Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

200 THE FIRST 100 YEARS
started to flow around my flanks. At that point I went into
“force protection” mode and ordered my soldiers to form
a defensive square.
Once in this formation, the crowd surrounded us and
we spent the next several hours with a peaceful, hippytype
crowd trying to entice my soldiers to break ranks
and join the anti-war movement. Several times a “flower
child” would attempt to hug or kiss one of my troops
or to put flowers down the barrels of my soldier’s rifles.
Fortunately, no soldier broke ranks and the flowers were
quickly removed. This was a powerful image and was
captured and reported both on TV and in the press. We
remained surrounded for several hours until relieved by a
larger military unit.
We remained at the Pentagon until the demonstration
was over and the leaders and some of the protestors were
arrested by U.S. Marshals. Later, I would learn the crowd
participating in the protest on that day numbered 100,000.
We returned to Fort Meade and then convoyed back
to Camp Pickett to continue our overseas deployment
training/certification.
When our field training was completed, the Regiment
returned to Fort Meade to continue preparations for
overseas deployment. Preparations came to a halt when
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April, 4,
1968. In the ensuing riots that swept the nation, the 6th
ACR was sent into Washington, D.C., to assist in restoring
order. I was detached from the Regiment during this
time and was a member of the First United States Army
Marksmanship Unit and, if called upon, would supply
trained marksmen for security purposes.
President Johnson faced increasing resistance to the
war not only by citizens, but by members of his own party
in Congress. One of the consequences of the unrest was
that some military units scheduled to be sent to Vietnam
were taken off the deployment list. One of those units
was the 6th ACR. By this time there was not enough time
remaining in my two-year active duty assignment for me
to be sent to Vietnam.
A Close Call
I served most of the remainder of my time with the
6th ACR as the Regimental Liaison Officer at Camp
Pickett. In this capacity I was responsible for maintaining
a Squadron set of tactical equipment, tanks, howitzers,
APCs, as well as garrison equipment. One Squadron at
a time would bring in their troopers and use the Camp
Pickett equipment to maintain proficiency in gunnery and
tactics.
It was while I was at Camp Pickett that the 6 th ACR
became one of the first Army units to “live fire” a Shillelagh
missile from the Sheridan Armored Reconnaissance
Assault Vehicle.
The M551 is a lightweight, armored reconnaissance
vehicle mistakenly called a “tank.” These vehicles were
supposed to replace the three M48 or M60 tanks assigned
to an Armored Cavalry Platoon. The M551 had the ability
to fire a caseless 152 mm conventional round or a missile
named the “Shillelagh.”
Due to the relatively short distance from Washington,
D.C., many VIPs came to Camp Pickett to witness the
firing. I was at the tank firing range that day stationed
behind a set of bleachers for the VIPs. The bleachers were
slightly behind the firing line to the right of the Sheridans.
When a Shillelagh is fired, the missile travels for almost
half a mile before it can be acquired by the infrared
guidance system. This resulted in many missiles impacting
the ground before it could be aimed by the gunner. Once
control is acquired, the gunner must guide the missile all
the way to the target.
When the first missile was fired at Camp Pickett, the
missile exited the tube and dropped below the gunner’s
line of sight, which is normal and before the gunner could
acquire control, the missile started climbing and arching
back toward the firing line and toward the bleacher area
which is not normal. Fortunately, the missile impacted
down range but directly in front of the VIPs. Needless to
say, things got tense for a while.
I finished the last few months of my active duty service
in the Regimental Headquarters.
While I was assigned to the 6 ACR I held the following
positions of Armored Cavalry Platoon Leader, Tank
Company Platoon Leader, Tank Company Executive
Officer, Officer-in-Charge First United States Army
Pistol Team and Regimental Liaison Officer
After my two years of active duty was completed I was
assigned to the Army Reserve to fulfill the remaining four
years of my 6-year military service obligation.
After 27 years as a member of the Delaware National
Guard, I retired in 1996 as a Colonel.
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