Contents

Follow-On to Redstone Pershing 1 is Born Orlando Development Flight Tests at Cape Canaveral Battalion Activation Ice, Snow. and 50 Below Panama White SandsTesting Deployment in Europe Pershing Improved for QRA Eglin Environmental Testing Orlando Environmental Tests Green River Road March Operation SWAP - US. Preparation Operation SWAP - Delivery in Germany P1 -A in Europe Pershing Project Managers

Pershing 1 is Born I958

Pershing 1, as conceived in 1958 by the Advanced Ballistic Missile Agency, weighed 10.000 pounds at liftoff. The 2-stage solid propellant missile had a range of 400 miles and was guided to the target by jam-proof inertial guidance.

A complete tiring unit was composed of an erector-launcher to transport the m~ssile to the launch site and serve as a launch pad, a programmer-test station to preset the missile trajectory and test missile electrical systems before flight, a power station to supply required electrical power to launch the misslle, a radio terminal set to communicate with higher headquarters, and a warhead carrier. Four modified M-113 tracked vehlcles transported the missile and launch equipment to the flring site.

1 Pershing Missile and Erector-Launcher

2 Radm Terminal Set

3 Warhead Carrier

4 Programmer-TesVPower Station

A member of the Pershmg team checks out the azimuth laying device used to accurately target the missile.

Orlando Development 1958-60

In March of 1958 the Army Missile Command awarded the Orlando Division of Martin Marietta a contract to design and develop the Pershing system. Soon after the award the new Army-Industry team entered the initial design and development phases of the program. Engineers. designers. planners, logistics experts. and technicians all pitched in to get the program off to a good start.

Eventually Pershing equipment, mounted on modified M- 1 13 tracked veh~cles. was tested in mud-filled swamps, bounced over rugged terrain. assembled, erected, and disassembled several times in preparation for the first flight at Cape Canaveral. Techntc~ans gave

Jershing a hard pound~ng - early development

An early configuration Lt. Col. Patrick J Powers

Flfght Tests R&D round blasts off receives the 2ndf44th's a t Cape Canaveral. colorsfrorn Dr. Finn J.

at Cape Canaveral Larsen during an

1 960-63 organization ceremony at Ft. Sill. Oklahoma.

By January 1960 the first Pershing missile was ready for launch. Facilities at C a ~ e Canaveral were activated by the Army Corps of Engineers, Activation and the test vehicle was fired February 25 on a 30-mile trajectory out over the Atlantic 1962 Test Range

This initial flight marked the beginning of many successesfor Pershing. In June of the same year, another successful launch tested erratic motion programmed into the missile's flight path to prove stability. In February of 1961. Pershing was launched and successfully demonstrated its inertial guidance system. January 1962, Pershing traveled downrange 400 miles over the Atlantic for its first full flight. And so it went until the Cape Canaveral test program ended in April of 1963.

Pershing had performed well. . . so well in fact that it had scored more successful launches during a development program than any prevlous major missile system.

Lt. Col. Patrick Powers, first Commander of a Pershing battalion, summarized the Army's feelings about Pershing when he said, "From the standpoint of the troops, we are highly pleased with the Pershing Weapon System. . .We think Pershing will be a giant on the nuclear battlefield."

While flight testing continued at the Cape, Pershing troops were being trained. In September of 1961. the first of 250 key military and civilian personnel from Redstone Arsenal and Fort Sill arrived in Orlando to receive 16 weeks of training in 12 different Pershing specialities.

In June of 1962 the first Pershing battalion, the 2nd/44th, was activated at Fort Sill, and in July classes opened at Fort Sill to familiar~ze the troops with the new Pershing system.

By October the men were ready, and on the 13th of that month the 2nd/44th was formally organized. Dr. Finn J. Larsen. Assistant Secretary of the Army. was on hand to present the unit colors to Lt. Col. Patrick J. Powers. Commanding Officer of the new Pershing unit.

Next. Pershing troops and Martin Marietta engineers would take the system to Alaska for environmental testlng.

Ice, Snow, and 50 Below 1962

Alaska with its ice, snow. and 50 degree below zero temperatures poses a formidable environmental challenge to any weapon system. The question was, then, how would the Pershing system's 10,000 pounds of missile and tons of support equipment perform in this environment? Would system lubricants remain fluid at these temperatures, and could rubber-coated cables and tubing stand the extreme cold? How well would the tracked vehicles perform on Alaska's frozen slopes?

