By October 1963, the 1st Bn 41st FA moved to Wingate, N.M. for its first actual Pershing firing.

On its return to Ft. Sill, the battalion was redesignated 4th Bn 41st FA and assigned to 7th Army in Germany.

Its advance party left for Germany on March 11, 1964, from Charleston Air Force Base, SC. The main body left New York harbor aboard the USS Buckner, arriving at Bremerhaven on April 11, 1964.

The main body soon linked up with its advance party at Hardt Kaserne in Schwaebisch Gmuend, where the battalion shared Hardt Kaserne with Headquarters, 56th Field Artillery Group.

President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev formally ratified the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in Moscow on 1 June 1988. It eliminated Soviet and U.S. nuclear weapons that have a delivery range between 300 and 3,400 miles. The Soviets maintain 133 INF sites located in the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. The U.S. operates facilities at 31 sites in CONUS, West Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy. Soviet missiles marked for elimination include 80 SSCX-4 cruise missiles and the following ground-launched ballistic missiles-650 SS-20s, 170 SS-4s, 6 SS-5s, 726 SS-12s, and 200 SS-23s. The U.S. must destroy 442 ground-launched cruise missiles along with 170 Pershing 1a and 247 Pershing II ballistic missiles. The INF Treaty contained several verification provisions. In addition to an exchange of data on the missiles and their locations, it allowed on-site inspections by each country to validate the data exchanged and to verify both missile destruction and cessation of further production. The treaty further provided for short notice on-site inspection at INF sites during a three-year reduction period and ten years thereafter as well as verification by national technical means such as satellite imagery.

The Defense Department activated the On-Site Inspection Agency (OSIA), an interagency organization, in Washington, DC, in January 1988. It tasked OSIA to conduct INF Treaty inspections in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and to coordinate U.S. activities associated with Soviet inspections in the U.S. and Western Europe. An Army brigadier general heads OSIA, assisted by deputies from the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the State Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). His staff consists of about 300 personnel, 150 permanent and 150 temporary, with a ratio of about 65 percent military to 35 percent civilian taken from the armed services, the Coast Guard, and other federal agencies. In September 1987 the U.S. And the Soviet Union agreed to establish Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers (NRRC) to lessen the possibility of war between the two countries by accident or misunderstanding. The White House directed that the NRRC, activated at the State Department in March 1988, would transmit communications between U.S. And Soviet officials regarding INF inspections. Soviet INF inspectors can enter the U.S. at two points-Washington, DC, and Travis Air Force Base, California. Army Pershing sites in CONUS that the Soviets may inspect include Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Pueblo Army Depot Activity, Colorado; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; and the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant, Texas.

As for destruction of the missiles affected by the INF Treaty, Soviet officials indicated they would burn most of their weapons in pits but also may launch some for disintegration in the upper atmosphere. The U.S. Air Force planned to fly its cruise missiles, deployed in Europe, to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, and cut them apart with chain saws. The Army decided to transport its Pershing II missiles, deployed in Europe and stored in the U.S., to two Army installations located in the U.S. for destruction-the Pueblo Depot Activity and the Longhorn Ammunition Plant cited above. It will destroy all of the Pershing 1a models at their present location, the Pueblo Depot Activity. The destruction procedure calls for burning the solid fuel propellant and crushing the motors and other portions of the missiles with bulldozers. The Air Force and the Army will transfer the nuclear warheads from their destroyed missiles to the Defense Nuclear Agency for storage. The treaty also requires destruction of missile launchers, so the Army developed a plan to destroy Pershing launchers located in Europe at Hausen, West Germany. OSIA supervised the first destruction of Pershing rocket motors at the Longhorn Ammunition Plant on 8 September 1988. Implementation of the INF Treaty required a conventional force adjustment by the Army. It proposed to restructure its four Pershing II battalions -- the 1st, 2d, and 4th Battalions of the 9th Field Artillery, 56th Field Artillery Command, in West Germany, and the 3d Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, 214th Field Artillery Brigade, at Fort Sill -- into a field artillery brigade.

