve the overnight platoon. System checks would be preformed till about 11:00 am. Hot lunch served at noon. Training classes in the afternoon might be scheduled. Six hour checks performed at 2:00 pm, 8:00 pm...etc.

Standby platoon would leave at 4:00 pm and the cycle would begin anew. After 4:00 pm and on week ends there was a lot of personal time for reading, chatting, sleeping etc.

Warrant officers were in charge of the maintenance of the battery. Much of their time was spent in testing the missiles as all had to be checked every ninety days, I believe. Each battery had about 80 missiles. So each missile had to be removed from pallets and launchers and brought to an indoor testing area. An officer always had to be present when missiles were moved... so the logistics were always time consuming.

At Sickels we used a large fenced field. It was used for training and deployment of the third SP Platoon.Cannot remember whether it was adjacent to the airfield or not. Also, in those days Sickels was a tiny hamlet, basically the intersection of two roads amidst a farming area. Although the entire battery was mobile I never saw any plans for it to move to secondary locations in the event of hostilities. Never saw any airlift capabilities in place. When later I participated in Nato wide exercises by the third day of hostilities the forward edge of the battle area was determined to be at Frankfurt.

The last year and a half I was stationed at 10th Group Headquarters at S3. We did the training and evaluation at group level so I had the opportunity to travel to all the batteries from Kassel to Wurzburg to Bitgurg/Trier. I had a wonderful time but more than that it was a unique and invaluable experience for a young man.

I was stationed in Wildflecken with B-1-1 (B Battery 1st BN 1st ADA) but I left in the first part of 1973. I was a Spec 4 and
worked in the Hawk Maintenance Shop as the TRAMMS clerk. Just before I left I worked as the mail clerk. 

Here is a link to my pictures and info -- http://imageevent.com/wharris19/armydays 

Imagine my surprise when I was assigned as a Self-Propelled Hawk platoon leader and Tactical Control Officer. B Battery had two self-propelled and one towed HAWK platoon. I was also the battery COMSEC and classified document custodian. I was also later certified to supervise the movement and transfer of HAWK missiles.

My memories of my ~16 months in Wildflecken are of how cold, windy and icy it was up on the Tac Site for a lot of the year and how hard the weather was on us and the equipment. We were always dropping out of hot status due to equipment and generator problems. Despite our best efforts and great maintainers, we were consistently MSA Red and regularly failed OREs (Operational Readiness Evaluations) – whether battalion, group or AADCOM-level. Our commander and 1SG were both relieved two months after I arrived, and were replaced by the Bn Asst. S3 (CPT Condon) and the Bn Operations Sergeant. We managed to pass the 4ATAF Tac Eval that June, but just barely.

Bravo battery turned over its SP and Towed HAWK equipment to other units in 69th ADA Group over the summer of 1975, then converted to IHAWK in the fall of 1975, after undergoing IHAWK New Equipment Training. Bravo Battery fired/qualified on IHAWK at NAMFI, Crete, in February 1976.

Strangely, the other thing that I remember about my time at WTA was the command requirement to conduct nightly health and welfare checks of Bravo Battery’s barracks on main post each night. Race relations and drugs were “leadership issues” in 1975-76. B/1/1 was no exception.

I also remember the long early morning and late afternoon drives to and from the Giessen – and later Fulda – Finance Offices (with armed guards) from Wildflecken to pick up monthly pay (dollars in cash) and DMs. Well before Direct Deposit requirements!

MSA Red and Road Conditions Red. Wildflecken. Top of the Rock.

Here are some of the names and ranks that I remember from my time there: CPT Pete Condon, 1LT Frank Hosek, 1LT Tom Allen, 2LT Jim Wells, 2LT Mike Loper ,2LT Joe Wilhelm, CW2 Charlie Sitar, WO1 Gerry Dustan, SFC Peters, SFC Dunn, SFC Nickerson, SFC Frank McGhee, SFC Willie Hickmon, SFC Cornelison, SSG Feldmann, SSG Randy Norman, SSG Gene Cluckey, SGT Johnson, SGT Tom Delano, SGT Charles Kozad, SGT Ricky Sprenger, and SPC James Bible.

I was reassigned from B/1/1 to the Group Missile Control Center (MCC) (“Cricket Lima”) at the nearby Wasserkuppe Air Station, near Gersfeld, in May 1976 due to a shortage of Tactical Directors there.
(Link to MCC part of John's email.)

Back in 1970 there were no permanent bldgs... only tents and Quonset huts. And the town of Ockstadt looks much bigger than I remember it. In as much as Ray barracks was repatriated back in '07, I would guess the site is no longer an American Military site? Here's a short story that I wrote about my experiences there.