In December of 1962, test engineers and troops of the United States Army went to Alaska to find the answers.

While in Alaska the Army-Industry team

performed normal assembly, erection. checkout. and countdown procedures to determine system performance in this environment. When the Arctic tests were over, Capt. Warfield Lewis. Testing Chief of the Test and Evaluation Branch of the Pershing Project Manager's Office. announced that the system had performed successfully in the Alaskan environment.

Troops and engineers tested Pershing equipment in subzero weather at Ft. Wainwright. Alaska.

Panama 1963

A few months after returning from Alaska test engineers and US. Army personnel were on the road again. This time they headed for Panama to test Pershing's performance in a tropical environment.

Once in Panama, the missile and ground support equipment were subjected to heavy rains, mud. high humidity, and oppressive heat. Exhaustive tests were conducted to identify and correct any problems induced by this tropical environment.

In August of 1963 Pershing was successfully demonstrated at Fort Sherman in the Canal Zone for Major General T. F. Bogart. Commanding General. U.S. Army Southern Command. By September all tests were completed and the Pershing team began packing for home. Tests in Panama had further demonstrated Pershing's rugged all-weather capability.

White Sands Testing I963

After Panama. the Pershing system was ready for its final tests. . . tactical firings onto White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The plan called for US. Army artillerymen to fire Pershing overland onto the White Sands Range from launch sites in Texas. New Mexico. and Utah . . .the four Corners area of the Southwest.

Troops of "A" Batten/, 2nd Banalionl44th Artillery, under the command of Capt. Donald Phipps, opened this series of tests with successful launches from Heuco. Texas. on August 20,1963. In October the unit traveled 630 miles into the rugged desert and mountain areas near Blanding. Utah, where, in a period of one week, they successfully fired five Pershing missiles over three states to impact on White Sands Missile Range nearly 400 miles to

the south. This marked the first time Pershing wasf~red over populated areas to test the full range of the missile.

The Wh~te Sands test serles ended late in 1963 with launches from the Devil Mountain area near Gallup. New Mexico, by the 2ndl44th and the 4th/41 st. the second Pershing unit to be activated W ~ t h the successful complet~on of this phase of the development program, the Pershing system was now ready for deployment.

Pershing round No. 32 blasts off from Heuco Range, Texas, and heads for a target area on the White Sands Missile Range. A second Pershmg missile (foreground) has been counted down and stands ready for launch.

Deployment in Europe

1964

In the Spring of 1964 the Pershing system was deployed in Western Germany. Tested in Arctic and tropical extremes and launched from rugged terrain under simulated combat conditions. Pershing was now ready to assume its tactical role in the European theater.

Taking the new misstle system to Europe was the 4th/41 st, later to be joined by the 1 sV81 st and the 3rd/84th The 4th/41 st is now the 1 sV4l st. Meanwhile, the 2nd/44th, today known as the 3rd/9th, took up its home station at Fort Sill. Oklahoma.

Pershing troops undergo a combat-readiness check at a firing site in Western Germany. These troops return to the United Statesannually for operational test firings onto White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

Pershing Improved for QUA 1965-67

The Pershing system had come a long way since By early 1967, the new Pershing system was the first 30-mile t e a flight at Cape Canaveral successfully demonstrated for Army officials at early in 1960 The Pershing Project Office, first Martin Marietta's Orlando facility, and P I -A was under the command of Col. 0. M. Hirsch on its way. followed by Col. Edwin I. Donley, had developed Pershing into a rugged. reliable, all-weather weapon. But late in 1965. Pershing was given an additional role called Quick Reaction Alert. requiring new Improvements to the system.

The improved system, called Pershing 1-A. included a new programmer-test station with a digital computer for self test and fault isolation, a battery control central to coordinate commands from headquarters to individual firing batteries, and a new erector-launcher with fast erection capability and a faster rate of fire. Additionally, the improved system was mounted on wheels instead of tracks to speed Pershing to the firing site faster and with fewer maintenance problems.

