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| Second Lieutenant Richard L. Holt, newly commissioned into the Regular Army of the United States |
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In my freshman year at Wheaton College, I joined an Army Reserve unit in Chicago attached to the 5th Army headquarters. Since I planned on joining the Army through the ROTC program after graduation, I thought to get extra training with the paper-work system of the Army by doing this. I joined a Quartermaster company in Chicaco that was tasked to rebuild canvas units in use by the 5th Army units, tents, truck covers, etc. We had every kind of sewing machine and other machines to repair and replace canvas units throughout the Army. When the CO discovered my motive for joining, and also that I could type very well, he put me in the company headquarters to be a company clerk. I got to know every type of paperwork the Army used and became so proficient by my second year that I was promoted to the rank of acting sergeant, and assigned the position of Company Clerk. What a great learning time this was for me and this was to pay major dividends when I finally did go on active duty after my college years.
I participated in the Army ROTC program at Wheaton College. In my senior year I was selected to be the Brigade Commander (Cadet Colonel) of the 600 man ROTC Brigade at Wheaton. I was awarded the Wheaton President's Medal twice, the Daughters of the American Revolution Outstanding Cadet Medal, and the Chicago Tribune Outstanding Cadet Medal while serving in Wheaton's ROTC Brigade. I maintained a 4.0plus grade point average all four years.
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| U.S. Army Officer's hat insignia |
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The above lapel insignias are worn on the lapels of the Officer's uniform. The one on the left is the Signal Corps and on the right, Air Defense Artillery. When I went on active duty, I started out wearing the Signal Corps flags.
I graduated as a Distinguished Military Graduate and accepted both a Regular Army commission and a Reserve Commission upon graduation from Wheaton. Shortly before graduation, the Army informed me that it was taking longer to get the Top Secret clearance which was required for the Regular Army commission so as a result, he would be placed on active duty in my Reserve commission designation as a Signal Officer and then the service I had chosen for my career purposes, Air Defense Artillery, would be assigned to me when the necessary clearance was completed.
This worked out well. As soon as graduation took place, I entered on active duty, and drove to my first assignment, the Officer Basic School for the Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. My class were all Regular Army and most of them were graduates of West Point. At the Signal School I went through basic training in all the electronic equipment the Army was using. What an education to have received! I also got to go through some real physical basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey when my class was sent through the infiltration and obstacle training that was common for all Army recruits when they started their careers. This was also a real plus in my education. I graduated 9th in a class of 29 at this school.
Upon completion of this school, my Regular Army Commission came through, so I changed his lapel insignia to the crossed cannons with a missile in the center, and then received orders to proceed to Fort Bliss, Texas where I was assigned to go through the Officer Basic School for Air Defense. In that school I was introduced to the Nike Surface-to-Air Missile System which had just been deployed in various cities throughout the U.S. The class spent considerable time learning the intricacies of the radars, computer, and the missiles used in the system, and also the tactical operation of the missile site. I did well at this school and graduated 3rd in a class of 55.
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| This was Rusty. I bought him from a dog breeder in El Paso, Texas to keep me company on the long runs I was taking, getting ready for my trip to Ranger School. He loved it! He loved the running in the desert, where he could chase all kinds of things, like rabbits. Once in a while he went a little too far, and I would worry that something had gotten him, but he always came back. We ran sometimes up to 10 miles at a time. |
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I entered the Army during a lull between the WWII structure of units and what was to come during the Korean War and the Viet Nam era. Ranger units and the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) of WWII had been dismantled, and Special Forces were just being formed. This didn't come about formally until 10 Dec 1956 when the Army Psychology Center was renamed the Army Special Warfare School. Finally on 21 Sept 1961, the 5th Special Forces Group was activated at Fort Bragg, N.C. There was a void in the special needs of the Army during this period of restructuring valuable units of WWII.
A very special book written by Colonel Charles J. Simpson, Inside the Green Berets, The First Thirty Years talks about the Army making a terrible decision after the close of WWII where they went about dismantling all the special units, like the Ranger Battalions and OSS units that had been so effective during the war. This was supposedly done to save manpower, but what it really did was to emasculate the U.S. Army in the carrying out of its mission. Colonel Simpson explains how the Army finally got around to seeing the need for Special Warfare units, forming the Special Forces in mid-1956 and not really getting the funding for Special Forces until the early 1960 time period. I came into the Army right at that time.
A major decision was made by the Army in the early 1950's to require all new Regular Army Lieutenants to qualilfy as either Ranger, Airborne or Aviation officers. This was seen as a stop-gap measure since the Army no longer had special purpose units in their roster. These officers would then be assigned to their regular Army units throughout the force, and not be a part of a special unit. The philosophy was that if a need were to arise where special units were required, then officers scattered throughout the Army would be assigned to these units as required, and these newly formed special purpose units would go off and do their thing. A worse decision could not have been made. This whole concept was a failure before it began. But no matter, I was part of that era.
