Delta Btry 1st MSL Bn 67th Arty 32nd Aadcom

God bless our fallen and those who were prepared to fall.

Would love to hear from some old friends.

https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/Air%20Defense/USAREUR_94th%20ADA%20Bde.htm

1st Missile Battalion, 67th Artillery DUI

(Source: Email from Wayne Gutshall, "A" Btry, 1st Msl Bn, 67th Arty, 1962-65)
I was stationed at A Battery, 1st Missile Bn, 67th Arty (Griesheim 1962-65) and was billeted at Kelly Barracks, Darmstadt. I was in fire control and was a computer operator.

The Nike site at Griesheim was Ajax and Hercules and we worked 24 hours on and off 24 and during the Cuban missile crisis we were on red alert with options of ground-to-ground or surface-to-air missions.

We were a mobile missile site and would go to Worms annually with our missiles, radar, launchers, generators etc. It was a lot of work and we always had lots of mud to contend with.

In 1964 we were the top unit at ASP at Ft Bliss, Texas for European units.

I wish I could locate some of my old buddies from this unit. I ended up in Vietnam and retired out of WRAMC in 1976 with 17 years service. I also served in the N.Y., Omaha, & San Francisco defenses.
196th Ordnance Detachment (Guided Missile Direct Support)
(Source: Email from Allan W. Swank, 196th Ord Det, 1963-65)
I'm signed in your guestbook. I served in Worms, 6/1963-6/1965, 196th Ordnance Detachment, Nike missile maintnance and support. I am flooded with personal recollections. Great site! Lot of work, kudos. Regained a lot of forgotten information. I traveled a lot in the line of duty and learned German pretty well, so I think I had an "untypical" view of Germany.

Here is some of the tale of the 196th Ordnance Detachment. It's been a long time so some of the details may be a little fuzzy but I'll give it as strait as I can.
The 196th was a Nike missile Odnance support unit attached to the 1/67th Artillery Batallion with their HQ in Werthheim, about 80 miles away from our home base in Worms. We seemed to be pretty much on our own. Our rank was handed down from Artillery (they wern't all that generous) and the Artillery brass was not enthusiastic about journeying to the boondocks to visit or inspect, so we had only, at most, one annual batallion inspections, typically.

The shop was a complete service unit. That is, we serviced Nike internal guidance, auxillary power, hydraulics, and launcher (mechanical, hydraulic and electronic) sections. Most maintenance was done in-shop, the repaired subsystems/components then ferried to and installed at the site. Site work was mostly to service the several radars and the launchers. In the shop was the orderly room, of course, and tech supply, manned by, usually, 3-5 men and separate areas for the other sections.

The shop, itself, was a stuccoed cement block building about 75' X 150' (give or take) located inside a 6-foot high fence which surrounded the asphalt motor pool which was usually full of APC's, a couple of tanks and one humongous tank retriever. I'm guessing they were armored cavalry. The shop was only a half block out the back gate, away from Taukkunen Barracks, in Worms.

My section had the responsibility of maintaining the personnel heaters in all the instrument vans at each of the 1/67 ADA radar sites. There must have been 3 at each site. Times 4 sites. Those dozen heaters alone kept us busy. But doing that, along with the normal launcher service kept someone from our launcher section almost always at one site or another. Another frequent duty which kept someone busy on site was the installation of modifications to the equipment. I was sure Western Electric originally designed a good system but then went back and changed some things so that, down the road, they could sell modifications to the Army for a little more cash. One example: the launchers were always exposed to the elements (our surface sites, at least) so it seemed reasonable to expect the several exposed cable connectors to draw moisture, compromising the power, control and communications signals going through them. But it wasn't untill years after their deployment that we came to install the weather-proofing, presumably purchased from Western Electric.

The 1/67 ADA included four Nike Ajax/Hercules missile batteries:

"A" Battery was the nearest to home, located in Griesheim (we just said Darmstadt), Germany, only 30 miles away. It was not a really interesting drive. "A" Battery called for very little attention. I'm not sure why. All the batteries had very competent crews who could and did handle 99% of the launcher area maintenance. The 196th was just there to handle what regulations prevented the battery crews from doing.

"B" Battery was altogether different. Bravo was associated with the town of Mainbullau. The ~60 mile trip to Bravo was always an adventure. One took winding roads through the woods and over a mountain. The site was on the top of a mountain (no surprise) which, in good weather was a postcard journey but in deep winter, could be a death-defying challange. You could always count on a breath-catching vista looking out over a deep valley. There was a German grass air strip nearby often with gliders in the air. Occasionally I would look DOWN from my truck to see a glider flying below me up the valley. Magnificent! Bravo's officers (especially Lts. Reiley and Adams) were the easiest officers I ever met in the Army to get along with (except for one full bird colonel - but that's another story), even if the enlisted men stationed there wouldn't agree and many didn't.

"Charley" battery was a hoot. Here the NCO's were the high feature. They didn't hesitate to assist or compliment us Ordnance grunts. It was easy to feel like real people at "C" Battery. It sure didn't help their image when it was discovered that one obsolete Ajax missile they had sent back to the states was uncanned with the warhead still in it. Not armed, but still.... This was the longest drive from home (except for the trip to batallion HQ, about 80 miles), about 75 miles. Located near Hardheim (recent aerial view), I always expected to spend the night when I had to go to Charley. Nice drive, though, over much the same route as to Bravo but further.

