Field Artillery
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Soldiering in a Line Unit - The Fun Never Ends
Before the fall of the Soviet Block and peace breaking out between the two Germanys, the countries that were members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were deadly serious in their
efforts to defend West Germany against any attack by the Block Countries. The United States, being the strongest member of NATO bore a major portion of the Defense deployment in the overall Emergency Defense Plans (EDP) for West Germany.
The political and military situation in Germany after World War II up until the collapse of the Soviet Block political system was strained and constantly under the threat of nuclear war. In 1970 and 71 the Soviets were considered a major threat, not only to Germany but also to the rest of Europe. Persistence and a positive, can do attitude, won this stand off. Perhaps the U.S. Government and People should apply those principles to today’s conflicts.
After I returned from Vietnam in the summer of 1969, I attended the Army “agent handlers” school located at Ft. Holabird, (Baltimore) Maryland. Upon completion of this 5 month course I was ordered to Germany and assigned to the 3d Infantry Division. It was January of 1969 and I was still a 1st Lieutenant due promotion to Captain shortly after arriving in Germany. My assignment was to the General Staff position of Division Security Officer in the G2 (Intelligence) Office. This was the most stressful job I ever had in the Army. Not from the standpoint of the job but due to the Headquarters politics. Colonels and below were constantly being fired and their careers ruined on the whim of the Division Commander (Major General - 2 star).
As the Division Security Officer it was my duty to insure that all personnel in the division had the proper paperwork and validation of at least a secret clearance and a top secret if necessary. These were updated every 5 years. An Army Mechanized Infantry Division consists of approximately 15,000 people. As you can imagine there was just a tad of paperwork involved. My staff consisted of me and two semi-competent enlisted male clerks.
If there was derogatory information uncovered during the investigations or National Agency Checks that information was forwarded to me by the investigating agency for review and determination as to eligibility for a clearance. Our artillery units were nuclear capable and if a soldier could not get a clearance he could not work in the unit.
Almost all of the derogatory files I got back from the investigating agencies contained, for the most part, trivial matters. Usually teenage misdemeanor charges like drunk and disorderly, fighting, money problems after a divorce and the like. A couple stand out in my mind because it was so stupid that the Government wasted the money and manpower to create a dossier.
One guy, when he was 17, got caught in the backseat of his car with his girlfriend, who panicked and cried rape. He had been charged with “gratification of lust”, only to have the charges thrown out. Only in Texas. Another 3 inch thick dossier boiled down to: the guy had visited his grandmother in New York several times and his Grandmother lived next door to a woman who had in her younger days been a member of the Communist Party. Duh!
There was only one situation in which I attempted to pull a clearance and that recommendation was overruled by Corp Headquarters. The sergeant in question was married to a German woman and they lived in post housing. It came to my attention through the German Vice Police that, while her husband was at work, she had a pimp that would bring her customers to the post apartment. I coordinated with our post Military Police, who after surveillance confirmed that men were going in and out.
After calling the sergeant in and talking to him, I was told that he knew she had been a prostitute but thought she had given up the business when they got married. Anyway, as I said my conclusion that he was a security risk and my recommendation to withhold validation of his clearance because he was unduly subject to foreign influence and possibly blackmail, was denied. The command did, however, remove him from post housing.
Aside from my primary on post job as Security Officer, there were secondary duties. One of these was being a member of the two man control team for the Permissive Action Link (PAL) unlock system for unlock of nuclear warheads. This was at one time top secret information but I have seen articles explaining the system in detail over the past few years. I am sure there is a much more sophisticated PAL system in place these days. Search “Permissive Action Link” on the internet if you are interested in details.
This assignment consisted of being on call about once every 6 weeks for a week at a time. The on call representatives from the G2 (Intelligence) and G3 (Operations) office, were not to be further than 15 minutes from the Operations Office. If a message came down from Corps H.Q., day or night, we were called. We would immediately go to the Operations war room and retrieve our individual metal boxes from a safe with two combination locks.One his and one mine. We would then open the metal boxes, each of which had a combination lock of it’s own. Neither of us knew the combination to the other’s lock.
In each of the boxes were two sets of plastic breakable cards, one blue and one red. The blue were for practice drills and the red were for the real thing (contained the actual codes/combinations needed to unlock/activate nuclear artillery warheads) . Also in the boxes were authentication codes and code books to decipher the messages sent to us by phone or cable from Corps HQ.
The first thing we did was authenticate the message by decoding the authentication line. Each day had its own code and that determined which page of the decode book would be used to decode the rest of the message. That also told us from which card set a card would be drawn and broken. The rest consisted of decoding the message which would tell us what the target was, the number of rounds to be fired and when. We then wrote a coded message to be forwarded to the Brigade in which the required guns were located. They in turn would do the same thing we just did and send to the appropriate Battalions . The Battalions then would release the actual codes to arm the warheads to be fired by specific gun crews.
