Site III - Grünstadt
887th Tactical Missile Squadron
Meeting the past and the future
A German carpenter walks toward the main gate with his wooden tool box while TM-76A Mace missiles of the 887th Tactical Missile Squadron stand on alert duty, sometime in 1963. The switch from the 822nd to the 887th has been completed but the shelters have not yet been erected.
Photo courtesy of Phillip Thomas (pthomas214@cfl.rr.com)
MGM-13A (TM-76A) Mace Missiles of the 887th Tactical Missile Squadron on alert in the Grünstadt Launch Shelters - 1965
Photo courtesy of Paul Holmberg, TAC Missile Association
The Ever Vigilant Guardians - Defenders Without A Mission
After the Air Force left... The Grünstadt Launch Shelters - 1981
Photos courtesy of Bob Lippincott (boblippincott@aol.com)
After the RFML (Rapid Fire Multiple Launch) concept was implemented, but before the
shelters were erected
Grünstadt, 1964, the 887 TMS soon
after the shelters were erected. Notice
there are no missiles in the shelters yet.
Thanks to Ron "Ski" Wiatrowski, launch crew weapons
mechanic, for the USAFE aerial photo of the 887th!
Ready for Duty...
A1C Bob Bolton, 887th TMS, with a MGM-13A (TM-76A) Mace with at Grünstadt, summer of 1965
MM-1 Teracruzer with Guidance Unit
MM-1 Photograph courtesy of Bob
Bolton (olliesnapper@gmail.com)
Air Policemen A2C Mariner and A1C JW Cook at the mate gate of "C"
Flight, summer of 1961.
Photo courtesy of John Cook (Cookieman1@cox.net)
Taken while still 882nd, Combat Site III, AKA C flight. Winter 1961
Drinking German Beer results in strange visions....
Over a couple of years that snow bunny morphed into the unofficial 887th squadron emblem. Beer induced or not it, the 887th bunny banner reappeared 38 years later at the Denver reunion when Ed Johnson surprised the Grünstadt gang when he unfurled it for all to see once again.
Just thought you might enjoy seeing these photos.
Bob
Bob Bolton and the Bunny in 1964. Photos from Bob Bolton (olliesnapper@gmail.com)
Phillip Thomas wrote:
"I was reviewing some of my Gruenstadt data and have a few picture and newspaper articles you may be interested in...
The Tac Eval Medical Situations presented to me by Tac Eval Team. At Grunstadt,[Only two survive and are as follows]
Problem # 3 - All QRA missiles have been launched. Your Mechanic No. 2 falls from the MM-1 truck while going to shut it down. He has a compound fracture of the left leg and is unconscious.[PREFACE ALL REPORTS WITH THE WORD SIMULATED]
Problem #6 - All QRA Missiles were launched. The site has been strafed and the Admin. Bldg & AGE Bldg are on fire. There are six, casualties, 2 major chest wounds, 2 minor arm wounds, and the Site Commander and Operations Officer are dead. [PREFACE ALL REPORTS WITH THE WORD SIMULATED]
I believe Problem #6 is the event where I had to declare SSgt Herbert A Simmons service # 13599877 [DOA]. If the old boy is still kicking tell him I am sorry about having to declare him dead on that day.
I still have the AF Form 38 Emergency Treatment tag I put on him that day. Some time in the early 60's.
Those were exciting times."
Phillip Thomas
Medical Tech
C Flight [Grunstadt] (pthomas214@cfl.rr.com)
Photo above taken some time after the change over from the 822nd to the 887th so at least after September 1962.
Bob Bolton's 1964 VW 1500S Variant, about 1/2 mile out side the Grunstadt gate on the access road.
The Grünstadt Gate, October 2002.
Photo also taken by Bob Bolton on vacation in 2002
Bob Bolton - (olliesnapper@gmail.com)
Just A Further Note or Two on the G'stadt Site...
The small concrete pad to the rear of the site was an old Air Force Security Service (6910th AFSS) site.
A brief summary of Army activity at Grunstadt (or, as we more often referred to it - Neuleiningen) is as follows:
1975 - 1978 The site was set up and used by Det B, 502nd Army Security Agency (ASA) Bn for the Guardrail I, II, and IIa Integrated Processing Facility (IPF) site. The unit was redesignated as the 330th Electronic Warfare Aviation Company (Forward) (330th EW Avn Co (FWD)), and resubordinated to the 2nd Military Intelligence Battalion (Aerial Exploitation) in 1978.
The whole unit was not located at G'stadt - The company Hq was in Kaiserslautern's (K-town) Kleber Kaserne, and the flightline (initially with RU-21D/RU-21H, later with RC-12D sircraft) was located at Ramstein AB. Only 13 - 15 people actually lived at the site (Ops Site, as we called it). Our Air Force "sister unit" personnel came from the 6918th AIr Force Security Squadron (AFSS) - later Electronic Security Squadron (ESS) at Sembach AB. During this time, the Mess Hall building burned, leaving only the concrete pad after all debris was removed.
1979 - 1985 The site was upgraded to the Guardrail V (GRV) IPF, and in the fall of 1985 the unit moved to Echterdingen Army Airfield (Stuttgart International Airport). The site was subsequently used by various and sundry communications units on deployment before being totally abandoned.
Photo and Text courtesy of Bob Lippincott (boblippincott@aol.com)
Grünstadt - Site III - 2005
"Hacksaw"
( 49º 33´ 27.91" N, 8º 08´ 05.13" E. )
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