8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Aug 1983)

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VershinaCable

Vol. 20 N

o.8 56th Field Art illery Brigade

August 1983

•

.

Protestor1

1111rch

peacefully

•round •n

American

mllltery

kaHme during IHI

Eaeter t a

nt1 nuc1

demonatratlon

(Photo

by

Greg Allen).

Hot Autumn ' approaches

Events fog

arms

issue

by Tony Maravola

As

bo

th ,he German and Amerian offi·

cials plan for what hll been

billed

the HOT

AUTUMN"

by

the German

Peace Move

·

ment, the

issues are being clouded by

the

events. The central issue is the deployment

by

NATO of new Interme

di ate

-range Nu

clear Missiles (INF).

The NATO

decisio

n 10 deploy 108 Penh·

in,

II and 464 Ground

Laun

ched Cruise

Missiles(GLCM) ""-' made on

Dec.

12, 1979

u part of the NATO Twin-Track deciiion.

Ba

sic

.all,

•, the

Twin-Track

decision

ailed for

NAT0°10

follow rwo parallel

tracks

in cou

n·

tering the Soviet threat posed by the deploy•

mcnt of

the

SS-

20

missi les

aimed at

Wmern

Europe.On one hand, NATO wo

uld

deploy

its own longer-nnge intermediate-range nu•

de

ar

missiles wh

ile

21

the s

ame time begin

negotiuions

with

the Soviet Union 10 redu ce

the

number of

nuclear weap

ons in E

ur

ope.

~neva negotiations

Formal negotiations between the U.S. and

th

e

Soviet

Union bcg,n in November 1981

It

Geneva, Switierl,nd. Ai the negotiations,

there ha

ve been mony

proposals

and

counter·

proposals by both sides, but no agreement

hu bern reached,10

date

. If

1he

negotiations

in

Gentva fail, then NATO is co

mmined

to

the deploymen, of both the Penhing II and

GLCM. The fim missiles

are

10 be open·

tional by Dec. 15

1983.

The Soviet Union Cllrrently hu over

JOO

SS-20 miuilu deployed.

Each

SS-20 carries

three warheads and

hll

a known range of

S,000 kilometer,. In add

iti

on, the Sovim

have 275 older, sing

le

-

warhead

SS-

4 missiles

(range: 1,900 kilometers) and 25 SS·S missiles

(range: 4,100 kilomettrs) deployed. Current•

ly,

NATOhu nothing comparableto

the

SS·

20 deploytd in Europe.

Soviet concern

The single-warhead Pershing II miuilt

co

ncerns the Soviets more than the

U.S. Air

Foret GLCM for a number of rc2sons. It

is

highly

mobi

le Lnd

new mhnology

make

s it

e&1ier to deploy and

hide than

the current,

shoner

ranged

Penhing

IA

. It is

al

so vtry

fut,

capable

of hitting its urge, only minut01

ahtr

launch.

The GLCM is much slower.

Tht

Soviets

can see no viable counter•mta

sure to the

Penhing

II

with

iu surgical

preei

sion.

. Grttru ltaders

The W

C1

t German

Pea

ce Movtmcnt

is

op·

Posed 10

the

NATO decision 10 deploy NF

in December 1983. They

are

backed in their

efforu by the "Greens,"

an

ultra-liberal

political

p•ny holding 7

seats

in

the West

Germ

an

parliament.One of the major figures

in the "Greens• pony is Petra

Kelly,

the

step-daughter of a retired Amtrican Army

officer.

She

went to the United States whe n

she

wu

13 and rema.ined there until gr1du11·

ing from America n University in 1969.

As

a student, Kelly

wu

involved

in

the

American Peace

Moment

of the sixiie,. Since

her return

10

Gcrmany, she

hu been

active in

a varieey of mvironmental and anti-arm•·

ment issue,.

Also

backing

the effon to stop the deploy·

ment of INF

is

the

more

traditional Soc,.

Democrat Pany (SPD). h is intttesting to

note

that in Oecembe.r 1979, when the Twin•

Track d

ecisio

n

wu

made,

th

e SPD was the

controlling pony

in

the Wen German parlia

ment. The Chancellor at that

time

was Hd ·

mut Schmidt of the SPD .

Those oppo l to

the

deployment of INF

argue

that the introduetions ofthese miuiles

will greatly incre

ase

the possibility of nucleor

war in Europe. They see the deployment u

pan of an American plan 10 limit • fururc

nuclear

wor 10

the

European

co

ntinent, l

eav

ing the United States untouched.

Supporte

rs

of the Twin-Track

decision

counter these argumentS, citing the growing

Soviet arsenal

of

in

cenntdiart

range nucl

u r

missile.

They funher

poi nt

out

that the

Soviet

missiles are already deploytd, while

NATO is only now preparing to deploy new

missiles.

Proposed rflluctions

In the negotiations in Geneva,

the Soviets

have consistontly insinecl that NATO ha lt its

p

la

nned deployment of INF. They have

propos

ed 1ha1

NATO reduce the

nu

mber of

missiles to be deployed, while they mainuin

the SS-20s already deployed. In addition, ,he

Soviet

Union has proposed that both t t

French

and

Brit

is

h nuclear arsenal,

which are

not under NATO control,

be

counitd in the

t

ot.ti

number of NATO

missiles

. All NATO

member,

have

rejected this proposal.

