USAREUR Units - 108th ADA Bde

I was an MP stationed in Butzweiler, Germany from 1978 thru 1990. Butzweiler is a small village about 25 km south of Bitburg which hosted a Nike Ajax ADA site which later became a Nike Hercules ADA site. The designations of the units and when they existed as such are not known by me.

When I arrived in 1978, the site had already been converted to B Battery 2/62 ADA (HAWK), and was part of the 10th ADA Brigade. 2/62 ADA was Headquartered in Spangdahlem Air Base, and the four ADA Batteries A, B, C, D, and the support element were deployed around Bitburg and Spangdahlem.

The mission was part of the over all air defense of the Eifel region including Bitburg, Spangdahlem, and Hahn Air Bases, and a few German Air Bases in the region. 2/62 ADA was redesignated as 1/1 ADA (I believe) around 1985 (the exact year I can no longer recall) and became part of the 108th ADA Group (and later redesignated ADA Brigade).

I was responsible for the over all physical security of B Battery as an MP sergeant, and NCOIC of a 10-man MP section within the Battery. My greatest challenge during the 1980's was to protect the Battery from terrorist threats from groups like the Baader-Meinhof gang and the Red Army Fraction. In or around 1988 one of these groups managed to enter one of our sister HAWK Battalion sites in the Baumholder area, and planted two bombs which effectively destroyed two radar units.

It was later conveyed to me after the fall of the Berlin Wall 1989, that East Germany had been harboring some of these terrorists. Intelligence discovered a home in the former East Germany that contained evidence of having housed some of these people. B Battery 1/1 ADA (to which I had been assigned), had been surveilled by these terrorists before the bombing. Notes that were discovered to have been made by the terrorists indicated that security at the B Battery 1/1 ADA site posed too great a risk to the terrorists and they chose an easier target. I was especially proud to have heard that.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Nike Herc units had a small platoon of MPs assigned to each Battery for security of the warheads. They manned the access control points and the guard towers at those sites. To the best of my knowledge all HAWK Batteries had only 12 MP's organically assigned as TO&E for physical security at their base stations, and we performed ground defense in their deployed positions. No one could ever tell me why there were only twelve of us. Twelve alone were not enough for ground defense, but I'm sure in the over-all grand scheme, there must have been other plans beyond my need-to-know. We had no authority at the Battery as far as law enforcement. We were just part of the over-all 150 man strong unit, and our job was just physical security.

An MP who I was stationed with after I left HAWK stated he had been assigned to a HAWK Battery in Key West Florida, so to answer your question about MPs being USAREUR specific TO&E, I guess it was Army-wide. The HHB's had no MP's assigned except for the S-2 NCO.

2/62 Bn HAWK, when I arrived in 1978, had Batteries in:

Spangdahlem Air Base (HHB)

Balesfeld (), north of Bitburg -- A Btry, formerly A 4/6 Nike

Butzweiler (), south of Bitburg -- B Btry, formerly B 4/6 Nike

Hisel (), west of Bitburg -- C Btry, formerly C 4/6 Nike

Reitscheid (), west of Baumholder -- D Btry, formerly D 5/6 Nike (yes, 5/6)

The support/maintenance element as part of the HHB was in Oberweis, west of Bitburg (on a site which once was a Bitburg Air Base Air Force Missile unit in the 1950's)

After 2/62 ADA was redesignated 1/1 ADA in the early 80's, D Btry was moved to Hontheim (), east of Spangdahlem, after one of the last remaining Nike units (D 4/6 ADA) was deactivated and had occupied that site until then. With that, the Battalion now completely surrounded Bitburg and Spangdahlem.

I now recall that the HAWK Battery that was bombed in the late 80's was at our former D Battery site in Reitscheid, which by the time of the incident had been long redesignated as 4/1 ADA.

As an aside to all this, I became RSOP (Reconnaissance, Selection, and Occupation of Position) NCO and OIC in one. Before any deployment, there was of course a recon force that would deploy ahead of the Battery to select and secure a suitable site. This involved, among a host of other things, deploying the MPs in a ground defense role, and then "laying out" (measuring) the site to deploy the Radars and Launchers. This was normally done by an ADA lieutenant and NCO and a team consisting of the MPs, NBC specialist, power generation specialist, commo specialist, etc. Eventually, after I had been there for so long, (12 years altogether) and watching and assisting the RSOP lieutenant and NCO, the Battery Commander put me in charge of the whole mission every time we had a field exercise. When it came time for our bi-annual NATO Tactical Evaluation, the other NATO country member evaluators were in disbelief that a "mere MP" could proficiently carry out the mission normally done by an ADA officer. I received one of my very first Achievement medals for an "Excellent" rating for the RSOP during an AAFCE (Allied Air Forces Central Europe) Tactical Evaluation. Another one of my proud moments in my career.

Eventually, the MP Section also carried out the task of Stinger missile gunners for our Battery. I was also lucky enough to be chosen to live-fire one in Crete, Greece at the NAMFI (Nato Missile Firing Installation) range. (Another Achievement medal)

This was until the new MOS 16S, Stinger Crewman, was fully deployed throughout the Army.

At B Battery, we always said MP stood for "multi purpose".

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

After reviewing some of my old military awards records, I have documentation to indicate that 2/62 ADA was still part of the 10th ADA Group in 29 May 1979 and in 12 November 1985, and had been re-assigned to 108th ADA Brigade between 12 November 1985 and 17 June 1986.

I can also say for certain that some time between 17 June 1986 and 01 December 1986, 2/62 ADA, 108th ADA Brigade had been re-designated as 1st Bn,1st ADA, 108th ADA Brigade and remained so until complete deactivation in of the Battalion 1991.

I'm somewhat confused about the information you have posted about the patches worn by 108th Brigade. We all wore the 32nd AADCOM patch from my arrival to B 2/62 in November 1978 until I left B 1/1 in August 1990. You indicate it was worn from 1974 thru 1982 until another patch was worn from 1982 until 1992.

Also, I was informed that the symbolism of the 32nd AADCOM patch (for promotion board and soldier of the month board questions) was:

1. The color red was the color of Artillery.

2. The symbols on the patch represent missiles.

3. There is one row of 3, and a second row of 2 to represent the "32"nd AADCOM.

4. At the time, there were 5 ADA systems (Nike, HAWK, Chaparral, and Vulcan) in 32nd AADCOM, hence the 5 missiles on the patch.

Whether or not this information is correct is unknown by me, but it seemed to have applied. Maybe someone else can add to or verify this information. (Some of us at B Battery jokingly called the patch "The 5th Forestry Division" because the missiles on the patch looked like 5 pine trees).