I was stationed in Lüdenscheid,Germany from 1960 through July of 1962.

I was with the 162nd Ordnance Company that was moved from Sandia Base, New Mexico to Germany in April of 1960 (April maybe wrong.) We traveled from Sandia Base to the Brooklyn Army Terminal by train, 9 days, from Alburqueque, where we boarded the MSTS Gen W. Darby to Bremerhafen, Germany. In Bremen we then traveled 2 days by train to Lüdenscheid, Germany.

We were stationed on a Belgian base on Heedfelder Strasse in Lüdenscheid. We were an atomic weapons maintenance and delivery unit for guided missiles. We setup a storage depot across town, aprox. a 20 minutes ride, where we stored missiles and 8” howitzer shells.

While there we maintained the interior guard force and NATO troops secured the outside. These forces consisted of Bundeswehr infantry and transportation, also Dutch, Belgian and the British Army of the Rhine consisting of the GORDON HIGHLANDERS and ROYAL SCOT GREYS whose home base was in Sellar, Germany.

We delivered missiles to Holland, Belgium and around Germany by truck and helicopters.

I left Germany in July of 1962 for Brooklyn Army Terminal to be discharged. I have not been able to find any info on my unit

It was my understanding we were the first unit to bring atomic weapons into Europe.

1st USA Missile Detachment (Sergeant) - Recollections of Paul E. Herbold, Maj, FA, USA (Retired)

Alphonse (Al) A. Masella and I were in the same class at the FA OCS School at Ft. Sill. We graduated in class 5-64 in April 1964 and were both assigned to the 3rd Bn, 38th Artillery (Sergeant) at Ft. Sill. We both attended the Sergeant Missile Officer course in spring of 1964.

One day in early summer we were both summoned to the Bn Cdrs office. After reporting, the Commander handed me a DA Telex addressed to him. It read: “You are hereby directed and authorized to organize the 1st USA Missile Detachment, TO&E 6-500D, to deploy an advance air detachment to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on/about October 1964”. The colonel handed me the “twix” and said: “Lt, your mission. Since Al and I had the same date of rank, it became a matter of age, who was senior. Al was a couple of months older than I, so technically he was in charge. In practice we shared responsibility. We obtained the TO&E and begin recruiting personnel for the advance detachment. The individuals were: SFC James Allen; SGT Bryce Holcomb (MN); SP4’s Gilland; Watts (TN); Koepnik (IA) & Frye, plus me (WA) and Al (NJ). These individuals were selected after interviews from within the ranks of the 3/38 th. We begin requisitioning our equipment and materials, and training for a Ft. Sill and then a 4th Army nuclear technical proficiency inspection/nuclear safety inspection (TPI/NSI).

The TPI/NSI format included a simulated convoy, during which there would be an air or ground attack, then movement to a launch site where the missile would be assembled (rocket motor; guidance section; and warhead). Then we would go through the process of enabling the warhead and missile pre-fire procedures. The process was very structured and every task was read from the manuals by a reader, and then executed and checked. We continued recruiting personnel to leave behind with the main detachment, and I believe we were at about 50% strength when we deployed, but the Det Cdr had not yet been assigned.

I drove my POV from Ft. Sill To Charleston to put it on a ship to Germany, then met the other 7 member of the Advance Air Detachment at LaGuardia (I think). We flew a commercial jet to Rhein Main in Frankfurt, then took the train to Muenster where the 570th Arty Group was located (This was our higher HQ). We billeted there for the next several month’s, during which time we contacted the various elements of the 150th RAK Arty Bn. The 150th was spread all over N. Germany, with 6 Batteries, each in a different location. We conducted joint training with these elements, and successfully completed TPI/NSI’s conducted by the 514th Arty Group (Next higher HQ above the 570th), SASCOM (Special Ammunition Support Command), and USAREUR (U.S. Army Europe).