I want to know if you can get me any information, esp an e-mail, on Bob Hunnicutt who provided the pictures. We were 'A Battery All Stars' at about the same time, we both lived in the Detroit area, and I saw him a few times shortly after I got out. We lost touch when I moved to Ann Arbor about a year later. I'd appreciate any info

If you headed left when you left Badenerhof, the road continued through vinyards toward a giant cross. I always thought it might be the site of a mass grave related to the bombing of 12/44 and didn't want to ask anyone. As you may know, the town got almost completely destroyed. There was a 3D scale model of the results in the Rathaus. However, you might not know that it was the RAF that did it, and the next time all the elements were together again, the target was Dresden...

After looking at other areas on your site, I'll give you some idea of what was going on while I was there (5/1972-8/1974) as I remember it...

I was an 05B20, radio op morse code qualified. I was assigned to Commo Plt, and first worked in an AN/TRC-133 set up with 5 Scott SSB radios, a linear amp, and other gear, including 9 portable antenna poles that mainly were slept on. There was one per Firing Plt, thus three in the Btry, They were known as sideband rigs and mine was on a deuce and a half that was older than I was...

Also in Commo Plt was:
1.) A RATT rig, AN/MGC-17, known as "Magic Seventeen," so old that it was made to fit on a 3/4 ton truck, and not the 5/4 ton truck then common.

2.) A line-of-sight microwave rig, AN/TRC-80, AKA "Track Eighty," mounted on an XM-656, an 8X8 with two steer axles in front and very loud to drive. The Magic 17 could transmit through the Track 80, and usually did on field trips, but used public land lines from the pads while on Status. (CAS)

3.) A radio repair section and a few wiremen and who worked with field phones and had a couple five quarters to carry their stuff.

A Btry was located at Badenerhof Kaserne in Heilbronn.

B Btry was also there, along with the 23 Ord Co and 101 Ord Bn, who I don't believe were associated with Pershing but might've had something to do with resupply. It was a few miles away from Artillery Karserne in Neckarsulm, where the rest of the Bn was, including Svc Btry, which seems to have handled, along with HHB, the tasks later assigned to various Brigade wide Sig, Maint, and Ord Bns.

Redleg (Artillery soldiers used to be known as redlegs because their branch color was red, like the cavalries' was yellow.) was up a hill like a few miles away. My guess was that it had been a dozen-plane fighter base in WWII because the strip was too short for anything bigger and helicopters didn't exist as a usable system back then. There was a fence that mostly separated the camp from the airfield, but there were a couple bunkers in Redleg where maybe the Luftwaffe stored ammo. There were also a few other shacks, joined by trails that were dusty, muddy or frozen. Guard duty there consisted of six guys and a Sgt. hanging out in the guardshack by the gate. BTW, I never saw anything as serious as a baseball bat for a 'weapon'. Usually it was a broom handle maybe two feet long, but on one memorable occasion it was the handle of a toilet brush. My plan was to brandish it at my attacker, then overcome him while he was rolling around laughing his ass off.

This was where we went to practice for Status; after a couple months here, we would go to Kleingartach.

We'd be there on Status for at least a month, but never much more than two. Since everybody thought Commo loafed all the time, every odd job there was got dumped on us. When I was assigned to Track 80, located at the IFC area, I was permanent duty driver when not monitoring, making hourly trips from Admin to the Pads for like 16 hours.

In all the time I was there, the number of enlisted men never exceeded 2/3 of the required TO&E. However, there was no shortage of officers and NCO's...

Just before I arrived, A Btry had a winter trip to Grafenwohr, where a jeep was sunk, and Status, right in a row. Just as I was leaving, they were heading to Graf shortly after returning from Status, during which I had been permanent CQ runner.

I got to go to Graf in August 1973. While out in the woods, I was bitten in my left hand by something that made it swell up to twice normal size, but that didn't mean I could do anything but show it to the medic. "Yep, it's definitely swollen... Now go back to your hole!"

I remember seeing and hearing wild pigs running around there at night, and wondering why nobody seems to have thought about fresh ham for breakfast, or what the reaction would be if one blundered into a foxhole...

