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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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