I had already had airborne training during part of my summer training with ROTC units at Fort Campbell, Ky with the 11th Airborne Division who were our instructors, and all I had to do was to complete the jump phase of this to qualify. So I chose to go to Ranger School, and then hoped to convince the Army to send me to Airborne School at Fort Campbell to complete that portion of the training. It happened just as I had planned. Following that was an assignment to the Jungle Warfare School at Fort Sherman, Panama to enjoy relearning the bliss of operating in the very same jungles I had been in when I was a kid! What a neat time! Some of my fellow students who were also lieutenants didn't think so! I told them stories about the jungle animals during nights when we were hanging in our jungle hammocks when the cats (jaguars, panthers, etc.) would howl. They all wanted to join me in my hammock!! It made for a lot of fun!
At the completion of the Air Defense Artillery School, I was subsequently assigned to the 865th Air Defense Battalion of the 47 Artillery Brigade Air Defense in the Los Angeles Air Defense Area. My battery was located right on the beach at Playa del Rey in Los Angeles right at the end of the LA airport. Note that this was before jets and the airport had not yet been expanded to handle the jet transports to come. I was assigned as the Fire Control Platoon Leader of Battery B, Site 73. I had about 45 men under my command at this time, all highly trained in the radars (3) and the computer that controlled the firing of the missiles.
I did not know until I got to this site that we were to train the California National Guard to take over the site in one year and that we would all be deployed to other sites throughout the LA area.
When that happened about a year later, I was sent to Site 98 in the mountains above LA to be the Battery Commander and there I would have about 250 officers and men under my command. I was all of 23 years of age at the time. Here I am with seven officers and about 250 enlisted personnel assigned to me as the Battery Commander. In addition almost 50 Nike missiles, all the explosives for the warheads, the fuel for the missiles, vehicles for the entire battery to use, gasoline storage, a full mess hall with a full staff of cooks, having to purchase all our foodstuffs from the Army or Air Force posts or the civilian food stores, and all the bunking facilities for all of these men.
In addition, I had to learn quickly how to cope with all the problems of the people under me, how to deal with the community that really didn't want all these explosives and fuels in their back yards, and didn't want a bunch of soldiers fooling around with their daughters. Wow!! I didn't know what I was in for when it all started.
And then I had a supply room that had to keep track of all the uniforms of all the enlisted personnel, arms and ammunition, and a whole lot more. I commanded a remote site on top of what was called Magic Mountain overlooking LA where we had multiple radars, computers, diesel generators for our own power, guard responsibilities. That site was about 25 miles from the missiles which were in a canyon on the backside of the mountains and had to be reached by treacherous mountain roads. What a great experience this was for me.
I had no idea that all of this would come my way this soon in my life or in my Army career. And I forgot to mention that I had to sign for all the property as well, millions and millions of dollars, and I was earning about $312 a month as a First Lieutenant!
Those sites (73 and 98) can be seen on the chart that follows later in this page.
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| The Nike Ajax missile on its launcher, a unique but fairly useless surface to air weapon to knock down enemy bombers attacking American cities. The missile and its components were superb, but the deployment concept was very flawed, in that a well trained rifleman with a 30-30 rifle could put a unit out of action and it would takes weeks and months to repair the damage with replacement parts after being damaged by rifle fire. I found this out soon after being assigned to a site, and was very vocal about my findings to anyone who would listen, all the way to the top General in our command. This did not endear me to the manufacturer of the weapon system, Western Electric and others, and to others in the Department of Defense who had had a hand in the deployment of these very expensive units throughout the U.S. |
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My primary assignment in the Army Air Defense Command was to be a line officer in operational surface to air missile units. I started as a Fire Control Officer of the Fire Control Platoon and I completed my active duty as the Battery Commander of an entire Nike Surface to Air Missile Battery of some 250 officers and enlisted personnel.
However because I had some very unique training and the Army had its own plan for how to fight limited wars and the use of people like myself like I have described earlier, I found myself with two jobs, one running a missile battery as my full-time assignment, and two, fighting in a war in the country of Guatemala as a Team leader of a 15 man "A" Team in Special Operations. This was just before Special Forces units became part of the Army.
It wasn't easy to make these two assignments work out, but I did my duty and the Army made sure I did both jobs! I would not have been able to accomplish both jobs if it had not been for an outstanding staff of NCO's and Officers at the Missile Battery in Soledad Canyon. I had some NCO's and Warrant Officers that had been with me in my assignment at Playa del Rey before we split up that unit, and that helped in the continuity of command. They were fantastic and we were all good friends.
I was required to be an expert on a complicated missile system and also to keep in physical training and go do my war assignment when called upon to do that. I did three separate tours in Guatemala.
The Nike Surface-to-Air Missile System: We had a missile system that employed three radars, a surveillance radar, a target tracking radar and a missile tracking radar. Making the system work was one of the first computers used in warfare, that took the information from the surveillance radar on the enemy aircraft that was targeted, then directed the target tracking radar to lock onto that target. The missile tracking radar was then tasked to lock onto the missiles in the launch area, and when launched, to direct the missile to the target selected, through the combined efforts of the two tracking radars.
