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1983 Phil Silvers dies in his sleep at 73.

September 20, 1955 - January 11, 1959
CBS - 138 Episodes

Sergeant Ernie Bilko is the ultimate con man. He runs the motor pool at a small Kansas U.S. Army Camp. Colonel Hall, nominally in charge of the base tries to keep Bilko's plans in check. Bilko runs every money making scheme that he thinks he can pull off. Midnight cruises on Landing Craft, Tank Rides, Poker games, and an interesting deal with local service stations for spare parts for jeep tires.

A real-life equivalent described how his buddy drove a deuce and a quarter into a depot and hid out overnight, loading it with booze, and driving out the next day.

In October 1948, the Chief of Ordnance had designated Redstone Arsenal as the center of research and development activities in the field of rockets and related items. The arsenal was officially reactivated as the site of the Ordnance Rocket Center on 1 June 1949. By the end of that month, Huntsville Arsenal ceased to exist as a separate facility. Later, on 28 October 1949, the Secretary of the Army approved the transfer of the Ordnance Research and Development Division Sub-Office (Rocket) at Fort Bliss, Texas, to Redstone Arsenal. Among those transferred were Dr. Wernher von Braun and his team of German scientists and engineers. With the arrival of the Fort Bliss group beginning on 15 April 1950, Redstone Arsenal officially entered the missile era.

Working in a Santa Fe home, saw a photo of von Braun with a group of scientists and the older man I was working for described von Braun's people coming to Huntsville as quite a deal.

One of those little niches of history like the switchboard for the Manhattan Project in the basement of a building downtown where Laverne screened the calls to the hill.

We worked on the building which is now infested with lawyers and architects.

It Doesn't Take a Hero
H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Given this book by stepson USNA Class of '94 at which Commencement (spit) Clinton (spit) lied for 32 minutes that he would not put our people into Bosnia [A Genuine Quagmiretm].

I seem to recall a brouhaha sometime around the Highway of Death boohooing to the effect that Schwarzkopf felt we could have done more, then GHWB smacked him upside the head, after which the General made a public self-abasement.

That along with the read my lips and the insufferable Dan Quayle cost the former DCI the election.

Quayle is my age and was at DePauw when I was at Wabash--DePauw (we felt, as rivals) was a real nose-in-the-air place.

In 1998 when Marilyn Quayle swung through Santa Fe to test the water for Dan, I suggested to her that Dan needed more of the sense of humor he showed with his new Three Interns and You're Out policy (yes, he really said that).

She had no sense of humor either.

So why did the Republican Guard get away? Why did Saddam survive? Why did we let Saddam slaughter his people after blowing sunshine up their skirts?

Why do we allow reporters in Iraq now? Why not strap them on HumVees and Strykers and make them walk point in the streets of Tikrit?

Aftermath of three hundred Reuters, AP and CNN reporters racing to file the report of coalition soldier injured when he slipped in the shower.

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait during the early morning hours of 2 August 1990 initiated a chain of events leading to the largest deployment and subsequent combat use of Army missiles in U.S. history. Backed by the United Nations (U.N.) as well as the combined might of a 28-member coalition, the United States drew a "line in the sand" in defense of Saudi Arabia and for the liberation of Kuwait. Supporting this action, known to the world as Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm (ODS), was the technological and logistical know-how of the Army elements located at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

Virtually every one of the Army's fielded missile systems managed and supported at Redstone Arsenal were sent to Southwest Asia (SWA). Three general types of missiles were deployed: air defense (AVENGER, CHAPARRAL, STINGER, HAWK, and PATRIOT); antiarmor (DRAGON, TOW [tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided], HELLFIRE, and SHILLELAGH); and artillery (HYDRA-70, MLRS [Multiple Launch Rocket System], and the Army TACMS [Army Tactical Missile System]). Of these systems PATRIOT, DRAGON, HELLFIRE, HYDRA-70, MLRS, TOW, and the Army TACMS were fired in combat. The lack of targets was the primary reason that most of the air defense systems were not employed.

The U.S. Army Missile Command (MICOM) also supported other systems such as the Ground/Vehicle Laser Locator Designator (G/VLLD), the Mast Mounted Sight (MMS), the M-901 Improved TOW Vehicle (ITV), the Forward Area Alerting Radar (FAAR), and various night sights that provided coalition forces with a night-fighting capability not available to the opposing Iraqi army. In addition, "the extremely accurate laser guided bombs that were so effective during the air war were a modern version of a concept that came out of MICOM's [Research, Development and Engineering (RD&E) Center]...more than 25 years ago."

The military and civilian personnel assigned to the Program Executive Offices (PEOs) at Redstone and to MICOM shared in the success of the coalition soldiers who fought to free Kuwait from Iraqi domination. Without the technical and logistical expertise of the organizations located at the arsenal, the operational readiness of the systems deployed in support of ODS would have been impossible to maintain. "Getting equipment ready for deployment,...upgrading systems, filling unit repair parts shortages, arranging shipment, expediting deliveries, and speeding up procurements were among the tasks accomplished."

The Persian Gulf theater of operations posed a number of production, acquisition, spare/repair parts supply, and maintenance challenges for the MICOM/PEO community. The harsh desert climate and the logistical immaturity of the theater of operations were the two biggest factors impacting the operational readiness of the sophisticated missile and rocket systems deployed to SWA by the Army. But Operation Desert Storm also provided a unique opportunity to see how well the Army's inventory of advanced weapons functioned in actual combat conditions.