Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

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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. ***
THE SIXTIES AND VIETNAM (Pg. 198) 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment troops in riot training. They would need those skills during anti-war protests, Oct. 21, 1967. (Below) 6th ACR soldiers stack empty 76mm shell casings for their M41 tank. 201
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THE FIRST 100 YEARS
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Fort George G. Meade: The First 100
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Centennial History of Fort Meade FO
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Table Of Contents
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Namesake: Samuel Frazier Reece . .
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THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES . . . . .
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Special thanks to the 55th Signal C
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WHO WAS GEORGE G. MEADE? 3 Who was
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World War I Years
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WORLD WAR I YEARS 9 “The world mu
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12 THE FIRST 100 YEARS orders from
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The First Men Arrive The 154th Depo
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WORLD WAR I YEARS Trench Warfare Tr
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Women Join the Cause The concept of
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28 THE FIRST 100 YEARS
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Camp Laurel Camp Meade’s explosiv
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Epiphany Chapel and Church House WO
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Odenton Odenton’s history is inte
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40 THE FIRST 100 YEARS July 3, 1918
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Remount Station 304 When America en
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Heroic Pigeons Racing homers, other
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Medical care on Camp Meade WORLD WA
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54 THE FIRST 100 YEARS to illustrat
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Camp Meade and Fort McHenry WORLD W
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Val Browning By Sherry Kuiper When
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WORLD WAR I YEARS Five of Hearts: W
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WORLD WAR I YEARS NAMESAKE: Streets
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NAMESAKE: Samuel Frazier Reece WORL
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NAMESAKE: William Clifford Rock WOR
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NAMESAKE: Mathew Lewis English WORL
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A Poem By Pvt. Yakel In a lit up st
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BETWEEN THE WARS A Stove to Remembe
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88 THE FIRST 100 YEARS and General
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BETWEEN THE WARS A Letter to Mom 91
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Letter from Patton to Rockenbach BE
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Eisenhower at Camp Meade BETWEEN TH
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100 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Frequent ve
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102 THE FIRST 100 YEARS of the nati
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Salvage for Victory "Salvage For Vi
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Leonard Wood to Meade When the War
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World war II years
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Fort Meade During WWII WORLD WAR II
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The 29 th Division As part of a ser
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126 THE FIRST 100 YEARS with that d
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Units That Make Us Proud WORLD WAR
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graduating classes of soldiers who
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134 THE FIRST 100 YEARS gained stea
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136 THE FIRST 100 YEARS cattle car.
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When Amoré Freed the POW WORLD WAR
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Confessions of a POW During the mid
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The cold war
Page 165: The Move It took five years for NSA
Page 169: The National Cryptologic Museum and
Page 173: Operation Gyroscope Before the Cold
Page 177 and 178: The Rogue Nike Incident Fort Meade
Page 180: Scrapbook Memories
Page 183 and 184: SCRAPBOOK MEMORIES On July 11, 1931
Page 185 and 186: Charles A. Albrecht - NSA children
Page 187 and 188: SCRAPBOOK MEMORIES Army Master Sgt.
Page 189 and 190: SCRAPBOOK MEMORIES Staff Sgt. Rolli
Page 191 and 192: SCRAPBOOK MEMORIES Bruce Hopkins -
Page 193 and 194: Charles Chuck A. Albrecht - Swimmin
Page 195 and 196: Rick Hagman - The Music of the Day
Page 197 and 198: Michael McLaughlin - In and Out of
Page 199 and 200: Jerry Glodek - Army Field Band SCRA
Page 201 and 202: SCRAPBOOK MEMORIES Michael McLaughl
Page 203 and 204: SCRAPBOOK MEMORIES Master Sgt. Lean
Page 206 and 207: 192 THE FIRST 100 YEARS
Page 209 and 210: Womens Rights For WACs The role of
Page 211: Regulation changes through the Viet
Page 218 and 219: 204 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Entrance Pr
Page 221 and 222: He Modeled Them All The acronym LDR
Page 224: I Want To Be A Soldier I want to be
Page 227 and 228: Kelly Pool to Burba Lake THE SIXTIE
Page 232 and 233: 218 THE FIRST 100 YEARS light weapo
Page 238 and 239: 224 THE FIRST 100 YEARS In 1982, wh
Page 242 and 243: as a diversion to keep me distracte
Page 244 and 245: 230 THE FIRST 100 YEARS inside of t
Page 247 and 248: Prison Cell Doors Close for Last Ti
Page 249 and 250: Women Under Fire In 1998, American
Page 251 and 252: THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES 237
Page 253 and 254: Masters of the Hunt Although most h
Page 257 and 258: The Garrison Prepares for War GULF
Page 261: Desert Shield: Units Prepare to Dep
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250 THE FIRST 100 YEARS deployment
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GULF WAR Homecoming of 519 th MPs 2
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From Open to Closed I began a civil
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Remembering September 11 th GLOBAL
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262 THE FIRST 100 YEARS The job is
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264 THE FIRST 100 YEARS An Iraqi so
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266 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Martha Radd
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GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR Spc. Hilda Cla
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272 THE FIRST 100 YEARS twenty-firs
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276 THE FIRST 100 YEARS In Septembe
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Golfing at Meade For decades, The C
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Master Sgt. Robert “Pitt” Pittm
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GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR 287 brought ba
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Second Army and Fort Meade CYBERSPA
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BRAC to BRAC The Base Realignment a
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298 THE FIRST 100 YEARS intelligenc
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James A. S 1955- James A. Speraw Jr
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302 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Fort Meade
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304 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Chad Jones
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306 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Joseph Frec
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308 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Timothy Mul
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310 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Namesake: S
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312 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Operation G
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314 THE FIRST 100 YEARS Map, 1, 15
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Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

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