I also encountered the legendary MOGAS meatloaf there when a cannoncocker who had been OJTed as a cook substituted MOGAS for whatever they used for stove fuel and the taste of gas permeated the meatloaf. There was a tank range a few hundred yards the other side of the formation area where we were camped out. Night firing was very impressive and sometimes included helicopters firing miniguns.

Lt Black (who was white) led a night move that got lost, giving some of the guys the chance to see what a ONE KILOMETER ZONE sign looked like. This is the last sign you see before arriving in East Germany. OOOPS! We also had a Sgt White, who was black, and, last but not least, we had a Sgt Rock. I seem to recall he died when he was with someone who drove their reenlistment bonus into a wall at 90 MPH while drunk.

BTW, The Bn Cdr never had a helicopter while I was there, but there was a lot of stuff that we didn't or couldn't get because of Viet Nam. Like parts to fix the trucks. When we came off Status in December of 1973, 57% of the trucks were deadlined and the wrecker drivers spent a couple days getting them all back to Badenerhof. If you needed a carb for a jeep, you might ETS before it showed up. If it was a missile part though, it would be there real quick. I heard a story once about a bolt for a component can; it seems somebody needed a couple dozen of them. In those days parts were ordered on 3"x6" computer cards by filling in boxes with a pencil. Lt Numbnuts proceeds to check the wrong box. A week later, a few thousand show up on a pallet, with a note saying: We'll get you the other 20,000 ASAP. He had checked a multiplier box for x1,000. I'm sure in the intervening 35 years, military procurement has not added a 'Hey, wait a minute, WTF is this??' Department.

Redleg was used as the Status site in the spring and/or summer of 1974 while the Pads at Kleingartach were being renovated. I was on frequent guard duty there while it happened, and one weekend, I taught myself to drive a D7 by reading all, and there were a lot, of the data plates on it.

As you might've noticed by my numerous assignments, I had a variety of jobs while I was there. It was a combination of being a comparatively quick study, a penchant for trouble, and a having bit of a mouth...

I have many more stories...

I seem to recall that smack dab in the middle of the wine mountain area northwest of Neckarsulm, there was a secure storage site. That site was known as NASA, for Neckarsulm Ammo Storage Area.

I was in commo, A 3/84. Guard duty there was known to us as warhead guard, though I don't think they had any warheads there. We used to get it rarely, but that ended before I'd had it more than once, the night of 4 July, 1972.

The reason I remember the date was that a place called the Western Store in Heilbronn got at least a ton of fireworks in, just in time for payday. I'm not talking about bottle rockets or ladyfingers here, these were an inch in diameter and half a foot long. They were way more paper than powder, but would explode pretty good. Not quite an M-80, though...

They started flying the night of July 2 at Badenerhof, but that was just the start. BTW, nobody heeded the directions about pointing the rockets toward the sky. "Watch me get those guys coming back from Tillys!" The night of July 3, we had reloaded, and had a five foot tube that we used for the rockets like a bazooka. It made them startlingly accurate; one scored a direct hit through the window of the 23 Ord Co across the way, detonating their ammo! You'd think they'd know better in Ordnance.

People who bought firecrackers were taking them apart for the powder and cramming it into things like a plastic lemon juice lemon or Toilet paper tubes wrapped with a couple rolls of hundred mile an hour tape. One wild-eyed sgt reminded me of Ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon in Mr. Roberts): "This is gonne be HUGE!!!"

B Btry was right next door 15 yards away, and the firefight was fairly continuous. If your rocket didn't hit a tree, you could see it going the entire length of the hall, maybe 200 feet, and detonate by the far end of their barracks. By the next morning, the floor was covered with paper...

"Welch, get in the truck! You got warhead guard!" was the harsh sound that interrupted my reveries of revenge against B Btry... Awww, SHIT!

NASA was ringed by two eight foot cyclone fences topped by concertina wire; the towers were in between the two fences, meaning you'd be pretty much trapped if anything did happen. This was the only time that I got live rounds when I wasn't on a firing range. But 3 stinkin' rounds of 5.56 was enough to get you into trouble, but not out of it. Procedures were covered very carefully; nobody wanted to get shot. I remember doing a shift in the middle of the night, it was damp enough to be chilly. I saw a rabbit that looked huge, maybe two feet long and 20 pounds, but that was all.

