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Show Beautiful territory' 16, 1970 Black Mesa: it's wind, cfusf, mountains and missiles BLACK MESA INTERSECTION-Street signs at an intersection near battaUon headquarters at Black Mesa, Utah. One of the metal buildings is in the left background. The camp is occupied by the Ft. Sill, Okla., unit that supports off-range Pershing missile firings - 2nd Battalion, 44th Artillery, 9th Field Artillery (Missile) Group. (U. S. ARMY PHOTO) (Editor's note; The following article is reprinted from a recent issue of The Cannoneer, post newspaper of Ft. Sill, Okla.) . SP5 Harry Anderson BLACK MESA MISSILE SITE, Utah - There is a sandy orange dust carried along by the constant wind that blows at Black Mesa, Utah. It settles on everything: men and equipment, corrugated tin huts, scrub cedar trees and tumbleweed. The dust gives the whole area an ash-rose hue that, together with an expanse of clear blue sky and snow-topped Colorado mountains in the hazy distance, makes the mesa look like a landscape painting by Frederic Remington. Black Mesa is the Army's Pershing missile test-fire site. Nearly 200 men from Ft. Sill's 2nd Battalion, 44th Artillery -the only Pershing battalion in the continental United States - are running the support facility at Black Mesa. They provide maintenance and all other support necessary for firing exercises of the giant Pershings by firing batteries of the 2nd-44th and other U. S. Army Pershing battalions stationed in Europe, as well as the Air Force of the Federal Republic of Germany. The 2nd-44th has nearly a dozen Pershing firings yet to support at Black Mesa this fall before it returns to Ft. SOI this December. When the site is prepared for a shoot, an excitement starts to build. Eyes are concentrated on the launch site, located on the sharp bluff of the mesa. When the countdown nears blastoff, the huge missile is set upright on its trailer. Men of the firing batteries take cover in huge nearb;, bunkers behind the missiles. Five ... four ... three ... two . . . one. The Army's largest tactical guided missile lifts off a thick asbestos pad with a blast of blinding white light, leaving behind it a vapor trail high into the sky, then arcing southward toward its target area in the Army's White Sands, N. M., Missile Range. Moments later, the sound of the missile's roar reaches the observation area, nearly a half-mile away. Each Pershing fired at Black Mesa is the culmination 'of a mountain of work and requires the use of some of the Army's most complex electronic and computer equipment. To the men of the 2nd-44th who run the support facility at Black Mesa, though, it's a lonesome place to be stationed. The nearest town is Blanding, Utah (population: 1,800), which is 18 miles away. What makes Black Mesa ideal for Pershing firing is its geographical location. It 'lies almost 400 miles north of the White Sands Missile Range. (The range of a Pershing missile is 400 miles.) Most of the time Black Mesa, (Continued on Page 3) |
