1181st Takes Maintenance Award

Material Readiness
Flag Presented
To Battery D
WACKERNHEIM The
56th Artillery Group's Quarterly Material Readiness Flag
flies high over McCully Barracks on the recently constructed flag pole at Battalion Headquarters. The
Quarterly Material Readiness
F1ag was presented to the
1st Battalion, 81st Artillery
during a flag raising ceremony held at Battalion Headquarters on Wednesday, July
10.
Due to Delta Battery's out1tandln1 overall performance,
the Battallon waa awarded posaesslon of the Group's Material
Readiness Fla1. The flag was presented to the battalion by Colonel Patrick W. Powers, 56th ArUllery Grou.p Commandln1 Offi-

Avvards Presented
at 1/81 st
"PERSHING IN EUROPE"
VOL. 2

JULY 19, 1968

tery and to the entire battalion.

"The 1111 pole is mighty tall," he
told them," but the award ii also
tall and Is recognized by
USAREUR as beln1 an outstandin1 achievement. The motto of
the Group i1 "QRA," Quick ReUable and Accurate, and la backed up by good men, equipment
and paper work. It is a tough
award to win but most Important,
It Indicates the l at of the &lat
cer, at ceremonles conducted 1.n can well tul1lll Its mission a.n d
front of Battalion Headquarters.
Delta Battery of the Bl1t won
the ~&th Group's Material Readln""s Award !or the aecond

~-.:.-- -

embody the Group motto."

Colonol Phillips told the batta
lion It was a lob well done,"
"lt is the ftrst time for the fta1
on our pole, but the flag will go
with us to Ulm and we will Ii ve

ORLANDO, Fla. The

U.S. Army announced the

award of contracts totaling

$ 31,121,050 to Martin Ma-

cause o! the hilh stale o! readiness o! the Battery' vehicles,

en1Lneer equipment and the

riet ta Corporation for prod uct .ton Of ground support

equ ipment and power stations
for the Pershing missile sys-

tern.

the Group's Maintenance Evaluation Team Lnspected Delta Batt.try's vehicles, enclneer equipment, 101 books and shop operations and t!hen desl1nated them
the best of any battery In the
Croup. Taken lnto con1lderotlon
was the overall deadline o! the
battalion vehicles and en1ineer
equipment for the quarter.
During the ceremony the llac

Larcest o! the contracts Is

I 29,095,300 as a second year

was pas~ lrom Chief Warrant

Officer John Hewlett, Group En

1lneer Technician, to Colonel Po
wers and to Lieutenant Colonel
Walter C. Phillips Jr., Battalion
CommanderIt who accepted the

flag on beh.alf of the personnel

from the Battalion. He, In tum,
passed It on to Captain Larry
E. Jarvis, Delta Battery Commander and Staff Sergeant Emest D.
Cook, Batt.ery Motor Sergeant.
Captain Jarvis and Sergeant Cook
had the honor of raising the Material Readiness Flag before the
Captain l..a1T7 B. Sarvis and
Battalion formation.
Staff Ser1ea11t Evnest D. Cook
After the 1111 ralsinJ ceremo-1 ntu the Qaarlerly Material Rea4ny, Colonel Powers 1poke to the laeas Flac dulnc ceremon.les
assembled troops and extended beld ai tbe lot Batt.allon, 81st
his con1ratulations to Delta Bat- i\riWer,o.

others a good run for their money to keep it."

The Mccully Barracks Consolidated Mess Hall furnished
offee, cold juice and cake !or
everyone after the ceremony.

