July-August - Air Defense Artillery

Editor's Visit To The AAA t
GM Center
YOUR editor had the good fortune
to attend the Senior Officer Guided l\1issile
Indoctrination Course at the Antiaircraft
and Guided Missiles School 6-8
June. It was truly a superb course.
\Vith tIle idea of getting a rather complete
indoctrination and also of spreading
some, too, as to the purpose and
merit of your ANTIAIRCRAFT JOURNAL,
I arrived on Sunday well before the
course started. Bear with me for a rambling
report.
Colonel Robert H. Krueger, Coordinator
of Instruction in the School, met
me and escorted me to the comfortable
guest quarters on Fifth Avenue. Soon
we moved on to the Kruegers' attractive
quarters on Sheridan Road where Jean
led us promptly out on the lawn to enjoy
the twilight desert breeze. There
we were joined by Brigadier General
and l\1rs. Jesse D. Balmer, Colonel and
l\1rs. George Van Studdiford, Colonel
and Mrs. Wm. A. Weddell, and a few
more before we moved on to the buffet
supper and dance at the Fort Bliss Officers'
Club. There it was like old home
week. Suffice it to say that the Club is
just as attractive as reported. Some may
be interested to hear that the dance
Hoor has been enlarged to accommodate
the popular attendance at the Saturday
and Sunday evening dances.
On Monday morning I learned early
that Fort Bliss is a busy place. Before
seven o'clock my sound sleep was interrupted
by the activity in the radar, vehicle
and gun parks nearby.
;\lajor General John T. Lewis received
me early and took time to orient me on
the main features of the AAA and GM
Center. As you know, General Lewis
is also Commandant of the School and
President of AFF Board 1'\0. 4. I was
interested to note, in view of his broad
experience in Army school work, that
he had simply turned over the active
direction of the School to General Balmer,
the Assistant Commandant. l\lore
of that later. Likewise Colonel Charles
E. Shepherd handles the Board activities.
JULY-AUGUST, 1951
The AAA and Gl\l Center is nul.\' a
big league affair. They have long boasted
of the huge reservation; whether you
call it 5,000 square miles, or three million
acres, it is still twice the size of the
state of Delaware, and as actually shaped
it makes a splendid proving ground and
firing center. They now speak also of
their dozens of battalions, their thousands
of students and trainees. EA'})ansion
is no longer an experiment at Fort
Bliss. They have a system.
With all that, they take their greatest
pride in the battle accomplishments of
those AAA battalions in Korea that were
originally trained at Fort Bliss.
Back to the system and the machine
in the AAA and GM Center. Colonel
Cyrus Q. Shelton, the Chief of Staff,
and his staff keep it oiled for coordination.
Among the new members since our
last report, Colonel Robert A. Turner
has joined as G3. Of particular interest
to us, Major L. B. Wantuck is the aggressive
PIO who provides us with news
items and photographs of Fort Bliss activities.
Brig. General Frederick L. Hayden
was activating the 38th AAA Brigade to
take over command of the AAA combat
units. Col. W. Bruce Logan commands
the lIth AAA Group; Col. Fred
J. Woods, the 16th; and Col. John A.
Sides, the 226th. All of these groups
have been through the mill in activating
and training battalions and operations
detachments.
The extent of activity in the AAA
RTC led us to ask for the article which
appears elsewhere in this issue.
Another activity of interest is that of
the 1st Guided 'Missile Group under
Colonel Thomas C. Foreman. The
Group has now advanced to practical
and impressive training operations. We
are promised an article on its activity
next issue.
The activities at Fort Bliss attract the
attention of many distinguished military
visitors from our own Armed Forces and
abroad. During my visit Major General
E. C. V. Moller, Chief of Staff, Danish
Army. accompanied by three other Danish
officers and the Danish Military attache
in Washington, paid a visit to
study the operations at the Center. On
l\londay evening General and Mrs.
Lewis gave a delightful dinner party at
the Club in honor of General Mollet
and his party.
On Wednesday morning at 0725 the
class assembled for business. It included
Maj. Generals David L. Ruffner and
Bruce C. Clark, armored division commanders;
Brig. Generals John A. Dabney.
Camp Gordon commander; F. L.
Hayden, 38th AAA Brigade; Guy O.
Kurtz, 28th Divarty; Thomas E. Lewis,
VI Corps Arty; and Harry P. Newton,
Retired.
The total class of sixty included a
number of senior General Staff officers
from Washington and representatives
from the Engineer, Ordnance, Signal
and Chemical Corps, and the Air Force.
Among the AAA stalwarts there were
Colonels A. T. Bowers, Wm. A Cauthen,
Lee J. Davis, Vernum C. Stevens,
and Wm. A. Weddell.
Brig. General Jesse D. Balmer. Assistant
Commandant, and Lt. Col. F.
M. McGoldrick, Director of the Guided
Missiles Department, oriented us brieRy
and turned us over to the instructors.
Soon we were in the Power Plant Lab
where Lt. Col. M. B. Dodson broke the
news to us about propulsion systems, subsonic
and supersonic speeds, and gave
us some instructive demonstrations.
After a break l\1ajors J. H. Crowe
and L. L. Stahl conducted another interesting
period in guidance systems. Beginning
easily with attitude and path
control. they moved rapidly to mechanics
and electronics-to ya\\', pitch, and roll.
Fortunately, they did not take us far
out into space where fins and rudders
count for naught.
Continuing in the afternoon Lt. Col.
J. G. Sweek of the AFF Board ~o. 4
presented the status of development of
AAA Capt. F. C. Kajencki did the same
for surface-to-air missiles (SAM). Then
Lt. Comdr. Brooks covered the tactical
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