European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 26, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday. July 26, 1966 the stars and stripes Page 3 so reliable Pershing ii upheld Fine reputation a peril Ling ii missile ascends flawlessly tuesday at Cape canaveral. By Clint Swift Washington Bureau Cape canaveral. Fla with three show that thundered 200 Miles High and arced smoothly into the Sun he army showed that ils  of the nation s interned Laic Range missile Force is in fighting trim. Tuesday s firings were the first time the army has taken perching ii missiles from their Sites in Germany and returned them to the United slates for test firing. The liftoff were he Fini successful ones from Cape canaveral since the Jan. 12 shuttle launch an air Force official said. They followed a Trici of failed . Launch attempts that started even before the Jan. 28 explosion of the shuttle challenger. The successful launching of the first missiles taken offline in Europe was special but not surprising to Brig. Gen. Raymond Haddock commander of the56th Field arty come Pershin Schwa Ebisch Gnu and Germany. The Pershing is so reliable no Mailer what phase of production or operation you pull in out of it s going to work he said. You be just got to feel Good about a system that has performed the Way this one  Twenty six of 31 Pershing firings including the last dozen in a Row have met their test objectives said Dave Harris a spokesman for the army missile come. He said these firings were to lest he effective Ness of the missiles and their Crews. The missiles were fired without warheads just As hey came from German 1, Harris said. The Only addition were a transmitter to Send Back flight data and an explosive charge in Case the missile went off course. The first missile went off at 956 . After a delay of More than an hour while a Fleet of Scallop Harves ters and pleasure Craft were cleared from the Atlantic Ocean test Range. Harris said that 01ham trial operational tests arc not announced until launch Day and thai the boats apparently left port canaveral before the notice to mariners was posted. The second and third missiles were tired Ai about 40-Minulc intervals. From a Hillside about a mile from the round cinder Block enclosure that housed launch control the per Shing ii was a thin Black Silhouette that Rose from ils horizontal tractor trailer bed 30 seconds before the countdown reached Zero. Five seconds past Zero a Ball of yellow and Orange flame pushed a Cloud of Black smoke out from under the Tail and the rocket began ils slow climb. It was five More seconds before the Roar reached the Hillside an drowned out the conversations of observers. The watchers included More than two dozen news Media representative who said they came largely so their organizations would have a Story in Case the less turned into another failure. The failures began in september with the loss of Titan 34dat Vandnberg fab Calif. On Jan. 28 came the explosion of the challenger that killed seven Crew members. In april a second Titan exploded on the launch pad at Vandenburg and a Nike Orion was destroyed at White Sands missile Range in new  most recent failure occurred at Cape canaveral May 3 when a Delta rocket carrying a weather satellite was destroyed 71 seconds into flight Haddock said that in lie tests tuesday indicator showed hat the two stages of each Pershing appeared to fire perfectly. He said computer feedback from the 11-minute flights would have to be examined before officials would know How close he nose Cones came to the target 1,000 Miles away. Launch colled Earth moving experience Cape canaveral Fla. When the Earth moved tuesday for army spec. 4 George Swepson. He was behind a Wall of cinder blocks 50 feet from six tons of burning solid rocket fuel pushing a Ihrcke Story High perching it Battlefield missile into the sky. Outside the Roar of the engines was a Wall of sound and even inside the cinder lock enclosure where he troops took cover he ground Shook. A was an Earth moving experience everybody sch it the 22-year-old sol Dier from Rocky Hill conn., said. Spec. 4 Wade Keeler could t keep the smile from creeping across his face. It s the ultimate in being a Pershing Crew member to actually be Awe to Fly  the 23-year-old from Las vegas said. Keeler s Job was to work the computer on the Side of the launcher. In made him one of the last two men to head for Cove before the key was turned to ignite the rocket motors. Swepson and Kucler were two of about so soldiers of Btry a 1st in 9th Field arty in Neu Ulm Germany at Cape canaveral for periodic operational lest fir Ings of a portion of nato s intermediate Range nuclear Force. Swepson said hell go Back to his Job More motivated and expects to be grilled about the shot by the Crews that stayed behind. There s always a question deep in the Back of your mind he said. We detested it and tested