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the

Pershing able

56th Field Artillery Brigade

1

Vol. No 8

A~st 978

Sapportllllg lhe 1/Ust, 1/llst, SJl lb Fl . Artllltritt u be Z/Clb IDl'utry

As the Florida sun sets

low in

the

western sky, a Pershing crewman pre

pares one

of

his platoon's missiles

for

possible launching. This photo

and

the

photos on

pages

4 and 5 were tak

en

at Cape Canaveral, Fl, during

the

live fire mission carried out by Battery

A

3184th

FA

July 17-28. Three

bat-

{Photo by SSG Hutton)

teries of the 56th Brigade have

made

the journey to Florida this summer.

Read about why these live fire tests

are

conducted on

pages

4

and

5.

t really flies pages 4 5

thletes unite

pages

6 7

Soccer buffs take

second

page 8

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A dream to see it ly

c n

com

The.

Army s

most powerful

mlHile

stands silhouetted

ag

 ainst a bright Florida

sun, waiting for the signal that will send It speeding toward its target in the Atlan

ti

c.

Page

4

Pershing Cable

" I 'd

have

the

ass If I 'd worked In

Pershing

for four

years and never

90t

to

see one of those mlssilesfly "

Thus Sgt. Darryl Thorne,

20 of

Ta

mp

a,

FL, summed

up the feel

ings of

many

a

Pershing soldier.

(Thorne Is an assistant chief of sec-

tion

In

Alpha Battery,

3184th FA.)

For a

Pershing

missile crew

member, the

opportun

ity

to

see a

Persh ing m Issi e In

flight

Is

rare

in

deed Many Pershing

soldiers have

spent years

humping

cables, mat·

Ing and demating stages, "count

ing"

missiles

and enduring the

drudgery of

wet

and cold field duty

• • and have never seen Pershing

leave

the

pad.

The

chance

to

actually

fire

a

Per

shing mlsslle comes when a

firing

battery gets "tapped" to go

to

the

·

united

States.on a

five fire

mission.

This

summer,

three batteries have

made

the

t r ip to Cape Canave

ral,

Florida. Delta Battery, 1st Battal

ion

11st

Field Artillery

and Alpha

Battery, 3rd Battalion,

4th Fie ld

.Artlllery went

to Florida

In

July.

Charlie Battery,

1st Battalion, 41st

Fleld

Artlll11ry

went this

month.

Story

and

by

SS9t. Hu

The photos on t

were

taken during

llve fire, July

17-28

volved

were

from

th

and second platoon

all Pershing

perso

gone on

"s h

oots" t

printed below.

"Shoots" are olf

Foll ow-

on Trainin

The

value of

an

FO

formation obtained

missile

system an

ence for

the

sold ie

the equipment.

Batte

r ies

are "t

Pershing Ope

ratio

(POTU) at Headqu

Europe In

Heide

lb

FOTs Is put Into a r

Ch iefs·of S

taff,

acc

Fred

Treute

l , chief

At

the JCS, said

mlttee compares P

Minute,

Poseidon

slles.

"They look at ho

stacks up against o

terns

In

terms o

cost-effectiveness,

PFC Michael H. Houston mans on erector-launch

er control panel during a confidence count at

Cope Canaveral.

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  tru

l page-s

3/84th':s

liers ln

y'sfirst

~mes of

io have

ner

are

,own as

Tests.

1 the in

-ershing

experi

operat.e

by

the

i t

Unit

SArmy

ta

from

he

Joint

Lt. Col.

a CO,..•

with

rls mis-

•ershlng

sile sys

lty and

aid .

The POTU chief added

that this

year's FOTs

are "probably

more

Important than ever because we're

looking down

the

road

at

the Per

shing-2.

There are

a lot of people in

Washington who are debating the

virtues

of

P-2."

Live fire missions mean a great

deal

to the

troops who work

every

day with Pershing. Sp5 William D.

McCallum,

25

, of Branson, MO, Is a

Programmer

Test Station (PTS)

operator In the fi rst platoon

of

Al

pha, 3184th. Sitting

In

his "box" (as

the PTS Is

called)

In FIOl'lda,

MC

•

Callum said of the FOT: It's

great t makes It all worthwhile af

ter doing all that stuff

In Ger·

many   "

By

taking their

missiles

to

Florl

da and firing them,

the crew men,.

bers "gain a degree of confidence"

In

their skills,

said Treutel.

Per·

shlng Is a complex system- proba

bly the most

complex

weapon the

Army has. The crew members

have

a tremendously Important Job,

and

on

an FOT, they learn how lmpor-

 

ontinwtt on Page 8

CWO 2

Wa

lt

er 0.

Ress (left)

and

Sgt. Ocivid C. Crouse of A-3/84 check out

cable

connections on

one of the first platoon's missiles. On an FOT,

the

firing battery

sets up

its missil

es

at

Cape

Canav

et'CII exactly as they were In Germany when the battery was

lapped.

of a trail of fire

and

smoke, a P

er

n;iissil,e streaks skyward from Cape

el Ol s :Pod 16. Alpha Battery success

r

edthree

missil e

s du

ring its FOT.

Every man Of' woman who hos ever worked with Pers in9 knows why this ink rag is called

The

Pershing

Coble. l Cape Canaveral, crew members do everything they do

in

Germany - i ncl uding humping

cables

in

90+ degree

heat.

;t,978

Pemilng

Cable

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