During the USAREUR TPI/NSI, I was serving as the “Courier Officer” for the simulated Nuc Wpns Convoy when I was involved in a very serious motor vehicle accident. I was initially treated at a local German hospital, but was transferred that same day to the British Military Hospital in Muenster. This was because we were still attached to the 570th Arty Group, and they received their support from the British. Despite me being out of the picture, Lt Masella stepped in and our team successfully passed the inspection.

These SASCOM units operated under an agreement between the U.S. and the FRG called the “Service to Service Technical Agreement”. It specified the relationship and responsibilities of each party, particularly logistics and support. We were to provide immediate custody and control of the warheads, and technical training to our supported unit, and they were to provide the outer layers of security forces, and virtually all logistical support. Our TO&E was extremely lean. We had individual weapons (M-14’s and M1911 .45 Auto pistols), some tools, off line cipher equipment (TSEC/KW-7), electronic equipment for enabling the warheads when authorized by Presidential Authority and we were provided with the codes. In accordance with our “Service to Service Technical Agreement” the 1st USA Missile Det was to receive virtually all other support from the FRG. This included everything from German tactical vehicles (with drivers, since we had NO vehicle of our own), primarily DKW jeeps and 5/4 Ton Mercedes Unimog’s, to toilet paper and typewriters. Some of the detachment members we left at Ft. Sill had been in Germany before and were wise enough to fill a conex container with good old U.S. toilet paper. (The German variety was similar to paper towel material). Our clerks had to get used to the German typewriters because several of the keys were different. It fell to me to do most of the negotiating with the German Standortverwaltung (Similar to our General Services Administration) to secure the support the unit needed. Despite the agreement, nearly everything we got required some negotiating, and I was the only unit member who spoke German.

After a major surgery for a ruptured spleen, performed by a Colonel Newton (British Army) and a couple weeks of recovery, I was transported by Huey on a stretcher to the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt where I completed my recovery. When I returned to the unit, it had moved from our temporary quarters in Muenster to the Schill Kaserne in Wesel, and had been joined by the remainder of the personnel and dependents who had remained behind at Ft. Sill. This included our 1st Detachment Commander, Capt. Bill James. Later he was replaced by Capt. Chuck Fleming during my tenure there.

While the Detachment was in Muenster, Lt Masella met Claudine Montfort, the daughter of Sergeant Major Montfort and his French War Bride. After the unit moved to Wesel, the relationship continued and they were married at the great gothic cathedral in Muester. This would have been sometime in 1965 or 1966. I was not able to attend the wedding because the Detachment had become operational and we had a 7-24 on site duty officer requirement. With only 3 officers in the unit, the commander elected to go and I had the duty that day. Al and Claudine are still together, and he has an insurance agency in partnership with their daughter.

Although the unit was operational, our warheads were temporarily stored with another unit, pending completion of our own storage facility near Wesel. If necessary we would convoy to this facility, pick up our warheads and deploy with the 150th to the field.

The officers of the 150th Bn all spoke very good English, some even with a noticeable British accent, and most of the NCO’s spoke at least some English. Many of the Senior officers and NCO’s had served in the “Wehrmacht” during WWII. Some 150th Bn personnel I remember were its Commander, Oberst Leutnant Kuhne; Deputy Commander Maj. Karl Conrad Woerple; Hauptman Michael Gerischer and his wife Antje (my younger daughter is named after her); Leutnant’s, Luetten; Von Der Mosel; OberStabsFeldwebel Hoek; OberFeldwebel Glaetzel. Michel Gerischer and his wife lived on the first floor of the two story duplex we shared at Juelicher Strasse 9 in Wesel.