I returned to Badenerhof about 7:30, and the floor was ankle deep in paper from all the fireworks. And I'd missed it. Oh, well...

Another duty associated with NASA was 30-man backup, more commonly known as 30-man jackoff. This was a relief force in the event that there was an attack on NASA. You'd spend a week on the top floor of Svc Btry waiting to be called out, unable to go farther than the messhall. I think you had to sign in and out to go further than the bathroom...

I was a 05C (at that time) and after completing the V9 ASI at Ft Gordon in 1981, I was assigned to D Battery 3/84th FA in Neckarsulm, Germany. When I reported to my unit, the unit was already at CAS Site (Waldheide). I was given a few days, about 3 or 4, to inprocess and was told that the unit was sending someone to pick me up to take me to the site and I had to be ready. This was my indoctrination to the Battery.

By having the V9 identifier meant that I would work in the Satellite Communication Terminal (another name for Commo Van) as the Army had decided that these types of units need these terminals. I graduated in the 2nd class of V9ers, I believed, because we had a E-3 and an E-4 instructors. They had graduated in the first class and were used as instructors. It must have been nice to be an instructor without having working in the field. I had some fun times while there.

I recall going to Wharton Barracks (Heilbroon) a lot for shopping at the PX. Had good and bad times during field exercises, guard duty on CAS site in the small guard shack, on QRA team on the site, and a host of many others. As a commo person, we worked hard even though others though we goofed around. If only they knew.

I remember my section sgt assigned me to work with the Sig Maintenance folks on Neckarsulm as an operator for the Ratt Rig instead of using the others that were designated as Ratt Riggers. It wasn't because I was a trouble maker as I was not. In fact, I was probably smarter and dependable than any of the other operators and that is probably why he also gave me the "gofer" jobs when they need someone. But he was only an E-5 at that time as there weren't many E-6 section sergeants then.

I had a good platoon sergeant (SFC Stout) from either Mississippi or Arkansas and he saw right through the section sergeant and that is why I was able to get my promotions quicker than the others. It was also during this time that the 1SG found out that I could type really fast and informed my platoon sergeant that he would like to use me in the Orderly Room part time.

Yes, each unit had their own Orderly Rooms. That was before the PAC (Personnel Action Center?) was put on Neckarsulm. Prior to the PAC, the clerks from each company Order Room had to take paperwork to Heilbronn for processing. Once the clerks were assigned to the PAC, 1SG continued to use me in the orderly room to help with the processing of documents which I took to the PAC. I recall logging all actions in a green book and took to the PAC and had the clerks there signed for those documents. I even remember typing SFC Stout's retirement documents for submission. The Army's intent (from what I was told) was that the 1SG and the CO was to run the company without clerks. The PAC was located on the top floor of the building that housed the dining facility. Once the PAC opened, then a designated clerk was responsible for taking documents and actions to Heilbronn for processing.

At that time, I was still doing commo as my primary duties. While working in the orderly room (located in the barracks on the main floor), 1SG was working the duty roster late one evening and asked for my assistance (to provide the leave, pcs report, etc). It was doing this time that I learned to do the duty roster as I helped 1SG complete it. It took a while because we had to verify everyone status. While in garrison, I would work the orderly room half day and commo the other half; the times may vary because of the commo mission.

To answer your question, while stationed at Neckarsulm, the females were housed on one end of the hallway with their latrine (bathroom) at the very end. There weren't many females in the unit when I was there from 1981 to 1983. We had two Orderly Room females, one female cook, and I recall most of the others were commo personnel. Some of the female rooms were designated as "two man" rooms and the others "four man" rooms. The MOSs I recalled for commo were 05C, 05B, 72E. We were housed on the main floor as the Orderly Room and the Operations offices. A few males lived on the other end near the Operation Office. The upper floors were for male Soldiers.

