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Show THE/lWHITE SANDS Volume 21-Number 29 Published in the interest of the personnel of White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico Oct< A perfect score- Four Pershings launched from Utah to New Mexico by LTC Howard W. Young It was four for four for a perfect score when two platoons from the Europe-based U. S. Seventh Army launched a pair apiece of Pershing missiles out of Utah to impact successfully 400 miles away in New Mexico Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 29). The first missile lifted its five tons off its portable pad at 1:20 p.m. and roared gracefully into the cloudless blue sky above the Black Mesa launching area south of Blanding. In seconds, its second-stage propellant had burned out and the projectile was headed for its target in the White Sands Missile Range. The other three missiles followed within two and a half hours. The four successful shots bring to 117 the number of Pershings launched in the seven-year-old off-range program. Ten more are scheduled for launch from the Utah site this fall. The firings were conducted under simulated wartime tactical conditions with the troops using only that equipment available to them in Europe, "If a unit had shortages at the time it left for the States, it cannot make them up back here but has to fire under those same shortage conditions," a briefing officer told Major General Edwin I. Donley, Commanding General of the Missile Command who had flown from his headquarters in Huntsville, Ala., to witness the launchings. Each platoon counted down for all three missiles on their platforms but fired only the first two, according to plan.The missiles had been shipped to Utah from Germany for the tests to help determine the condition and readiness of equipment on line. One of the platoon lieutenants expressed apprehension that the solid-state first-stage propellant was already six years old and no one could be certain what condition it was in, but he needn't have worried as it ignited without mishap. This week's firings marked the first time since August 1967 that four Pershings have been launched in a single day and only the third time that such an operation has been accomplished since the Pershing program was initiated in 1958. It was the second in the fall series of launches. On September 8, units from the 2nd Battalion, 44th Artillery, of Ft. Sill, Okla., launched two Pershings, and German Air Force units will fire Pershings this month. The series, which calls for a total of 16 Pershing shoots, will be concluded in late November. White Sands Missile Range personnel have been providing ground, instrumentation and flight safety support. Elements of the 2d of the 44th of Ft. Sill, encamped on a hilltop near the 1 launching site, have been providing logistical support. |