Chief Warrant Officer, Lloyd

C, Plersawl received the Bronze
Star Medal. the 9th to 14th Oak
Leaf Clusters to the Air Medal
and tbe Army Commendation
Medal. CWO Persawl was cited
for his ou\JtandlnJ performance
o! duty with the 9th Aviation
Battalion, 9th Infantry Division
In Vietnam from 22 May 1967 to
3 May 1968.
Speclal!Jt Fifth Clas, R.unel E.
Dodson. Headquarters Battery,
The new system was success- received a Bronze Star Medal for
fully test-fired In March of thl his ou\Jtandln1 pertormance of
ye;he Piershin1 lA improve- duty while servln1 Ill a Mediment pro1ram stems from the
Army's continuing requirement
!or a faster rate of llre, lncreaaed
rollability. less maintenance and
overall lower costs.
Recently, Pershln11 has taken
on a new and significant deterrent role - quick reaction alert which places it beside other Free
World forces which are kept
ready as a nuclear backup acalnst a,cresslon In Europe.
The new ground equipment
features a highly-mobile, futrespondinc eredor-launcher whidl
carries the complete missile
on a sln1le carrier, towed by
MEDALS- 8pecl&ll1t Flllb Clua
an eight-wi.1eeled prime mover. au..1 E. Docbon. Beadqaaricrs
Other improvements center on Ballery, 18' Battalion, 111 Anllthe programmer/test station, lery receivu COAP"at.G.latlon1 on
which provides countdown tacil- hll Bronte Star Medal from Lleulties, and a completely new bat- lenant Colonel Walter C. Pbilllp1
tery control central linked by Jr, Battalion Commander. Olher
communications to higher head- award recipients are 1o DCM.hon's
quarters tor use a command rl1bl Cblel Warrent Officer Lloyd
post.
C. Plenawl aod lo bil ldl
Under the new concept, each Ser1eant Same1 E. Breit.
firing battery will have several
misaUes, each on Its own erector- cal Instructor with Headc;iuarlers
launcher. 'T he system la enclnee- and Headquarters Company, 4th
red for rapid movement from one Infantry Division In Vietnam
firing posltlon to the next and from May 1967 to May 1968.
can be tra nsported in C-130 airThe Army Commendation Mecraft.
dal wu presented to Serceant
There wlll be no chan1e under
Cont. P. 3, Col. 5
the Pl-A system, to the basic
34-foot missUe.

New Pershing Contracts Let

quarter, calendar year 1968 be-

competence of it's malntenance

operations. Durina the quarter,

N0.1.2

WACKERNHEIM The
presentation of two Bronze
Star Medals, the Air Medal
and twoArmyCommendation
Medals
highlighted
the
Awards Ceremony held at
McCully Barracks on Saturday, June 29 by Lieutenant
Colonel Walter C. Phillips
Jr., Commanding Officer, 1st
Battalion, 81st Artillery.

follow-on for Pershin1 1-A erec

tor-launchera and other sround
equipment designed to transport
and launch the 4-00-mlle-ranse
surface- to-surface missile.
The balance o! the award,
I 2,025,750 11 for production of
Power stations which fumilh
electrical eneray for countdown
ond firing of the two-sta1e missile.
The awardJ were let by the
Army Missile Command, Redstone
Arsenal, Ala., where Lieutenant
Colonel Edwln A. Rudd is manacer for the project.
The new Pershln1 1-A 1y1tem
Introduces several improvements
over the current Pershln1 equipment deployed In Europe since
1984 with U. S. and we,t German
troop units.
. The bll&est apparent change Is
in outward appearance, with a
switch from tracked vehicles to
wheels for au ground support
equipment, Including the erector
laucher.

Pershing NCO Cited by Germans

NECKARSULM Staff
Sergeant Eugene E. Mason,
Service Battery, 3rd Battalion, 84th Artillery became
the second U.S. soldier to be
awarded the German "Cavalier of the Road" Medal (Kavalier der Strasse) when he
was presented the award
during ceremonies at the
NCO Open Mess at Wharton
Barracks.
On Good Friday, April 12,
1968, Staff Ser1eant M..on rendered ualstance to German victims o! a colll1ion between a car
and motorcycle in the Heilbroon
area. He aided the Injured Germans for 45 minutes, until profeulonal help arrived.
There to make the presentation
was Lord Mayor o! Heilbroon,
Doctor Hall.I Hoffmann. Thia was
the lirst time the medal and ceruncate o! apprlclatlon has been
presented on an American mllltary po1t and the second Ume
a 'U. s. serviceman has been
awarded the "Cavalier o! the
Road" Medal.
The Lord Mayor was accompanied by the Cbld o! City Po-

lice Herr Gunther and tho Chief

of Dhtrict Police Herr Bellman. Colonel J. L. Ballard, Jr.,
Commanding Officer o! North
Wuerttemberg District, was there
to extend bl1 con,ratulatloru to
Sergeant Mason.