Most of the German Officers and many of the NCO’s had spent time at Ft. Sill receiving training on the Sergeant Ballistic Missile. I remember a very funny incident involving my comrade Hauptman Michael Gerischer. We both parked our cars in the vacant space between our duplex and our neighbors (and my life long friends: Theo and Marianne Wassenberg. They have both passed away, but we still have some contact with their children who were 7 to 12 years old when we were neighbors). One fine Saturday, I was there washing my car when Michael pulled in in his Opel Record. He was the epitome of a fine German Officer in the Gray uniform. He climbed out of the car, and then said in a voice loud enough for me, and anyone nearby to hear: “G__ Damn GERMAN drivers”, then slammed the door. Mike and Antje became very good friends and when he was promoted to Captain, my ex-wife and I were invited to celebrate with them with a bottle of the “wine of the century” which was a 1959 Riesling (“Trocken Auslese”) from the vineyard of Aloys Fischer on the Mosel. He and his father always bought a supply of wine from that vineyard. By the time we drank it in 1965, it was selling for nearly $100 per bottle. We 4 spent several hours sipping it a drop at a time. Later when I was promoted to Captain he gave me a bottle of it to celebrate. Michael retired from the Bundeswehr as an Oberst Leutnant.

I have more to tell about how the Detachment was welcomed to Wesel by the Burgermeister, field maneuvers with the 150th, joint weapons familiarization with the 150th; life in Wesel; St Barbara’s Day Parties in the German Kasino (Officers Club); “Dining in with the officers of the nearby British 154th Forward Ammunition Depot in Wuelfen”.

I will continue this later. Let me know if this is the kind of stuff you are interested in, and also perhaps questions you might have. Those might help jog my memory.

On my first overseas tour duty tour in Germany, in March 1971 I arrived at the 1st US Army Artillery Detachment, a Sergeant Missile unit. At the time, I was a PFC, trained in MOS 15E10, Pershing Missile Crewman. Because of the MOS mis-match, I was put into a 15B10 slot.

This was the on Schill Kaserne, some distance SSE of Arnhem, Holland. The Kaserne was physically located outside the village of Hamminkeln, and Wesel was the nearby city (where the Lippe River flows into the Rhine). A favorite son of Wesel was Peter Minuit (or Minuet) , who purchased the island of Manhattan from the (Native American) Indians.

This was a small detachment, commanded by a captain, supporting a German Army (Deutsche Heer) unit which had Sergeant Missile System equipment. (In the short time I was there, I never learned the designation of the German Army unit.). The detachment’s purpose was to maintain custody of and provide security for the warhead sections for the missiles. The lower ranking, field artillery trained enlisted personnel who received their Secret clearances thus became Custodial Agents.

The unit had one single-story building (with the typical “H“ floor plan seen in Germany), containing commander’s office and orderly room, small “dining hall“, supply room, mail room, and billeting for single or unaccompanied personnel. The concrete flooring was continually breaking down under the weight of bunked bed frames, and had to be repaired under work orders to the German facility maintenance office.

As evidenced by the soft-top vehicle in front of the Det building (see above photo), all military transportation for the unit was provided by German Army personnel; a small vehicle and duty driver on a daily basis, and trucks for field exercises. Encrypted messages addressed to the unit had to be picked by the assistant CQ at the German radio room of the nearby Reitzenstein Kaserne, brought back and delivered to the crypto specialist who was on standby that day.

The Special Ammunition Storage (SAS) site (where warhead sections in containers were stored in bunkers) was located separate from the main Kaserne, so those scheduled for duty there each day had a short drive after breakfast.

Behind the detachment building was a unit lounge building. Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, it had a bar and a “theater“ room where movies picked by the mail clerk (through the US Army Theater Program) were shown for 25 cents admission, for personnel and dependents.

When I first arrived, the attached Signal team operated out of the main detachment building. Then a separate radio operations building with radio tower was built for them behind the unit lounge. A corner of their security fence can be seen in Photo #3.

For sick call, detachment personnel and dependents could go to the German dispensary. US medical services were a considerable distance away.

In July 1971, the USAREUR Personnel Center notified the detachment that four individuals were to be re-assigned to their proper units. Three of us were Pershing 15E’s, and would go to the 85th Artillery Detachment; I never found out what the fourth fellow’s actual MOS was, or what unit he was going to.

(Click here to read about Dean's assignment to the 85th Arty Det)