This comment was left on the Blog and definitely warrants its own post - thanks Steve!
My experience in 3/35 / Peden as I saw it from a War Deployment, General inspection and end of an era.
I was sent to Peden in August 1990, I was there one week and Sadam Invaded Kuwait. Everyone was gung-ho. A few months later 4/27 MLRS was deployed to the Gulf leaving the new space age barracks empty. The Patriot AD battalion left and the post was occupied for about 5 months into Spring 1991 by only 3/35. What a moral killer for 3/35... I recall people getting 4187 forms filled out and hoping to get picked for battle. If I recall, only 4 or 5 were selected, but they were truck driver MOS.
Spring 1991:
At this time we were 7th Corp, LT General Franks visited via chopper out on the FTA area, it was like a President coming to dinner, worst week in many lives, inspections were just made up on the spot, inspect the attic, drains and oxygen, who put the clouds there? You can imagine the ass kissing going on, who has cleanest Battery crap. Comical now, but stupid at the time. We occupied the FTA and Rear-of-the-peace face away from the piece fall in... The General walked the old ass 8" gun line, talking to some, avoiding others. I swear I thought I saw him roll his eyes at our gun. The best part, the General stayed 45 minutes... Never leaving the FTA. We deploy for 3 weeks, came back for 2, clean everything, then redeploy for another 3 weeks non-stop for about 4 months.Around summer 1991 we changed from 8" to M109 A1 and became 3ID (3rd Infantry Division) sew all new patches on everything. Command inspections, memorize your new chain of command etc... It was a welcome change.. trust me.... those 548's could not be anymore destroyed over the years. We went to Graf, Wildchicken and Hohenfels with the new guns.
In December / January, my memory is a little foggy, we heard rumor we are on the chopping blocks. LTC James B Godwin Jr, Battalion Commander, held a special meeting with 3/35 in the theater stating "we are not going anywhere". Funny thing is, I was placed in S4 as the Battalion Budget Clerk for previous 5 months, I knew we are going away, as supply requests were being denied, hush hush stuff. So, February 1992 the news came and assignments were given out at last call every evening for about 2 weeks. My name was not called until March 15th, there was about 10 3/35 left, two privates (one was me), one cook, two NCO, two Officers and one Medic. Many of 3/35 were sent to Ft. Stewart, Ft. Sill and Ft. Leavenworth. One new Private of 3 months was actually sent to Hawaii...
During all this, the buildings were stripped of wall lockers, beds. Tossing things out of windows onto front areas, back areas. It was like Ghost Adventures and the empty rooms, desks sitting in hallways, trash on the floors. I remember driving to Patton Barracks to deliver our Arms vividly as a convoy of 3 HEMMT and 10 MP escorts. What a site on the Autobahn...All Howitzers, 577, trucks, you name it.. were cleaned like new babies, lined up where 4/27 motor pool was. Then rail headed out to some little town next to France. It was a site... thousands of vehicles, Tanks, Artillery, HUMMV were just sitting in rows as far as you could see
Steve Kielinen C 3/35, SVC 3/35 1990-1992
My experience in 3/35 / Peden as I saw it from a War Deployment, General inspection and end of an era.
I was sent to Peden in August 1990, I was there one week and Sadam Invaded Kuwait. Everyone was gung-ho. A few months later 4/27 MLRS was deployed to the Gulf leaving the new space age barracks empty. The Patriot AD battalion left and the post was occupied for about 5 months into Spring 1991 by only 3/35. What a moral killer for 3/35... I recall people getting 4187 forms filled out and hoping to get picked for battle. If I recall, only 4 or 5 were selected, but they were truck driver MOS.
Spring 1991:
At this time we were 7th Corp, LT General Franks visited via chopper out on the FTA area, it was like a President coming to dinner, worst week in many lives, inspections were just made up on the spot, inspect the attic, drains and oxygen, who put the clouds there? You can imagine the ass kissing going on, who has cleanest Battery crap. Comical now, but stupid at the time. We occupied the FTA and Rear-of-the-peace face away from the piece fall in... The General walked the old ass 8" gun line, talking to some, avoiding others. I swear I thought I saw him roll his eyes at our gun. The best part, the General stayed 45 minutes... Never leaving the FTA. We deploy for 3 weeks, came back for 2, clean everything, then redeploy for another 3 weeks non-stop for about 4 months.Around summer 1991 we changed from 8" to M109 A1 and became 3ID (3rd Infantry Division) sew all new patches on everything. Command inspections, memorize your new chain of command etc... It was a welcome change.. trust me.... those 548's could not be anymore destroyed over the years. We went to Graf, Wildchicken and Hohenfels with the new guns.
In December / January, my memory is a little foggy, we heard rumor we are on the chopping blocks. LTC James B Godwin Jr, Battalion Commander, held a special meeting with 3/35 in the theater stating "we are not going anywhere". Funny thing is, I was placed in S4 as the Battalion Budget Clerk for previous 5 months, I knew we are going away, as supply requests were being denied, hush hush stuff. So, February 1992 the news came and assignments were given out at last call every evening for about 2 weeks. My name was not called until March 15th, there was about 10 3/35 left, two privates (one was me), one cook, two NCO, two Officers and one Medic. Many of 3/35 were sent to Ft. Stewart, Ft. Sill and Ft. Leavenworth. One new Private of 3 months was actually sent to Hawaii...
During all this, the buildings were stripped of wall lockers, beds. Tossing things out of windows onto front areas, back areas. It was like Ghost Adventures and the empty rooms, desks sitting in hallways, trash on the floors. I remember driving to Patton Barracks to deliver our Arms vividly as a convoy of 3 HEMMT and 10 MP escorts. What a site on the Autobahn...All Howitzers, 577, trucks, you name it.. were cleaned like new babies, lined up where 4/27 motor pool was. Then rail headed out to some little town next to France. It was a site... thousands of vehicles, Tanks, Artillery, HUMMV were just sitting in rows as far as you could see
Steve Kielinen C 3/35, SVC 3/35 1990-1992
4 comments:
Great inside story, very interesting, thank you.
Great inside story, very interesting, thank you.
I was at Peden, C 335, from 1989, to 1991. Not sure how you got so lucky, but 8th Sec. 155 was a bigger POS than the 8". They were, actually, replaced more in the Fall of 1990, because I left (ETS)in the summer of 1991. My last field problem was in April or May of 1991. We missed, almost, the entire field problem, because our gun kept breaking down. It was great! At one point, a guy in our section disconnected the battery cable. Anyway, I brought the love of my life home, got married, and have been for more than 20 yrs. now. Other than the great people I met, the only good thing to come from the experience.
I was stationed at Peden 1987-89 .... in Charlie Battery, 3/35, Fourth Gun Section .... we spent about 3-4 months a year in the field, mostly in Graf ..... I recall I had put in a flight reservation for Christmas leave in 1988 .... leave was denied - good thing: flight was Pan Am 103 .... I remeber leaving (PCS to Ft. Sill) just as the Czechs were cutting the fences and walking west .... the wall came down before I finished my leave and reported to Ft. Sill ....
I deployed to Saudi from Ft. Sill with C-5/18FA (M110a2 8inch) in September 1990 ... the extensive crew drills and high maintenance routines done at C-3/35 paid off for me in the sandbox......
I PCSed from Sill to Ayers Kaserne in 1992 ..... while there, I turned in a couple of HMMTTs at a depot (I forget where- near Landsthul, IIRC) .... there I saw C-Battery's M110's rusting away in a boneyard ..... I was saddened, considering how many hours I had worked to keep that ancient machine running and shooting straight.....
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