18,300 to Be
Called During
August Draft
WASHINGTON (ANF) The Department of Defense
has requested the Selective
Service System to provide
18,300 inductees to be assigned to the U.S. Army in August.
The Delense Department said
the request supports curre ntly
approved force levels and will
a.ssure a timely flow of repbce-

m~nto for men completln1 their

terms o! Nrvlce.

GVLP! A 11.8. Air Foree C1H appean lo be dev ourlnc a U.S. Anny Persblnc t-A 'ereelor-laundler
complete wltb 10,NClpound, two-1tage Persblnc missile and a five-Ion prime mo1'tr, durlnc aheraft
!<>&dins and lledown lesls al McCoy Air Force Baae. Florida. Tbe exerchea Included bJ6b &llllude &rbts
111 C-130 and C-124 alrorart lo ,lady lbe &ftecl.t of almoapberlc p,-ure and vibration on lbe 400.
mile- ranee, sartace-101urfaee Arm:, 1:,stem.

JUJ.)'

Twn Back AJJ.stan 116

Swimming Classes
Underway in Area

PERSHING SCOREBOARD

Crimson Wave
Makes It 11-0

SCHWAEBISCH GMUEND

- The Schwaebisch Gmuend

SCHWAEBISCH GMUEND
- The Crimson Wave of 56th
Artillery Group Headquarters
continued on its way toward
an undefeated softball sea.so.n
taking its eleventh straight
victory here in a July 4 ex
hibltlon game.
Havlng shut the door on all
available competition In the
Schwae biach Gmuend area, the
Wave d'lallen&ed the 4th Batta
llon, tilt Artillery to fonn an
AU-Star team from the six
teams within the batt.t.llon. Pr
vlou1ly the Wave had defeated
each ot these teams lndlvldualy
and team manager Frank An
thony felt the AU-Star Idea
would turnbh crut competition
to 10 with the July 4 fntlvltlu
scheduled at the Hardt Athletic
Field.
Al It turned out the same not
only contributed to th featlvltles,
It domin ated them. The chance to
contln~ a win strlD& on one
hand, and the opportunity to end
It on the other, broutbt out the
but of each team as softball fan,
witnessed the most outstanding
play of the season.
Tha AllStara took an early
lud scoring three runs In the
llrat, threatenln& an early end
for an apparently over conJldent
Group team. In th top of the
second, Group bounced back Into
the action with two runs. Those
runs were the result of a base on
balls to John McMlllen followed
by one of the hardnt hit balls
this Staton, a home run over the
ldt ftelder by Jim Lawler.
The Crimson Wave 11ruck acaln
In the !11th to tit the aame. The
tie wu short lived however a.a a
resuraent All-Star team came
back 1tl'on1 In the 1lxth with
two run1.
The top of the .eventh offered
the ftnal opportunity (Softball
1amu blln& limited to seven
lnnlnc> for the Group team to
keep the came, 11 wen II their
win 1lrl:n1, going.
In the seventh DeMls Militti

Chapter of the American Red

Cross, under the direction of
Mr. Peter Underwood the
Deputy Director of the North
Wurttemburg District Red
Cross, Is conducting swimming cluses for local depen
dent children.

I,
"Pl<*Ie lllanel llallel'J'"
llal1el'J' A. Std llatlalloa, 14111 Arilllel'J' llA Orhfab
L ac,y l/tl

I.

en

WMl.e
J.. Btry A, lJU
CPT . . . . .,..
JIN

u1

.,. 81.17 D, uu
CPT ..,...

D. 1tN
lLT THI.a

L Btry C. JIN

... au,, D, 1111

lLT CHwferd
-,, au, c, 1111

. a,.,.
a.
en a,un1eare1

tt.

en aa.1110

e n .IP"'ftl

au.,. A, 111
err ttue,

Approximately ue children are

currenUy enrolled In the da11n
held at the Frelbad Blttrtnaen,
the only authorlud 1wlmrnln&
pool for rnllltary penonnel and
their del)tlldent1 In the Scbwublldl Gmuend Atta.

"Fina Up-Wube&d Dotnl Bat4erl"

(llelow GrHP 81aadard)

REENLISTMENT HONOR BATl'ERJES

L, lltry A, 4/H

CPT Haao

...

;IHI/,
I .Btr)' 11, f/tl
CPT BJ1o

....
....

J. Btl'Y C, lln

...,.

