Proverbially Keeping Watch On The Rhine 1962 - 1981

A tongue-in-cheek trip sixty years or so back in time to revisit some Matador missile units then on the front line of NATO deterrence. I was motivated to write the following after rediscovering in my files the copy of a faded, handwritten tale passed on to me a long time ago, I took the liberty to sanitize the language and do a great deal of rewriting and embellishment for presentation here. I must assume the originator of the tale was a disaffected Matador Missileer whose name is unknown. In it he described his view of the watch on the Rhine in less than glowing terms. ————————— Southwest West Germany 1958 I turned off the state road in the Southwest region of West Germany and onto an unmarked, cow-dung spattered, well-worn path through a farmer’s turnip patch and soon was halted by a US Air Force security policeman when he stepped into view from behind his guard post. With a friendly “Hello” he waved me on through the checkpoint. I noticed his unleashed sentr...

887th Tactical Missile Squadron Grünstadt, Pfalz, Germany   1964 About a  half hour before the  start of our 14 hour MGM13-A RFML night shift,  the crew would assemble, usually at the launch site dining-hall, located outside the site's  cantonment area.   After an informal inspection we would take the walk from the dining-hall to  our  assigned launch control center for the upcoming shift. Our path to work would take us through the  main gate and into the administration and barracks area.  Further on passing the POL pad and maintenance area and to the first of the two controlled, personnel entry gates.  After entry into the secure, live launch area we would show our proof of personal identity to the security policeman on duty, and he would issue us our personal launch center identification tags.      After gaining entry into our assigned launch control center...