I was 19 back in 1970 when Uncle Sam came a' callin’. Ah yes… the memories. Time has a funny way of erasing bad ones and leaving you only with the good. At least it seems that way to me because I can only remember the good parts of my 20-month stint. I managed to make it through with neither scars nor tattoos. If I try hard I can recall being really upset with my conscription, but then things settled down when I landed Germany as my tour of duty.

Germany… that was wonderful. The people, for the most part, were nice. The girls hot, (though that arm-pit hair thing was … different) the bier, great. All in all it was some of the best years of my life… or at least sixteen of the best months of my life. The one story I can regale you with is the time my unit, a Mobile Hawk Missile Battalion, went on maneuvers. “Maneuvers” was done once per year and it was the biggest thing the lifers had to look forward to. Merely talking about it had a Viagra-like effect on them. I think a Battalion is something like 6 Companies? Each company was a Mobile Hawk Missile Company and was set up in a different area of Germany such that, with notice, a company could be completely packed up and moved within 5 hours. Anyway, once a year all six companies would have to actually pack up and move - all the missiles, launchers, radar platforms, trucks, etc., everything they had - to a designated rendezvous site. So, on a cold February morning the much anticipated maneuver began…. but first, a little back ground.

These times - the 70’s - were, well… a bit different. More than half of the EM’s were drafted so they certainly did not like their circumstance. They wanted as little military influence in their lives as possible. Drugs were as common on a daily basis as breakfast. Even the young Officer contingent was more liberal than you’d imagine (I’m certain that a huge percentage of them smoked pot) and so they too seemed not to get along well with the older officers and older high ranking NCO’s, i.e., the E-8’s and E-9’s. Let’s just say if moral was the army's heartbeat, during those days it was flat-lining. Basically we were young kids in a place we didn’t want to be, being hassled by people we wanted nothing to do with. The CO and other officers were quite aware of this.

Back to our story… Our facility, or missile site, was an isolated site about 20 minutes outside of Friedberg, Germany. It was a barbed wired fenced-in compound of about three acres. EM’s would leave the main Army Post in Friedberg in a deuce and a half to ride up to the site, then pulled duty for 24 hours, then had 24 hours free time back in Friedberg; 24 on and 24 off. (As an aside, Friedberg is where Elvis did his Army stint.) At the site there were several man-made berms and upon each sat a three-missile launcher and a radar dish on a wagon. Also, there were several Quonset huts for various things like vehicle repair, radar repair, missile repair, sleeping and a mess hall.

So… the big maneuver was fast approaching and the CO of our company decided perhaps it would be best if some of the more incorrigible EM’s were left behind to guard the temporarily abandoned facility. I was deemed one of these, along with five others, and so, left behind. “Lucky,” the company dog who, truth be told, seldom left the site, was also deemed a misfit and was to stay behind. As the big day dawned the canvas tents came down, the radar platforms got hitched to trucks, as did the missile launchers. The weapons and munitions arsenal were loaded and the trucks rumbled as the company “moved out.” All seemed to go without a hitch. Ahhh, but wait! Unbeknownst to the Officers, almost every EM in that convoy had with him a bottle of whiskey and a secret stash of hashish.

Now, on that morning during the hustle-bustle of packing up, we, the incorrigibles, were gathered up and given our instructions. After everyone and every vehicle had gone, we were to secure the area, post a guard at the main gate 24 hrs. a day and, after nightfall, continuously maintain two roving perimeter guards. We would survive solely on C-rations for the three days of the maneuver (I’m told that MRE’s are veritable four-star dining compared to C-rations; but then, the WWII guys said C-rations were four-star dining compared to their K-rations) and were to check in by radio each night by 20:00 hrs. We were not to leave the compound and no one was allowed in the compound without proper authority.

The trucks lumbered down the side of this mini-mountain that was our missile site, a long, slow, full-bellied anaconda that wound its way past the scattered homes on the mountainside, down through the town at its base. This was a really old, medieval looking town that had the traditional narrow cobble streets; some so narrow it was difficult maneuvering a deuce-and-a-half with a missile launcher attached to its rear.

As the day progressed the convoy moved slowly toward the rendezvous site, picking up speed once reaching the autobahn. About five hours of driving got them within 5 miles of the meeting site. But during that five hour drive fifths of Jack Daniels were drunk and “bowls” of hashish were smoked. The drivers of the various trucks were in sad shape and surely disaster rode up there with them in the cabs of those trucks. As the convoy exited the autobahn to make the final five mile leg of the journey, the character of the road changed; it narrowed to barely one lane each way and its physical condition deteriorated considerably. As the convoy approached a rather sharp bend in the road something happened to cause the lead trucks to hit the brakes, hard.

