European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 2 the stars and stripes ready for the attack after dark by Floyd Harrington Kaiserslautern Bureau chief Kaiserslautern is in Case the enemy should be so inconsiderate As to attack at night the 8th combat equipment co wants to be ready. The St s Job is to maintain and Issue equipment pre positioned at Rhein Ord Nance Barracks for . Troops which would Fly Here in wartime. It was one of three such units which took advantage of annual fall nato exercises to test their ability to Issue equipment after dark. Nato had never practice a night Issue said maj. James w. Clark commander of the 8th. Taking part in the test was an Advance party of about 150 soldiers from the 4th ,12th cavalry from fort Polk la. Their task was to haul 167 of the unit s vehicles out of storage and move them to an Assem Bly area. Ninth Maneule Sclark said it would be his unit s ninth fall Maneu vers equipment Issue and that he expected the Issue to go smoothly. The Only special problem associated with a night Issue is safety he said adding that he expected the Issue to be finished in six carrying the Advance party arrived shortly before 8 . Clark and two of his officers briefed the arrivals on their roles. The Issue started at 8 11 ., and the first jeep was pulled out of the warehouse eight minutes later. As soon As the a Mored personnel carriers trucks and Sheridan armoured reconnaissance vehicles were towed out they were moved to a nearby staging area ablaze with portable lights. Stacks of batteries disappeared As sol Diers like spec. 4 Steve Kelly of a troop hauled them away to their vehicles. The Antioch calif., Soldier said his unit prac tired for the exercises at fort Polk but everything went Down the Drain had rehearsed he said he had rehearsed with the vehicle he normally drives an armoured personnel Carrier. The vehicle he had been told to drive and install the Battery in Wasan All terrain truck. That s no problem though he said. Ican do it and tomorrow i get my m-577 spec. 4 Lloyd mingle of Cleveland Ohio and pfc. Alonso Jones from Vicksburg miss., filled 5-gallon cans with fuel. As fast As the cans were filled troopers hauled them to waiting vehicles. As soon As a vehicle was running properly it moved out to pick up additional sup plies. Some picked up communication equipment and weapons while others headed for a drive through warehouse to Load tents and stoves. Maj. Glen Decoteau Squadron executive officer said he expected a Little confusion initially All the Guys have got be been prepped for this for quite some time and they re really Gung it did t take Long for the butterflies to work themselves out. In five hours the Squadron was equipped and waiting at the Assembly Point half a mile away. W. Berlin checking a Bahn Berlin a uniformed West Ber Lin police have begun making checks of arriving passengers in stations of the City communist run transit system their first since the postwar division of the City. The irregular checks Are part of a new Allied policy aimed at drug smuggling Anda growing wave of illegal immigrants from Pakistan India and the Middle Berlin has its own bus and subway system but the a Bahn surface rail system is run from East Berlin As Are All the City s Railroad services. Tuesday september 12, 1978 gis wait to move out their vehicles from a us warehouse at Rhein ordnance Barracks. Related photos on facing Page pre pos of on no for Maneu vers gis find the Stock answer Story photo by Floyd Harrington Kaiserslautern Bureau chief Kaiserslautern is help yourself was the invitation this year As Man Euver bound american troops Drew weapons and supplies from pre positioned stocks faster than Ever a combat equip ment group officer says. Although 33,000 tons of military equip ment were brought to Europe by ship the bulk of the hardware to be used in annual autumn forge exercises was issued to 49 reformer units from combat equipment group stocks in of the equipment including 14,000 wheeled and tracked vehicles enough to outfit three army divisions is stored in 83 controlled humidity warehouses and 46 conventional key to removing it quickly for annual fall nato exercises was self help said it. Col. Howard l. Hicks com Mander of combat equipment group Europe s battalion West. Advance parties from the participating units came in and with our cadre provid ing guides and supervision pulled their equipment out and got it ready to go to their initial unit Assembly areas Hicks said. Battalion West s stocks Are at Idar Oberstein Kaiserslautern Miessau and Pir Masens. Battalion East has Sites a Mannheim Sermersheim and Karlsruhe. Nearly All tracked and wheeled vehicles m-60 tanks to jeeps Are stored in the warehouses without batteries or fuel. Sev eral new methods were tried to Cut the time needed to make them combat ready. Hicks said the 5th combat equipment co at Pir Masens put pieces of paper on one unit s vehicles to make their equipment easier to find. The paper contained a Dia Gram showing the Correct Way to Hook up the Battery. That May sound a Little Basic but on of the problems in past reformers was that Many of the troops did t know How to in stall batteries properly Hicks said. In the past a unit activated its own Bat teries by filling them with electrolyte. Sometimes they had to wait up to an hour for a charge to build up before starting their year the unit s Advance Liaison party activated a Bank of batteries before the Advance party arrived. When the and Vance party Drew the batteries they activated batteries for the next hundreds of tracked and wheeled vehicles presents problems which Are still being worked on Hicks said. The most widely used method is to Pushor pull vehicles out of the warehouse. Enough gasoline or diesel fuel is then Putin to move the vehicle to a fueling Point. Normally we Don t store fuel in the warehouses Hicks said. But last year some of the diesel burning vehicles were put Back in storage with a Quarter tank of fuel and the batteries left in but not hooked those vehicles were moved out of the warehouse much quicker than others. The safety personnel do not agree with that policy. If the army would com Promise or determine that the safety considerations Are not that significant for diesel fuel Only not gasoline it would offer us a great advantage in issuing our equipment More rapidly. In my opinion we Tempelhof has open House this weekend Berlin the 1978 Tempelhof Central Airport open House scheduled for saturday and sunday will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. A number of . Aircraft will be on Dis play along with some British and French aircraft according to it. Col. Francis , open House project officer. Entertainment for the two Day affair that last year Drew 550,000, will include bands Berlin police trampoline motorcycle and karate groups a Folk guitarist and the Berlin dancing bears Square dance group. The open House will be from 10 . To 5p.m. Both Days. Might get nearly a 25-percent savings Intima Hicks said. After the vehicles were running the were inspected to make sure lights and brakes worked. Then they moved on to Load communications gear generators an Crew served weapons. For the first time live ammunition was \ loaded at the us repositioning of materials configured to unit sets site in Pir Masens. A Usa eur spokesman said four company sized units received their Basic Load of ammunition in an Effort to better evaluate readiness. Company size units were in and out of
