the pershing cable (aug 1978)
TRANSCRIPT
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8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Aug 1978)
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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
Page 5