Station With these improvements, Pershing would assume its new QRA role. prepared to serve as Terminal Set

a nuclear deterrent in support of NATO as well 3 Battery Control as perform its basic mission of providing Centml

massive firepower in support of the Field Army. 4 pershing ~ i ~ ~ i l ~ and Erector-Launcher

Eglin Environmental Testing 1967-68

Late In November 1967, a 13-vehicle Pershing convoy rolled through early morning fog to begin a road march from Martin Marietta's Orlando Division to Eglm Air Force Base in northern Florida where Pershmg would undergo severe envlronmental testing in a mammoth climatic laboratory.

For 12 weeks the missile and ground support equipment were subjected to temperatures rangmg from 1 50°F to -55OF In addttion, rain. snow, ice, and sleet were hurled at the system and rap~d temperature changes were set up to induce thermoshock in vital electrical and mechanical components. A countdown and smulated launch followed each temperature change.

With the successful completion of these tests, all PI-A equipment returned to Orlando.

Orlando Environmental Tests 1968

Green River Road March 1968

Early in August 1968, men of the 2nd Battalion/Mth Artillery under the command of Capt. Thomas Fitzgerald. left Fort Sill. Oklahoma. and road-marched Pershing to Gilson Butte near Green River. Utah. There. under s~mulated combat conditions, PI -A underwent its first sewice test firings when troops successfully launched three missiles to impact on White Sands Missile Range.

PI -A firings were conducted as a combined effort of the Army Test and Evaluation Command, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, and the Army Artillery Board at Fort Sill.

Once back in Orlando, the P I -A system was tested on a rugged road course, and frozen in subjected to another series of rigorous an env~ronmental test chamber. A simulated environmental tests. PI -A equipment mounted countdown and launch followed each test to on M-757 trucks wasdriven through mud, determine system integrity. 14

Operation SWAP - US. Preparation 1968

Once the P1 -A system had been developed and tested, there was the problem of supplying troops in the field with the new gear while maintaining combat readiness.

In July of 1968. Martin Marietta, working closely with the US. Army Missile Command, solved this problem through a massive logistics program to supply Pershing units in Europe and the United States with the new P I -A ground support equipment This program, called Project SWAP, centered around Hanger N of the Air Force Eastern Test Range at Cape Canaveral. The mission was to exchange. Item by item, the new equipment for the old in a direct contractor-to-troop delivery system, bypassing the tradit~onal Army supply h e .

By April of '69, the first of several trainloads of missile and launch support equipment for the new P I -A system was on its way to Fort S111, Oklahoma, to equip the Znd/44th, In August of the same year, the Adm. William Callaghan. the world's largest dry cargo vessel, shipped out of Port Canaveral with the first battalion-sized package of new P1 -A gear for troops in Germany.

U.S. Army and Martin Marietta representatives at Cape Canaveral prepare documentation for new P I -A equipment shipped to Europe under Project SWAP.

Operation SWAP - Delivery in Germany 1969-7 1

From Port Canaveral the shipload of new ground support equipment headed for the North Sea port of Bremerhaven, Germany. There. P1 -A rolled off the Callaghan and headed for a staging area at Fischstein, ~ e r h a n y , where old P1 gear was swapped for the new Pershing 1 -A equipment.

One by one Pershing firing batteries moved into Fischstein, exchanged their equipment and, after a concentrated training period, returned to their firing sites in the forests of Western Germany.

P1 -A gear was shipped to Three such SWAP shipments were completed We, German Air Force by mid-1970, and U.S. Army Pershing missile troops early i n 197 1. units were then fully equipped with the new fast-reacting Pershing 1-A system. By early 1971 Federal Republic of Germany Air Force troops had also received the new P1 -A gear through the same contractor-to-troops SWAP program.

U S . Army troops check Pershing equipment lists after delivery t o Fischstejn. Germany.

P1 -A in Europe 1970

In October of 1972. Pershing marked its tenth year of active duty. Deployed in Europe with troops of the US. Army and the Federal Republic of Germany Air Force, rugged, reliable Pershing with its massive, mobile firepower is playing a major role in defense of the free world.

;OI. wver M. nlrsch (1962 - 1963) :ol. Edwin I. Donley (1 963 - 19661 flr. Carl A. Pinyerd - acting - (1966)

:ol. Edwin A. Rudd (1966 - 1969) hI. Rutledge P. Haztard (1969 - 19701 :ol. Samuel C. Skemp. Jr. (1970