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8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Jun 1987)
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Vol. 25,
No.
4
56th Field Artillery Command
June
1987
New 'Hummers' tune
up
command
Presen ng the HMMWV - Pershing'• ugly duckling addition to Its combat ready fleet.
t....,.
-,
_
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Computer 'a-TACCS' 56th
by
Barbara Blackburn
Pershing Cab • Scaff Writer
Comba, ready computers
art
invading off ic« through·
out 56th Field Arti
ll
ery Comm,nd. But don't shoo, ai
them, they're not the enemy.
The computer,, called Tacti
cal
Army Combat Service
Support Computer (TACCS), art part of a Defense De•
parnnent f l
an
which has allowed for the production and
fie
lding o
8,569 of
the systems Army-wide during the
next
sev
eral years, according
to
the U.S. Army Inform•·
,i
on
Engineering Command (ISEC).
1st Lt.
John K.
Arnold, Information
Ma
nagement
Of
ficer fo r rhe command,
is
in charge of the
fie
lding of the
new systems. A t0tal of 51 of the computtrs will be re·
ccivcd at Pershing. 56th Command is the third site in
Euro
,pe to receive the computers.
He
said thac the
computtrs
will
cut down on
courier
runs and processing time for Standard Installation/Divi
sion Personnel System (SIDPERS) transactions. SIDPERS
is a personnel data base with information
on
all of the sol·
diers in the Arm
y.
According to Arnold, 55th Support Battalion
will re·
ceive about 19 of ,he TACCS scheduled for ,he com•
mand.
Soldiers from the command have already begun taking
classes which will introduce them 10 the new system.
Sp~ Jolly Blackb
um
of the command's G-1, Enlisted
Management
Off
ice recently attended a five-day TACCS
class. "I ha
ve
a computer
a t
home, •nd
hav
e used one for
years, but still found the classes helpful , h
rstow, the Force Modernization Of
fic
er
in charge
of fie
lding the new additions 10
56
th
Co
mmand's
fleet of vehicle,, beli
eves
the HMMWV's
wiDI
keep the
command combat ready.
"The HMMWV is new, JO it will need
less
ma.in
ten~nce
than some of the older vehicles it
is
replacing. It can go fas
ter, and farther than
th
e jeep and 2' '2-,on ,nicks."
Barstow said that the vehicles are already fielded in
CO
NUS and
th
e reports they've been getting back from c
om
manders and users are that
it is
performing
wilh
excellence.
Teaching classes in the command about the support of
the HMMWV are representatives from Tank Automotive
Command ,nd Army Material Command.
Sp4 Mi
chael Phim, a mechanic from Bravo battery, 55th
Support Battalion, is a member of ,he cla.ss. He say, he
likes the training and is learning a lot. "But the real test of
the vehicle
will
be once we stan using them. Right now
they're new, so they haven't been tried. But it will help the
command be more
co
mbat rea
dy
becauit it w
il
l be repl
ac
ing the old vehicl«, and there
won't
be
as
many vehicles
needing
to
be worked
on.•
CWO
3 Alfred Uucreb, from the Material Section of
55th
Support, said the classes are teaching the characteris
tics of the HMMWV's, how ,he engine looks, hov.· i, can
be taken
•pan,
etc. Soldiers from privates
fim
class ,o war·
rant officus are jn the class learning
,o
take care
of
,he vc•
hicle.
s
pan
of a plan
to
modernize the equ_ipment
in
rhe
Command, select units within the
56
th have alr,eadv begun
receiving
the new HMMWV's, Twelve of the veh:cles are
expected in April,
md
anoth
er
236 are scheduled
to
arrive
in June, accordin~ to Barstow.
The HMMWV
s
arc just a ,mall pan of the overall plan,
which deab with the management
of new
oquipmcnt and
the rum in of old systems. The Army is making •off- ,h•·
shelf" purchases of technical equipment.
"The plan", says Barstow, "deals with the purchase
of
every type
or
piece
of
e9.uipmen1you can think
of
from ve
hicl«, radios, and NBC equipment
to
brand new heaters
for
maintenance bays. In the next few yc:ars, the co mm~nd
will sec new
NBC
masks, rifles," pistols
and
new signal
equipment.
People in and around
the
Command c;m
expect
to
see
the
short, snub-nosed, wide-bodied HMMWV's
on
a dai
ly
ba·
sis.
But don't be deceived by their unassuming l
oo k
s. After·
all, they're made of steel, and everything we've heard about
them leads us
to
believe they're going
to
be really · super".
Inside the Cable
; reatut the~
·
·: :
:
~Ing
n
the tel • • • , • • ,
P11119S 4-6
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• ,·
page&
8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Jun 1987)
2/2
Pttrshlng Cable
Juf 9 987
3
Bullseye: experts shoot six for six
by Ron McKinney
2nd Bn., 9th F.A. Reporter
Six
for six.
On
:any kind
of
range, that's shooting "'expen", and
in
this
cue
the firing range
wu
at Cape Canaveral, Florida
,nd
the rounds were Pershing
II
missiles.