I was in D 3/84th from around Oct 1981 to around Sept 1983. I went there as a Private E-2 and left as an E-5. I recall the Tactical Evaluations and that is how I got my first AAM. During my tenure, the batteries (A, B, C, and D) rotated on the CAS site as the site had to be manned year round. Between times, there were numerous field exercises (including in the back 40), evaluations, you name it. I recall the Pershing MOS, 15E; these Soldiers only rotated between Pershing units in Germany and Ft Sill, OK. We also had Infantry soldiers that worked with us during the numerous FTX and at the CAS site. I recall having a life span of a few seconds if attacked by an incoming. I took my job seriously.

Because of the V9 identifier as an 05C (by now, renamed 31C), I was again assigned to the 56th FA after PCSing from Ft Irwin, CA in 1985. On a side note I recall the V9 identifier was designed to work with the nuclear surety program, which meant being assigned to missile units (and working the AN/MSC-64 Satellite Communications Equipment). The second time, I was assigned to the 1/81st. I don't remember the company unless I can locate my old orders, but I do recall that it wasn't long after I got there that they ended up putting the communication folks in their own company, the 38th Sig Bn. The 38th Sig Bn was (I recalled) was located on Nelson Barracks, before moved back to Wiley Barracks. Sometime during this tenure, the 38th Sig personnel were no longer required to stay on the CAS site like they did during my previous tour in Neckarsulm but were required to support the firing batteries for 1/81st . My platoon in the 38th Sig Bn provided support to C and D batteries. This meant that anytime C and D batteries were alerted, then those commo personnel in the 38th assigned to provide support were also alerted. It didn't matter the time of day or night. We were always on the move. We had no problem getting supplies or parts required for our mission. We had to always be "signal ready".

I found your interesting site, and it was a pleasant "blast from the past". I was in the 1^st Platoon of Company C, 2^nd Battalion 4^th Infantry, attached to the 56^th Field artillery Brigade in 1971-72. We were first at Neckarslaum, and moved to Wharton Barracks at Heilbronn a few weeks after my arrival.

All officers, and almost all NCO’s did have the traditional military buzz cut though.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Since the Pershing site was only a short drive from Heilbronn, the name must be as found in the online information I am pasting in (Waldheide).  Everything else in that information is correct, except during my time, C-2-4 was at a location we called "Wharton Barracks" inside Heilbronn. (It was also a Construction Engineers location).

The location of the Pershing site had to have been called Waldheide (based on what I researched on the web). I must confess that after 40 years I do not remember specifically that it was called Waldheide off the top of my head, because as I mentioned, we all just called it "the site".

Although one of my duties involved driving the duece-and-a-half was shuttling Infantry troops back and forth between the remote hilltop Pershing site very near Heilbronn back into the C-2-4 building inside Wharton Barracks in Heilbronn.

Although we guarded the Pershing site perimeter, we stayed on the outside of it as all times, and in fact did not have interaction at all with the Pershing troops. The infantry guards were inside two perimeters of fences. If anyone would have breached the outside fence, there was a warning protocol in place to attempt to quickly stop them.

We had standing orders that if a breach were ever attempted toward the inside fence, they were of course to be shot immediately by the Infantry guards. It was always highly stressed that no vehicle, even an American military vehicle could even enter without the frequently changed password, even if a military vehicle had generals in it. They were known to occasionally test the security protocols. Any civilian vehicle or person walking or showing up at the gate or around the area would be considered as a potential hostile.

It is true large jets would occasionally cruise over extremely low, right over the site and going so slow, as mentioned elsewhere. If the Pershings were transported on flat-bed semis to some temporary remote location, C-2-4 would go with them, and set up a perimeter outside of the Pershing area. I only did this once.

The buzz of the guards on that was, nobody knew if the Warhead was real or a dummy, & etc., but always was treated as armed by the Infantry guards. The enlisted infantry had no communication whatsoever with the Pershing groups, we just took our orders from our unit Infantry chain of command, which was the squad leaders, E5 or E6 usually. Almost all of the squad leaders were combat vets, though.

(Source: Glen Craigie, 193rd Avn Co)

(Source: ARMY in EUROPE Magazine, January 1972)

The Pershing Missile Mission - More Than Luck

By Sp5 John B. Ward

Specialist Ward is assigned to the Headquarters, 56th Artillery brigade Information Office.