I, Btry A, JIN

CPT Buaoa
lL\ Orlof*>'
t , HHB, SIM
t. BID 8, J/..
CPTHalla&

5'tlt Arllllef'J' ON>up

Maurlal Readlll- nas
Ill Jin, lhl Arty
J'enltla1 Soldier of llle
Qurier
8PC WWiml P . Gaiaes
lltry, fill Ba, Ust Arty

....,.

c.r r ac.au.r

....

The IWlmmln& cluae1 are

taulht by Linda Brown, Cynlbla
Clark, Clarry Valter. Nancy Kyle,
Urlla Vraner, Randy Rozier and
Jobll Stoneman. They ara all
votunteen 'Who hold Water Safely
Instruct.on Badcea.

T, Bl17 C, JIN

I L* Cnwfor4

L 8VC Bt,y, JIN

err O"llrl
,...,.

a..ea.Uaimgl Pla.q,ae
cu,. Ba. u,t Art,.
SFC Doasltly

Due to the lar&e participation

In the procram more volunteer
lnltructon art needed. Anyone
"'ho bolda a Water Safety ln1tructora Badie and is interested
In beinJ an lnltructor ahould
cont.let Mr. Unduwood at
SchwaebllCh Gmuend (MU) 829.

Beat '1eld -

B&ry II. lit Bn, Cllt Any

are """"*-11on
- -...d

scored when Billy Mitchell dou

bled to center. Mitdlell was driven In on a sin&le off the bat of
Ttl'T)' Alexander to tie the 1ame
for the second time.
Hollis Allison, pltchin1 another
out1tandln1 came, held the All
Start hitless in the .eventh and
kept the door open for the bis
ball of the Wave to follow.
It was a COM ol All-Stan
1ffln1 1tara l.n the top of the
el1hth as the Wive mercilessly
peppered the heaven1 with ooft
balls ..ndin& eleven batters to
the plate and scorlD& 1lx runs.
In the bottom haU, the All-Start
scored one run on a homerun by
Gary Shanks of Headquarters
Battery, but never threatend
tht bll lead built up l>y Group.
Lo1ln1 pltd>er for the All-Star1
was Edward Sylve of Service
Battery.

Illustrated History of Pershing

I
three
six
WACKERNHEIM - This
is part
of a
part
serial on the illustrated history of the Pershing Missile
as written by Captain BenJamin D . King Assistant Installation C~rdinator, 1st
Battalion, 81st Artlllery.
At the end of the Flnt . World
War, the military rocket was still
six hundred years behind the times. But by the be&lnnlni of
World War II, the rocket had
com, in1o Its own,
Denied heayy artillery by the
Treaty of Versailles, the German,
turned to rockets. The device they
created was called "Nekelwerfer"
or to1 ... thrower" becauee it was
supposedly desl1ned for maktn1
a smoke screen. lt didn't take
much 10 convert the smoke projectiles lo hl&h explosives. The
Neketwerfer'' wa1 cheap, fast,
reliable ind accurate. It could
put more round, on the t1r1et
than any convenllon1l piece of
arllllery of Its day,
By the end of World War II,
the rocket was beln& u11d on the
ground, ln the air, and at su.
When US. Forcu Invaded Normandy, Saipan, and Iwo Jima,
rocket carryln& shlp1 ftred thou11nd1 o f rockets In minutes. It
would have taken days to fire
tbat many rounds from convention1I utlllery.
The r ocket not only Increased
lht power of the 1rtillery but
also that of the Infantry in combat. Throu1h the ftrst two years

u,, u,oo

of the war, tanka ran N>uahshod

over troops without heayy anti~~~/~":; ~u:n:1'v1J~:11;n~ntr:
tank rocket made tankers wary
of the Infantry.
.
The man In the llluJtrahon 11
0
~ : J i = e t \au~:~~
or "Ba&00ka" wu crude compared to modem anti-link rocket
launchers but It did the job. The
rocket was no lon1er frleghtenlng
horses but It was friJhtenln& the
hor1e'1 modern counterpart - !he
tank.

;.,uit

Wash PromotedtoMajoratl/81
WACKERNHEIM - When
Captain Lewis E. Wash, Bat
talion Surgeon, 1st Battalion,
81st Artillery, walked into
the office of the Commanding
Officer, Lieutenant Colonel
Walter C. Phillips Jr., July 6
he was out of uniform, and
had been for some six days.