For the second time in less than two years, Bravo Bat·
tery, 2n,d Battalion, 9th Field Artillery wu selected
to
d
e
ploy soldiers and missile, back
to
the United Smes for
multiple firings.
According to 1st Lt.
Alex
Tetrault, Bravo Battery Pla
t0on Leader, the fim few days in Florida were spent in
specting the
miss
ile components 10 ensure they survived the
trip without damage, and for the soldiers
to
test their
..count" procedures. Then the equipment was ·rurncd over
to
Proieet Control, and ,hey tested us for
ttlcmmy
and
bea
con,
mining co
untdowns and arming the self-destruct
mechan ism, Tetrault said.
SSgt. Clyde Brown, of 2nd Platoon was one of four sol
diers who participated in rhc most rtunt firings and Bravo
Bauc.,·'s first trip
to
the Cape
in
November,
1985
.
"'The last
trip/'
Bro
wn
said, '"we didn't take all of
our
own equipment, and we fired only one missile.· Several
other bancrics have returned
to
the States either to fire mis
siles alreadv in the States
or
to fire their own missiles,
which they.brought back from Germany.
Br2vo Battery, however, became the fim bancry to suc
cessfully launch
six
of their own Pershing II missiles during
an exercise held at Cape Canaveral. The Bravo Battery sol
diers were quite familiar with ,he ones they shot, since they
had bcc-n training wi th the very same missiles in Gcnn.tny
lei, than a m
onth
before the shoot.
Brov.
•n explained that getting ready for the shoot was
made more difficult
by
the rain
an
d mow
in Gemuny prior
to the departure of the Battery.
"There aren't many units that can go
10
the field and per
form in below-zero weather, then go to Florida ancf do it
better ,..i,h the same equipment." said Sp4 Joel Neely, a
Pershing missile crcwmcmber.
Senior NCOs refresh skills
A Perehlng II mlnlle llfta skyward during
I
recent
fleld exer
ci
se In
Weit
Germeny Perehlng unite ere
of.
ten tasked to retum to the U.S. for tn t firing and
tr1lnlng 1,_., """ _
Many attributed the successes in Florida t the training
the Battery received
in
Germany. ·Toe tr.lining was qu ite
involved,• said Sp-4 Chris Jones, an Integrated Launch
As
sembly operator. It was procedure after procedure of the
same thing
to
be sure we had it down for Florida.
But
, you
IHrn a lot more firing a live round. It improves: your com
bat readiness."
It was also an exciting experience for those
who
had the
opportunity to watch the six missiles lift off from their
erector launchers a.nd disappear down-range.
"I
was ecstatic about coming
to
Florida,•
sa.id Sp4
Scott
Lane, a Pershing missile crewmember. h
gav<
me the
op
·
portunity 10 see the missile system wo
rk
and it was an op
portunity to see that we 'Al'Cren't working with an obsolete
system.
We
proved that Pershing II and Bravo Battery are
combat ready.•
Neely, a fellow crcwmcmber agreed. "Watching the
wa~·
the missile works
is
fun.
At
any given second, you under
stand everything that's going on. '
'With a Pershing II missile, you have
to
know everyone
else's job. With the Ground Integrated Electronic Unit, I
level the erector Jaunc.her. Once it's 'cued\ you run as fast
a.,
you can the 400 feet
of
the cable
. . .
hit the ground
. . . turn
the
key.•
At Florida, the crews evacuated the missile area
to
a
bunker where they could ob,erve the missile's flight on the
television monit0rs.
..The missile erecsed:
Nee
ly e
xp
lained. ""Five, six sec·
onds later, it
li
fted off the pad. h was awesome "
If you work around this equipment all the time, you
wonder 'Docs this stuff really work?'
To
watch it
fly
- the
same missi.e you've been working
on
for rwo years - is
an
unbelievable experience.•
Neely can still picture
the
missile
Lifting
a.way with a
roar. His S1ar·struck ga.z.c
follows
his rising hand,
as it
sim
ulates the flight of the missile. His hand stops when hi, arm
iJ fully extended above him. The clouds ,n his eyes dis
appear, his memory
of
his Pershing
II
missile soaring away
quickly fades.
He smiles.
eaders
tackle combat survival
course
by Robert Rubinosky
1st Bn., 9th F.A. Reporter
Enemy pattols >re in the area. The lut of the food and
water ran out yesterday. Your men arc
co
ld, tired and
edgy.
But
you're the senior man and you have 10 lead your
men
back for a rendezvous tonight with a helicopter.
It
look,
so close
on
the map, but it's
mi
les a.,.ay through
treacherous terrain.
This is the son of combat readiness ch2llenge senior
non
..
commissioned officers, E·7's and E·S's, arc learning co
overcome in the S6th Command Senior NCO Confidence
Courie·.
The pilot
class
gr.aduated recently after an imensc three
week cour
se
which focused on field environment skills.
SFC James J. Kalinowski,
chid of
Special Operations for
the S6th Command NCO Academy, said, 'We're trying
to
teach or refresh senior NCO's skills that they need
to
know. The course brings back
,he
nucleus of the senior
NCO corps in the command here.•
The