it but will it realty work hell testify that in does. After the firings except for some singed grass charred steel grates and Black deposits on the erector Bunche is there was lit tic evidence of the blasts. Brig. Gen. Raymond Haddock com Mander of the 56th Field arty come Pershing called the Pershing ii a clean system. Even the tractor trailer big rubber wheels Are designed to mini Mize damage he said. Haddock who has Headquarters in Schwabish Gemuend Germany said the protests against the missiles have largely died Down. In Spile of the political opposition the soldiers have worked with a smile on their face and gotten the Job done he said. They be just proved they can come Back to the . On a moment s notice and  the Crews who had parked their launchers on he grass near an old Titan missile launch Complex worked on their equipment just As they do on tactical Sites in Germany a spokesman for he army missile command said. They gadabout five minutes notice to launch. The Crews had packed their unarmed missiles launchers and support equip ment and flown to the United states at the direction of the Pershing operational test unit of . Army in Europe As a result Swepson Keeler and the others had 17 Days at a Florida hotel but the lure of the Beach paled beside the excite ment of the launch. Very few people actually get to be there when a missile goes Keeler  s a great Honor to take that missile that s been a pan of your unit for 10 Long and find out whether Shell really  what did he Crews least Keeler could t think of what to say but his White Toothy Grin spread from ear to ear As he slowly looked skyward. Clint Swift missile deployment aided both defense nato Cape canaveral. Fla. In november the last of the 20-year-old Pershing la missile launchers in Germany were replaced with those for the Pershing its which can Fly twice As far and Are 10 limes As accurate. The four year 11.6 billion Pershing ii deployment program put 108 operational launchers for the new missiles in Germany. The first of the missiles were put in place in Decem Ber 1983 As part of a two track nato policy. Under that policy he Pershing were to go on line unless the threat posed by their soviet counterparts the is ios was reduced. The missiles went in despite More than a year of demonstrations by opponents of the policy especially in Germany and the deployment is now hailed by nato s supporters As symbolic of a new resolve among political leaders of Alliance nations. The deployment was marred Only in january 1985, when three . Soldiers bumped to death at a missile site near Heilbronn Germany while unloading missile parts from a shipping Container. An army investigation found a solid fuel rocket motor was started by Static electricity. Deployment was halted until the missiles and their transporters were modified. According to congressional testimony the 56th Field arty come has 36 launchers for the single War head nuclear tipped missiles at Mut Langen Heilbronn and Neu Ulm in South Vern Germany. There is a battalion near each of the German cities and a fourth at fort Silt okla. Each battalion has four batteries and each Battery in Germany has. Nine launchers and 13 missiles German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has refused to permit reloads for each of the 108 launchers to be locked in Germany. The $2.5 million Pershing ii stands 35 feet High is about 40 inches wide and weighs eight tons. It is a Mobile two stage solid fuel rocket that is erected and fired from its transporter which is much like a flatbed tractor trailer truck. The army test fires about 15 Pershing a year. The typical trajectory takes the missile 200 Miles High and 1,000 Miles Down Range an army missile come spokesman said. While the army and the prime contractor Martin Marietta aerospace in Orlando Call it a tactical mis Sile the soviets regard it As a strategic weapon because it could reach soviet soil from Germany in less than is minutes. The missile s accuracy comes from radar in the nose that compares the image it receives from the ground with a restored image in a computer memory and nukes adjustments until they coincide. They re 10 limes As accurate As he Pershing is and that Means the warhead can be smaller said Robert Reid a spokesman for Martin Marietta. The nato intermediate Range nuclear Force also includes cruise missiles. Nato plans to deploy 464 cruise missiles by 1988 unless an agreement to limit them is reached at the Geneva Switzerland arms control talks. Thirty Law cruise missile launchers each capable of firing four missiles have been stationed at Greenham com Mon England Comiso Sicily and Florenne Bel Gium. If the missiles Are fully deployed Britain would have 160, Italy 112 and Belgium and he Netherlands 48 each. The soviets have 441 of the triple warhead is los nato figures show that 270 of those Are aimed at european targets and 171 at Asia. Clint Swift