of 2
8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Aug 1983)
1/2
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)
2/2
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