"D" Battery was unique. These guys were clever and resourceful. They only called us for things they were, by regulation, not permitted to do, and not always promptly then. I delivered replacement cables to them to correct a communications glitch. To avoid having the battery off-line, the maintenance guys crossed unused conductors in the cable (a no no) to stay operational. There was a USAF base somewhere nearby. Once, while working inside a bunkered section of the launcher area, I heard a high-speed bogie approaching. Then, like an explosion, wham!, this jet flew over just above the bunker and gaining altitude AND UP-SIDE-DOWN!. Unaffected, the site cadre guy simply shrugged and said, "oh, yea, they do that all the time. I think they're pi**ed 'cause somebody reported some pilot's wing number ID for buzzing the site. Now they still buzz us but inverted so we can't copy their ID".

I loved the ~45 mile drive to Delta. From Worms we went south through Heidelberg (past the famous Heidelberg Castle) then wound , again, through the woods but, this time, over and along two rivers, Neckar and Mosel, finally to the town of Dallau. Since this site was so capable and self-reliant, I didn't get to visit there nearly as much as I would have liked.

Any of you 1/67 vets have any additions, corrections or comments, contact Walter Elkins, this site's webmaster.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
One day in the winter 1964/65 I and two other grunts were making a run of some sort to, I believe, B Battery, 1/67 ADA. On the miles long climb up a mountain, we saw a semi truck off to the side of the snow-covered road. The closer we got, the more convinced we became that the driver was having trouble. He was digging with a shovel at his tires. When I got close enough to see that the truck was a Heineken beer truck. I had to pull off to see what's up.

Sure enough, the truck was hung up because of the ice and snow, could not get traction to even get started out onto the road. After learning from the Dutch (from the Neatherlands) driver that, yes, he would accept any help we had to offer (he and I both spoke enough German to get on), we all looked over the situation, pulled around to the front of the semi and hooked up a tow chain from the semi to our deuce-and-a-half, 6X6, M109 shop van. It was my truck but for some reason we selected Rush to drive while (God, I can't recall his name! I'll call him Fred until I remember or am told better) Fred and I shoveled cinders under drive wheels on both trucks. I told Rush that, if he got moving, keep moving. Fred and I would hitch a ride somehow.

Well, I already knew what we would do. Sure enough, the trucks spun then grabbed a bite and slowly lumbered onto the asphalt surface. Fred and I threw our shovels into the cinder box behind the semi tractor and I grabbed a hand hold onto the rear of the trailer while Fred tried to jog along to keep up. I told him it was a long run to the top and he had better grab on.

Let me explain a little here. Back in Worms, all the APC's were gone from the motor pool, off on their winter manouvers. One of our favorite sports was grabbing onto a vehicle's back bumper and skiing just on the soles of our GI boots. Worked great! I still don't see any real danger in it but we cought hell after the honchos saw all the tire and ski tracks in the snow. However, this day, all that goof-off practice paid off.

Fred finally decided that I was right, he would not be able to run the whole way up the mountain, so he tried my way. He did pretty good for about half the distance but, for some reason, he wasn't happy with the arrangement. He saw ahead of us that the road made a long, gentle swing, circling around a small medow-like area. (All under snow, of course. No way to tell how deep the snow or how treacherous the terrain). But he decided to run across that open area and catch up with the cab of, at least, one of the trucks. I tried to discourage him but he wouldn't be talked out of trying it.

Well, he did give it a go. He was soon waist-deep in snow. He, sure he had absolutely no chance to pull off his scheme, wallowed his way BACK his trail, then had to run like mad to catch us up again. The rest of the way up the hill, he alternated between skiing and jogging, all the while, cussing me for my hair-brained idea. I don't know what his problem was. I was having a great time. I could stand and slide or even squat down and slide. It was a piece 'a cake to move to either side of the truck for a new view. I was a pro boot skier.

About that time, I noticed, way behind us, an Army jeep was climbing the hill and closing. For some reason, this panicked Fred. Maybe he thought he he would be run over. "Relax, Fred. We've only got another mile or so. We'll be there in a couple of minutes". The approaching jeep closed slowly, having to negotiate the same conditions we had. It was entertaining to watch it rounding bends, occasionally fishing a little. Eventually, the jeep was right on our 6 and pulling to the left to pass our very slow-moving circus act. It wasn't until the jeep drew nearly along side that I could see that it was a grunt driver driving a captain. Well, what was I to do? I stood up skiing backward while holding on with one hand and whipped him the snappiest salute of my Army life. I didn't know what to expect. Would he interfere right then and hang us up again just when we were so close to the top? Would he wait for us at the top to rip us? It's anticlimatic but he did neither. We reached the top uneventfully and there was no mad captain there to greet us. The Dutchman tried to pay us but we refused his money offer. It was our pleasure to help. He did give us a carton of Heineken for our trouble.

I'm sure, under other circumstances, we could have cought some kind of punishment for our stunt. We didn't. As far as we were concerned, No Harm, No Foul. Just another day in the life of a GI in Germany serving...

USAREUR Units & Kasernes, 1945 - 1989

This Battery was located in Dallau, Germany in 1966-1969.