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.

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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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8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Jun 1987)

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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