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nullcharstring t1_jed7at3 wrote

With all respect to a fellow Cold War veteran, I think Mark Bentley's memory is a little foggy. I was in Germany with the U.S. Army during the Cold War and I maintained Pershing 1a nuclear missiles. Although actual targeting data was and probably still is classified, it was well understood that it was their express purpose was to deny Red Army access to Western Europe by making the Fulda Gap and whatever else required, impassible, not backpack nukes. As for OP's post, I could find no reference to the statement "every infantry and armor battalion in the U.S. Army had one officer trained to deploy the Special Atomic Demolition Munition". Further confusing the issue is that Bentley enlisted and as-such would not have been an officer himself. There were backpack nuclear weapons available, but they certainly were not as widespread as the article describes.

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Sdog1981 t1_jedcxsk wrote

Maybe at the division or Corps level but not all the way down to Joe Blow at the Battalion level.

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nomad_556 OP t1_jee1uha wrote

Source for that claim is a history of the military art textbook written by a West Point professor that is a leading authority in Cold War history. It’s a pretty damned reliable source

Just a note that “trained to deploy” doesn’t mean actually issued the device. Very likely that the training was a precaution but very few devices were actually issued.

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nullcharstring t1_jefxwxu wrote

Believe it or not, I agree with you. That said, there are still inconsistencies that ought to be cleared up. There's no doubt that the device exists and that there were units deployed. There's also no doubt that there were 3 American battalions and 2 German battalions of Pershing 1a missiles deployed and their mission was to deny the Red Army access to Western Europe. It would be very interesting to see some actual battle plans rather than reading the somewhat contradictory oral history of this device.

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