Meanwhile back at the now deserted missile site the sun was starting to sink, the temperature was dropping and snow flurries began dancing about with the winds. The lot of us huddled in the main/sleeping quonset hut, the only structure that had heat. The heat was an old kerosene heater that had a 5-gallon kerosene can hung on it with a manual pump. After dozens of hands of hearts, spades etc., it was unanimously decided that we would have none of this c-ration stuff and that we should seize the one jeep that was left behind and drive it down and secure some provisions, both solid and liquid, from the town at the base of the mountain. The jeep was an old, topless, ornery thing with a starter that was shot. To get it running you had to get it moving, then pop the clutch, which, with the starter button set to “on,” would enable the engine to turn over. We kept the jeep parked at the top of one of the missile launch berms so that when needed, all one need do is start it rolling down, then pop the clutch before you reached bottom. So, I donned my flight goggles and, along with the five others, roared out the front gate and down to that oasis of a town. No, there was no one left to guard the site, but did we care? Our company wouldn’t return for three days and we were in the middle of nowhere and we planned on being back before it became completely dark… because… well… that old jeep had no working headlights.

In the town’s only Gasthaus – where we were known and loved - (or at least our spendable dollars were known and much loved) we ordered “halben-liter flashe biers” (half liter bottles of beer) and bought beer for the six or so Germans who were there. This was a farm town and, this being February, there was little else for the local farmers to do. We drank many biers, talked as much as we could, (we not speaking much German, they not speaking much English) and purchased three cases of bier, some bread, cured meats & cheeses and some hard liquor to take back with us. They hadn’t American brands of hard liquor, though I guess we got whiskey and vodka. When we left the Gasthaus it was dark. I immediately confronted Pvt. "S" and demanded to know why he hadn’t alerted us as to the hour - as was his expressed duty - and told him that, due to the advanced darkness, our mission was now in peril. Private "S" was intoxicated and mostly incoherent in his response. It would be “touch and go” on our return to the site but with myself back in the cockpit I was sure we’d make it. The usual fifteen minute trip took every bit of an hour. We arrived back at our hut only to find the kerosene heater cold and completely out of kerosene. There was nothing left but to begin drinking the hard liquor… if only as a means of saving ourselves from freezing to death! After more drinks we began toasting our absent comrades and cursing Pvt. "S" for our situation. Though in a stupor, ‘ol "S" redeemed himself by recalling that Supply Sgt. Ortiz kept full five-gallon kerosene cans in a bunker at the rear of the compound. "S" himself was in no condition to aid in the fetching of the cans, but merely remembering them was sufficient to have us toast him again and again and….

… The convoy had to make a rather sharp right turn when the lead truck turned a bit too sharply, running off the edge of the road and down the embankment, falling over onto its side in the gully at the bottom. On the truck’s bed there had been three hawk missiles and three more attached to the mobile launcher it was towing. The convoy came to a shuddering halt. There were voices hollering and people running both to and away from the overturned truck. The CO was shrieking to his first lieutenant, “tell me these goddamned things aren’t armed!” The canvas top of the truck had an ugly ten inch gash through which popped Sp3 "C"’s crookedly smiling head; “hey… what the f...? What the f... happened, man?” His head then disappeared back into the cab of the truck. Curses and thumps and kicks were heard as Sp3 "C" and the second guy in the cab, Sp3 "D", cursed and kicked each other over who was at fault for this calamity. Slowly the tear in the canvas grew as "D"'s head, then torso, emerged from the cab, followed by "C"’s. After much struggle the two freed themselves entirely. It was as if this mangled truck had violently given birth to twins. The two, being free of the cab, took in the gravity of the scene. Three of the six missiles they were carrying had broken in half; the other three were strewn about the scene, one partly on and partly off the roadway. Meanwhile the CO was still excitedly demanding to know, of anyone he could accost, whether the missiles were armed and dangerous. “The German authorities must be notified,” he said, “Secure the area. Start moving everyone back. Let no one down this road except our explosives people and the German Police.” Several NCO’s approached "C" and "D" and several more searched the cab. After determining the two were relatively unharmed, the questioning began. Who was driving? Why did you turn so sharply? Was that alcohol they smelled on their breath? Those searching the cab found an empty whiskey bottle but no other, potentially more damning, contraband. They were unaware that EM’s always kept their stash on their person. The two-note wail of the German Politzie siren could be heard in the distance getting ever closer. The Officers were telling everyone to stay back. The convoy had halted and troops were told to cordon off the area from German civilians.