The missile had a solid rocket booster and a detachable rocket that was propelled with a liquid fuel and which had the control mechanisms and the explosive warhead. The booster got the Nike missile off the ground, then soon separated after it had climbed to the desired altitude. The liquid fueled engine would then fire and propel the missile to the target under the control of the radars and the computer on the ground. When the missile approached the target to a designated distance from the target, it then received a command from the ground to explode the warhead and destroy the enemy aircraft.
Pictured above is the Nike surface-to-air missile which could strike down an enemy bomber at altitudes above 50,000 feet. The missile was steered to the target by a Missile Tracking Radar (MTR) which tracked the missile. In the meantime, a Target Tracking Radar (TTR) had its signal on a particular target that it wanted the missile to strike. Through a computer, it brought the two together and then the command was sent to the missile when to explode the warhead destroying the aircraft being tracked. In addition to these two radars, there was also a Surveillance Radar which could track many targets at the same time, and through the computer, these targets could be assigned to different missiles, any of which were still on the ground and could be fired at those targets. The Fire Control Officer, usually the Battery Commander, had the responsibility to operate the firing assignments.
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An Untimely War for Me!!!
Combat in Guatemala during that country's civil war. As part of a Special Operations assignment, I was assigned as the team leader of a 15 man team, called an A-Team. Our job was to teach the Maya Indians in the mountains of Guatemala how to protect themselves from extermination by the military forces of Guatemala. These forces were trained and supported by the U.S. CIA who supplied military advisors to the individual army units both on post and in the field. In that mix were U.S. Army officers and enlisted personnel that were also supplying advice to the Guatemalan army. Our A team units had no contact with the Guatemala army nor with the U.S. people handling their support. This brought about some very tenuous situations during the combat operations. Your imagination can provide situations where the A teams were caught in the middle. We did what we had to do to stay alive and keep our Indians alive. What a mess!! All brought on by the U.S.
The Maya Indian people, peaceably living in the mountains of Guatemala were caught in the middle of a greedy effort by the owners and operators of the Great White Fleet, the United Fruit Company (UFCO), not to lose its illegally gained lands in Guatemala to supposedly communist "indians" who were identified by this U.S. based company of its giant hold on Guatemala. UFCO was in the business of growing bananas and running the mail, telephone and telegraph business in Guatemala. Behind UFCO and supporting their claim that they were about to lose their multimillion dollar empire was the U.S. State Department, the CIA, and the President's office, the President then, Dwight D. Eisenhower. The head of the CIA and the head of he State Department had both been lawyers for UFCO and their intent was not to let anyone take away the millions of dollars worth of investments that UFCO had in that country. The President's secretary was the wife of the Public Affairs Officer of UFCO. How about that?
The Maya had been pushed off their lands by the Guatemalan government who were being paid off by the U.S. The land was then given to UFCO for their plantations. They blamed the revolt by the Maya to these tactics on "communists" following the big communist scare perpetrated by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1953, but this was totally wrong and nothing more than a lie from the U.S. government! The Indians wanted their land back that UFCO had taken away from them illegally through the Guatemalan government. Identifying the Indians as "communists" allowed the Guatemala government to identify them as the "enemy" and went about trying to eradicate these unarmed people.
I and my A Team witnessed thousands of innocent Indian men, women and children, slaughtered by the Guatemalan Army in their quest to eliminate the Maya as a threat to UFCO holdings. Whole villages were chopped up and shot to death, men, women and children, and the government troops and their officers bragged about it. One General in the Guatemalan Army bragged that he had personally wiped out over 400 Indian villages and had killed over 50,000 people. And the U.S. Army was advising them on how to do this, and supplying them the arms, munitions and other supplies to carry out their operations.
Not us! We, the Special Ops team were not the U.S.Army in this case. We were on the other side, against the Army trying to save the lives of these poor unprotected Indian people.. But we saw clearly what was going on. It was Sick! Sick! Sick! It wasn't until some years later that the U.S. was to face a similar situation, the killing if the Montagnard Indians in the mountains of Viet Nam.
Our team's job was to train the Indians to protect themselves against the Army. We taught them to set up watch posts to await the government troops and have enough time to warn the villagers to escape. We also taught them to set traps and ambushes for the troops, sometimes using captured weapons and explosive devices to eliminate as many of the Guatemalan troops as they could. We taught them how to fire and maintain weapons that they had captured from the army. We taught them how to use explosives which they had never seen.
And we got to know and love these people who were no more communist than we were. They just wanted their land back!
All of us on our teams had been born and raised in Latin America, knew the people and knew the language fluently. We were at home with them.
What a shameful time in the history of the U.S.
I don't feel like elaborating any more on this web site about this tragedy, but if you wish, you can read more on this subject on the web under "Civil War in Guatemala" and many more search titles where you can read the horrible stories that came out of this dreadful time in history right under the noses of the American people.
This time in my life determined my future actions. I was so disgusted with the U.S. military and so sick inside from having watched the slaughter, that I decided that I did not want to spend a career in a service that was obligated to wealthy and greedy and ruthless people in the U.S. who controlled the Congress, the President and many people in the nation.
I enjoyed my time in the military except for the traumatic experience of this limited combat and learned a lot about myself and the world around me. I can't think of a better learning tool for a young graduate from college than this time from age 21 through 24.
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