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An ADM Soldier's Story from 1971

Click Here to enlarge this 23rd Engineers ADM patch worn by Sp5 Dutcher and all members of the ADM Platoon in 1971. Yes, that's a mushroom cloud.  

 

From Arnold Dutcher in 2006:
Atomic Demolition Munitions (ADM) Platoon,
23rd Engineer Bn, 3AD


A Preface: How he became an ADM Specialist - by the Web Editor

Arnold Dutcher retired in 2003 as Director of Insurance for the State of Illinois after 30 years of state service. During that time he would occasionally mention to friends or colleagues what he did in the Army - that he worked with small, portable atomic bombs. The listener's reaction was usually one of astonishment, if not disbelief. Dutcher's story begins when he volunteered for the Army and Officers Candidate School (OCS) in 1969, following graduation from college with a degree in Marketing. Vietnam was hot and heavy at the time, and after Basic and AIT (MOS as Combat Engineer), he found himself on-hold, waiting for Infantry OCS. Then nothing less than a miracle occurred. The Army realized it had too many OCS candidates waiting on-hold nationwide, and made an extraordinary offer. If a candidate would voluntarily drop out of the program, (1) his total service time would not exceed two years, (2) he would have his choice of a new MOS or a duty assignment, and (3) he would receive a guarantee of no assignment to Vietnam.

And so it was that Dutcher chose a new MOS, one that he felt would be particularly interesting - the MOS of 12E, Atomic Demolition Munitions (ADM) Specialist. The Army had one school for that specialty, at Fort Belvoir, VA, open also to the Navy and Marines, and entry was difficult. The school required an Army candidate to already have a 12A MOS (Combat Engineer), a higher IQ than the OCS standard, and a Top Secret Crypto security clearance. Dutcher was accepted, and the intensive 3-week course began. After graduation, his initial assignment was with an ADM Platoon of the 16th Engineer Bn of the 1st Armored Division at Ft. Hood. Then around Feb 1, 1971, Dutcher was off to a new assignment in Germany - the ADM Platoon, 23rd Engr. Bn., 3rd Armored Division, stationed at Hessen Homburg Kaserne in Hanau, Germany. The rest is his story.


From Arnold Dutcher:

The mission of the ADM Platoon of the 23rd Engineers was to blow up things that would then become obstacles to stop or slow down the armies of the Eastern Bloc nations as they tried to move west. To my knowledge, we were the only such platoon in the 3rd Armored. Targets to be demolished included tunnels, bridges, and highway over-passes, that, without the use of atomic munitions, would have required massive amounts of conventional explosives. Potentially, atomic demolitions could be used as land mines, where a single such bomb could be detonated as a large enemy land force was overhead.

During my time in Germany in 1971, I trained mainly with one type of ADM - the MK-54 SADM, which was the lightest and most compact of the ADM weapons. Outside of its storage/carrying case, one man could carry it on his back. There were about five different teams within the platoon, and each team had a specific assigned target, all of which were northeast of Hanau, or between Hanau and the East German border. The platoon was understaffed, as was the whole Division during that Vietnam time.

Our potential targets were toward the middle of that broad area known as the Fulda Gap. Our mission was to detonate before any fighting to the east reached our area. We were not combat engineers in the sense that our mission was not intended to be carried out under fire, or at least we didn't train that way. We never trained with infantry or special security teams. It was just us - in small teams - setting up our bombs at very specific locations.

One specific location for my team was at the base of a tall and thick support tower of reinforced concrete that was one of several such towers along a stretch of elevated highway between two high points in the terrain. Possibly it was an "autobahn"; I'm not sure; but in any case it was a major vehicular highway somewhere north and east of Hanau. There was no population in that immediate area; it was pretty much a wooded area. The idea was that, taking down the tower, and bringing down a span with it, would create a big problem for advancing forces. They would be forced to travel below through a fairly rugged forest area. The damage to the highway would be far too great for any enemy engineers to repair in time, or to even do a temporary fix.

We, with an engineering mind set, didn't think of our weapons in terms of crater width or blast diameter. We considered them as extremely powerful and effective munitions in a small package that could be transported quickly and get the job done. ADM's eliminated most of the storage and transport problems of conventional explosives.

The platoon was constantly in training for the use of the weapons. We had a sizable training and work area on the third floor of the Battalion HQ building just inside the main gate of Hessen Homburg Kaserne. It may have been the entire third floor. It was there that we maintained all of our training equipment, manuals, records, etc. By training equipment, I mean exact replica's of the SADM and its heavier big brother, the MADM, or Medium ADM. The actual "hot" versions were kept at a bunker-like complex outside of Hanau. The platoon never went to Grafenwoehr for training while I was there. For our demolition operations, we trained alone and operated separately from the 23rd Engineers and other units of the 3AD, although we still remained an integral part of the Division's mission against an invasion of West Germany.

For alerts and training, the platoon would load up and move out as a single convoy, usually to a single staging point. From there, the teams would wait for a signal as to whether or not to pick up our actual weapons. As I've mentioned, I was familiar only with the one elevated highway target, and my team would visit it during training - I mean to the exact location where we would place the SADM if war occurred. We would sometimes pull maintenance on our access to that spot by clearing away growth of underbrush, fallen branches, or anything that would hinder our vehicle from getting close. The actual placement required the weapon to be carried a short way on foot.

As for how the SADM would be detonated, once past the redundant security measures, we would set an internal timer. We would then leave the immediate area, of course, but we were under orders to stay within visual range of the device until after detonation. This meant a substantial risk for the team, but we knew how to take cover and protect ourselves. My team trained for the placement of one weapon only, so our mission would then be complete at that point.

What happened to us next? I remember being told that we were to head west in the general direction of Frankfurt as fast as possible and try to hook up with the 23rd Engineers or other 3rd Armored unit -- and then we should be prepared to be infantrymen.

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