Although

both sides in the matter have

publicly stated that ,here

is

nill time for a

negotiated senlemeni prior to the Dtcember

IS deployment date for NATO INF, both

agree that there •ppcars to be linle hope for

such

a solution. In the meantime, the Wen

Cennan Peace Movement is trying to

force

tht:

We.st

German govern

ment to

reconsid~r

its suppon of the Twin·Track

decision

.

re

gardless

of the outcoms of the Geneva talks.

47

NCOs graduate

Wi

th

Primary

Le-

admhip Develop·

ment Course

Class

8-83, the S6th

FA

Bde.

Noncommissioned Officers'

Aca

demy implemented a new, tougher phase

of the Field Training

Exercise,

known as

The "

Mad

Dog· Batun Road March.

The

Academy has incorporated into iu

curTtnt erognm a

seven

kilometer

road

march

w,th full

field

equipment

and

ruck

sacks. In addition, 1he taetical field train

ing exercice

hll

bttn intensified and

no..,

includu concurrent ua.ining during

the

land navigation phast. The

expansio

n of

the FTX provides :more realism and

rigourous challen

J•

to the young non·

com

m

issio

ned o

fficers

going thr

oug

h

the

fou r•

w k

cour ..

The mission

of the Ac

adem

y

is

10

"build tomorro.., s

leaders

tod ay•

th

rough rugged

mining and discipline.

The

Academy 's cadre take their jobs of

prepa

.ring today's junior

NCO's

for the

leadenhip positions very seriously. CSM

Alex L. Gray, Commandant of the 56th

FA

Bde. NCO Academy, said, "The

higher the

Standards

, the tougher the

course wh

ich

leads to better-trained

NCOs." Gn y went on 10 quote tht

Greek

philosopher,

Virgil,

who wrote a•

bout the

miracle

of birds in flight. "They

can bccau1<

they think they can.

Birds

never doubt their ability 10 fly. Neither

sho

uld

we

NC

Os ever doubt our ability

(Continued on

Pag

e 4)

8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Aug 1983)

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  oinanents

Demonstrators exercising rights

during

Heisser Herbst protests

b1 Ji

m Cramblet

The Federal Republic of Gennany is a democracy similar

to that of th United States. Th• G,nn:m people enjoy a

fr«dom in the West that is unr .

iud

in th East.

Two of the rights of 1he Gtnnan people &re free speech

and the right to demonstrate.

The demonstrators

rt

a concerned group of people from

various politic 1 and enviromenw groups worried about the

future of their coun1ry.

The u.me kind of demonstmi ons 100k plact in the U.S.

during the Viernim War in the 60s.

September ha.s b«n dubbed the begining 10 a long ~Hot

Autumn in Gennany. Peace camps, hum&n chains and

m:u,y 0the r demonstrations ire Kheduled 10 draw attention

to the puce movement. But not all Gennans are involvod.

Many Germans look at the demonstra1ions as a madness and

the only way a lot of the demonstrations take place i• that

demonstrators from all over

Euro~

are bussed

to

he areaof

th

dtmonstrations

Germans in the

areu

that the S4th FA Bde.

o~mcs

·in

tend 10 be very conservative. Correspondent Hans-Joachim

Noack of the Spiegel Magazine was quite upset because he

could not find the upset German populace

in

Schwibisch

Don t do the crime

GmUnd that he 1ough1 there should be. In an article written

by

him and published

in

the July 11 issue of

1he

Spiegel, he

wrote, one who investigattS the opposition 10 the missiles.

will not fmd one single organized puce movement

member, concerning deployment of P II, and the demon

 stration s

NolCk w

ent as

far as to describe the Gr .

s

movement i n

Schwibisch GmUnd as, half a dozen juveniles which

gathered around their single ddegaie. 

Ht wu

really upset

because he did not find an entire populace in an uproar.

The German/American relationship in the th, . cities

where the 56th FA Bde. is

locmd

tcnds

to

be good. Off-

limits

arus

are almost non-existent, fricndship• between the

host nation and the

soldien is

in abundance. The Gennan

people i r e willing to accept the American soldien into their

communities, into their way of life.

Regardless of he demonstrations, the hardsh:r.  s which are

created by them, the tension that ,oldiers feel ue 10 thrni,

the friendship and relations between Genn:ms :md Ameri

can,

is worth prrserving. A wedge

mun

noc

be

driven

between established friends 10 sitisfy the different P.Uties

that form the majority of the demonstmors. At times,

thi1

seems

10

be their goal.

vou

can t

o

th time

by

Tony Maravola

I've often wondered about the mentality of the criminal

who,

onet

convicted and 1en1enced, complains about the

punishmenL The question that I would ask is, Did you

know that what you were

doin,

was illegal and you would

be punished if caught and convocted ?

If the criminal answen, Yes, ,hen all I can say

i,,

What's your beef?•

If

•

~rson

knows that something is illegal and does it

anyway, thcn he or sh• should be prepired 10 suffer the

consequ

ences

 

Take, for example, the use of illegal drugs. There isn't a

soldier in the brigade who doesn't know that the use

of

any

kind of drug without a doctor's prescription is ii.legal. And

when c

eruin

non-medical drug1 are involved, such . .

hashish, mariju:u,a, cocaine or heroin are involved, there can

be no question of iu legality.

Pershing

Cable

'PERSHING IN EUROPE

l l r ig.0.

0llar

Anlllony

M Me

There has also een enough publicity on th< penalties

associated with drug abuse. No one should be surprised,

then, when a soldier is found guilty of drug abuse or drug

trafficking :md punished. Y

t

some ~p l< ir