It was my understanding that each missile cost $500,000.00. Hmmm…. three missiles destroyed at a total cost of 1.5 million dollars. The truck sustained damage, as did the mobile launcher. I was guessing that this was a two million dollar day for old Charlie Co. 6/59th Hawk Missile Battalion. It was then that I began to wonder… if this is the waste of only one small company, imagine how much money the Army wastes throughout Europe… throughout the world!

... Back at the missile site…. total darkness gripped us. It was cold, snowing quite heavily and now that we had the heater re-fired up it was unanimously decided that, in as much as the six of us had pummeled those three cases of bier, another run to town was in order. To the jeep boys! We loaded into the jeep, gave her a heave down the berm and….. skidded off the side of the berm and rolled the jeep onto its side. There were five of us in the jeep and surely, only by the grace of Bacchus was no one was hurt. In our drunken state we thought it amazing what we had done… had done and lived to tell the tale! Well, there was nothing left to do but walk down the mountain to town. Pvt. "S" was in no condition, which was why he was not in the jeep in the first place, so we carried him into the guard shack at the front gate, sat him down and left him with a bottle of whiskey. Should he awake he'd surely need something to ward off exposure! We walked down to town, the trip seeming to pass quickly. The Gasthaus was open, warm, inviting… and there were even some young frauleins in the place! We made merry through the hours, buying beers, playing music and just being all-around excellent ambassadors for the good ol’ US of A. At closing time it hit us that we now had to walk back up to the site. This was not good. The trip down took 30 minutes. In darkness it seems, you can walk faster than drive. The return trip seemed to take double that. True, like mules we carried more “provisions” on the return trip, but the cold, the steep incline, the biers we’d had… all these made travel slow and difficult.

Upon reaching the front gate we congratulated ourselves for having the foresight not to lock it because Pvt. "S" was in no shape to unlock it for us. We found him asleep in the chair in the guard shack where we’d left him and no amount of shaking could rouse him. Since he was there in the guard shack already, we decided he would pull first guard duty there at the main gate and we’d take the key with us. A man who couldn’t move would have little use for the key anyway. We retired to the quonset hut where we immediately felt warm and…thirsty! I guess some of us were not warm enough because someone really got that kerosene heater stoking! Well, copious amounts of alcohol and an extremely warm room produces…. slumber. We all fell dead asleep. I cannot recall precisely when the last soldier fell unconscious in that room but I can recall precisely when we arose. Sometime that next morning, at some ungodly hour - like 9 AM - I awoke to a very corpulent E-9 with tattered clothes, whose profusely bleeding face was screaming into mine, “Just what in THE f... is goin’ on here, troop! Who is your Commanding Officer… where is your Commanding Officer?”

Well, he certainly had the better of me. At that point I don’t think I was capable of giving my own name. My head was pounding like the hammer of a forge and my mouth felt as if, during the night, someone had stuffed their socks in it.

It seems a visiting General was out at the front gate, a front gate the General could not enter because the guard on duty refused to open it; refused even to acknowledge he was there waiting to enter. The General’s First Sergeant, a walrus in both size and looks, had to squeeze under the barbed wire, ripping his fatigues and face considerably, go into the guard shack, try in vain to rouse a guard who was dead to the world, look for the key he could not find, then march here to our hut to find out just who the hell was responsible for this dereliction. It seems Pvt. "S" had awoken during the night, put a major dent in the bottle of whiskey, then promptly fell back into an alcohol induced stupor. He would not have awoken even for Marilyn Monroe, had she appeared at the front gate wearing only a negligee. As I staggered out of the hut I looked about: the jeep lay on its side, beer bottles and liquor bottles were strewn about, the company dog lay frozen solid outside the hut door and Pvt. "S" sat in the chair in the guard shack where we’d left him, unconscious, with a snow drift covering most of his body, the whiskey bottle cradled in the crook of his left arm!

Well… luckily for us so much trouble ensued for the CO over the missile fiasco that the report to him by the General’s First Sergeant about what he had encountered got put on the back burner. I don’t recall how "C" and "D", the two in the overturned truck, faired. I’m sure no worse than an “Article 15” and a small fine. Those two had less than sixty days till they were discharged - were what we called “short” - and it mattered very little to them. Of my conscription I had almost a year remaining so, being a man of foresight, I put in for a transfer. Our CO, a very enlightened man himself, saw the merit of this request… I guess great minds think alike! I left Charlie Company 6/59th and never looked back…. till now.

You never know in life…