Major Wuh wa1 promotad to

his present rank I July on ordera from the Department of the
Army, but was unaware of hl1
ne..w rank.
To make It offtdal, MaJor Wash
had his ordera Nd by th Adjutant while Mn. Wash and the
Commandln1 Offtcer removed the
old "Ra.llroad Tradu" and pinned on the new major leaf.

81stQuarter Soldier Chosen

1!'Yar~\~:I

W ACKERNHEIM - Spe-1 ~:~ !':idth~,!/f

o~e'::
clallst Fourth Class Gary J . seat u a member of the 111 BatKendzierski, Micro Wave talion, 8bt Artillery 1n Merd'I
Radio Repariman, Delta Bat- 1868.
tery, was selected as the ht
For beln& selected the oulltanBattallon
61st Artillery's ding ~Soldier ol the Quarter",
"Sol ' f th Q
"
Kendz1erakl received twenty-live
d1er o
e
uarter on dollar, 1n cuh and a three day
Tuesday, 25 June. He will paos trom hit unit.
represent the 81st In the
forthcoming 56th Artillery
Group's "Soldier of the Quarter" competition.
The native of Baltimore, Mary
REDSTONE
ARSENAL,
land 1raduattd from high school
In 1964 and enrolled In the Ra- Ala. (ANF) U.S. Army
dio ElecTV School In Baltimore scientists have discovered
for two yean. He entered the new solid propellant addlArmy in December 1966 and received his Basic Combat Tralnin& tives that have opened the
ts
It Fort Jackoon, South Carolina. way to maj or Impz:ovemen
After BCT, Kenddenkl entered In certain Army m1SSl!e systhe Micro Wave Radio Repair
man School at Fort Manmouth, terns.
New Jersey. Upon completion ot
The discovery, conaldertd 1
the 28 Wffk school he remained major breakthrou&h In IOlld roe
at Fort Marnmouth as an inatruc ket propulsion te<:b.nolo,y, was

Numerous peroormel from the

battalion were on hand to congratulate Major Wosh on hl1 promotion.
The native of Kentucky 1raduated from Anderaon Hl&h School,
Lawnncebur1. Kentucky In 1951
and enrolled In the Unlveralty
of Kentucky, Lexln&ton In the
Fall. He araduated from the Uni
versity of Kentucky In 1955 with
a Bachelor ol Arts de1ree In
Artl-Medlclne. HI$ post 1r1duate
decree in medicine wu obtained
at the Unlverllty of Louisville
durin1 the period 19'54 to 1958.
He w11 called to acllve duty
u a Capt1ln In the Medical
Corp on 29 July 1966 and entered
the Medical Field Service School,
Fort Brooke Army Hospital, Fort
Sam Houston, Texas one week later. Upon compleUon of the
sd:lool, he was assl cned to the
lit Battalion, 81st Artlllery as
Battalion Sur1eon and arrived
overaea, In September 111117.

Army Scientists Find Fuel Additive

I the result ol resear<:h

and deve1
~f,'!\!~tc~:!~~;! ~..:~.t'a"::~

Development Dlrecte>r,te.
The new class of additives can
increase the burnin& rate of solid
rocket propellants by 11 least
three limes the present nit. This
will permit the development of
rocket moloro with shorter burnin& times and hi11her thrust.
With the addlllve1, rocket propellants will provide hlaher velocity without Increase In wei&ht.

SCHWAEBISCH GMUEND
- Major Jon F. Nitkowski,
Adjutant of the 56th Artillery Group, was promoted to
his present rank during cere.
monies held in the office of
Uie 56th Artillery Group
Commander Colonel Patrl.ck
W. Powers.
Formerly the Alsl,tant S-3 at
the 4th Battalion, 41st ArtlJltry,
Major Nltkow1kl reported to
Headquarters
56th
ArtlJler,
Group as Adjudant on May 18,
IH&.
Major NltkowskJ resides In the
Hardt Housin1 Area with bi1 wife
Ardis and their two children
Wendy and Steven.

Maj Joe P. NIUtoWHJ ltu II.la

new sold luf pl11ned on by wife

Anlu ,h1rlllr ceremonl" held Ill

Groap Commander Palrldl W.
Powen' otlee.