One particular night while on call stands out in my memory. We were in attendance at the Officer’s club at a formal, dress blues affair at which General Patton III, Commander of the 4th Armored Division on our right flank was the guest speaker. A runner notified me and the G3 representative, a Major, that a call had come in. The club was only about a block from the HQ building and it wasn’t too cold so we left our wives and walked. We picked up the message from the Duty Officer, got to the war room and started the process.
Everything went well until we got to the part about which set of cards to use. Mine decoded as red. I re-did my decode and it still came out red. The rest of the message said we were to fire two nuclear warheads into a specified Soviet Block country. I looked at the Major and he was looking at me - he also decoded as red card. I asked if he had heard anything officially or on the news about war being eminent. He started cussing about that time. And said “we are not going to start World War III without at least some verbal confirmation or preferably a direct order“. He got on the phone to Corps Headquarters who did some backtracking and determined that there had been a couple of new not too well trained officers in the line of control that had screwed up.
We both gave a sigh of relief and stopped sweating profusely. Then we thanked whatever Gods there might be for our not popping open one of those red cards. All crap breaks loose if you inadvertently open one of them. New cards have to be issued from the Pentagon down and there is paperwork out the ass. Not to mention being kicked off the team and screamed at by Colonels and Generals.
My other job was G2 representative on the “Saber Team”. That team consisted of a small team of officers and enlisted personnel who, in case of attack, fell under the command of the Division’s Deputy Commander for Maneuver (1 star). If the “balloon went up” meaning that Soviet Block forces had began moving toward the German border as they were clearing the minefields and blowing the fencing on the border, the Saber Team would move forward to a designated position.
We were the command and control element for the initial defense and delay efforts. First the attacking forces would encounter the 7th Calvary (Custer’s old unit) on the border. The Saber Team was assigned command of the 7th Calvary, along with designated artillery, tank and mechanized infantry units to be deployed at specific choke points to delay the approaching forces as much as possible. We also coordinated with the German Home Guard Forces who were responsible for blowing bridges in front of the approaching forces. All major bridges in Germany are built with housing for explosives at the critical structural points. Our job was to fight a retrograde delaying battle for as long as possible to give the Division time to deploy and set up primary defensive positions.
If we were not over run and managed to fight our way back to the Division lines we would regroup what forces we had left (we estimated about 20 to 40 percent) and act as reinforcements wherever needed. All the while me, the Intelligence Officer and the Operations officer were dragging around this metal box containing two smaller boxes. A duplicate set of boxes was left with the main Division Command Field Operations Center, in case we didn’t make it back or there was a need before we got back.
The plan was that once the attacking force’s (which could be 5 or more times our size) lead element’s and first wave main body made contact with the Division and our defensive positions became in-defendable, the Division would begin a retrograde fight moving as slowly as possible back to the Mien River. At this point if not before, the Division Commander would likely begin requesting Nuclear release to stop the Soviet attacking forces.
The German civilian and military authorities had made it very clear that they would never give us permission to detonate nukes in their country. That left the only other options as receiving significant reinforcements (which were not available in the time necessary) or making the best stand possible until overrun. This would take, probably, about 5 to 7 days from the time the Soviets crossed the border.
That was the pessimistic side, but there were aome things in our favor, the most notable of which were Soviet tactics. These were based on speed and overwhelming numbers. Our assigned defensive area of responsibility was mountainous with few good roads and terrain that allowed for nothing other than an attack running in columns. By destroying the roads and bridges and forcing the attacking force into narrow kill zones, great damage and delay could be caused by small forces as the Soviet forces stacked up in these narrow points or zones.
The above scenario was rehearsed over and over during the many field exercised in the German forests, in the winter snows and summer rains. Try moving thousands of men and machines in the middle of the night into and out of setup positions under light restrictions in snow and mud.
This concludes the recounting of my first year duties with the 3d Infantry Division (Mech.). At some later date in a separate articleI will recount my second year in the Division as the Commander of the 66th Intelligence Group's, 3d Intelligence Detachment assigned operational control by the 3d Division Commander. Be assured that for the full two years a good time was had by all.
About the Author
Mr Green has a B.S. Degree from Jacksonville State University (AL) and a J.D. Degree from Birmingham School of Law. He served in the U.S. Army from 1967 through 1987, 5 years of which were on active duty serving in Vietnam and Germany. Retired as A Reserve Major in the Military Intellegence Branch. He has worked with NASA, Defense Contracts Administration Service and USAID. He Served outside the the United States as a Civilian for approximatly 8 years mostly in the Middle East. He also worked for the University of Alabama at Birmingham AL for approximately 1 year. He is now retired.
1/15th Field Artillery Live Fire