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"I was running the 50 CES/Det-1 Structures Shop
(a fancy way of
saying combined carpenter/mason/sheet metal/paint shop) at Wüscheim Air
Station. Wüscheim AS was about a dozen miles away from Hahn Air Base,
near the town of Kastellaun. The 38th Tactical Missile Wing was the host
unit there. The wing commander had found out that there was a Matador
missile static display at a place called Rittersdorf and wanted our civil
engineering detachment to move it to Wüscheim."
"This missile was mounted on a pedestal in a lonely place that was totally
obscured by trees and brush. The missile was really filthy, with streaks
of years of grime and flaking paint. I suppose at one time it had been in a place of honor
at one time,"
[webmaster note: see the web page at
http://www.mace-b.com/38TMW/Bitburg/Oberweis.htm.]" but now no one could see it, much less care about it. There were some
U.S. Army troops using some really decrepit buildings nearby, "[the former 587th MMS
Munitions Area]" but they didn't even know it existed.
We cleared enough of a path to get a crane close enough to lift the missile
off the old pedestal. First though, the
bolts holding the missile onto the pedestal had to be removed. This
required that I had to remove a panel and crawl inside. It was a little bit
eerie crawling inside this thing that had been sealed up for who knows how
long, but I got over it once I had to do battle with the old, rusty
hardware. It was quite a job to get enough leverage to work the wrench
inside the confined space of the fuselage, but I finally managed it."
"Once the missile was loose, it had to be broken down to be
transported on the German roads. This required that the wings and rudder to
be separated from the fuselage. Then the fuselage was lifted by the crane
onto a 40 foot flatbed trailer into a wooden cradle we had built to secure
it, so the fuselage wouldn't be damaged while transporting it. Then it was
covered with a canvas tarpaulin and secured with tie-down straps. Oh boy!
What a sight that was! The Matador had looked like an aircraft, however,
without its wings and rudder, underneath a tarpaulin, its appearance was
really transformed. It now looked to all the world that we now had a
ballistic missile instead of a Matador. I'm sure that's what anyone
thought that saw it being transported that day."
"Well, we made it back to Wüscheim
without any serious problems and
then the missile maintenance troops took over. They did a really excellent
job in refurbishing the old missile. Corroded parts were replaced, dents
straightened, surfaces repainted. The wing had a new missile! A new
pedestal was constructed and it was mounted near the entrance of the GAMA
(G.L.C.M. Alert and Maintenance Area). It was good to see the old Matador
had been rescued from obscurity and put back in a place of honor as one of
the original ancestors of U.S. cruise missiles."
"I hope its still in good shape, Wüscheim AS reverted back to
German control after the G.L.C.M. weapon system was negotiated away under
the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. The rest of the nearby USAF
personnel left when Hahn AB closed shortly after, under the Conventional
Forces Europe (CFE) treaty. If anyone ever gets out there, it'd be nice if
they could check up on it, maybe get a photo even."
S/SGT MAX QUITIQUIT - HAHN 1987-91 (max.quitiquit@usaf.org)
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