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Static Display Of Matador Missile (GG) at Wueschheim Air Station near Kastellaun Germany
THE
FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS SENT TO JOE PERKINS BY S/SGT MAX QUITIQUIT
USAF, WHO WAS AT HAHN IN 1987-91 TIME FRAME. (Ed.
Note) The picture
above is believed to be the Matador S/SGT Quitiquit refers to
below!!
I was running the 50th CES/Det-1 Structures Shop (a fancy way of
saying combined carpenter/mason/sheet metal/paint shop) at
Wueschheim Air Station. Wueschheim AS was about a dozen miles
away from Hahn Air Base, near the town of Kastellaun. The 38th
Tactical Missile Wing was the host unit there. The wing commander
had found out that there was a Matador missile static display at
a place called Rittersdorf and wanted our civil engineering
detachment to move it to Wuesccheim. This missile was mounted on
a pedestal in a lonely place that was totally obscured by trees
and brush. The missile was really filthy, with streaks of years
of grime and flaking paint. I suppose at one time it had been in
a place of honor at one
time, but now no one could see it, much less care about it. There
were some U.S. Army troops using some really decrepit buildings
nearby, but they didn't even know it existed. We cleared enough
of a path to get a crane close enough to lift the missile off the
old pedestal. First though, the bolts holding the missile onto
the pedestal had to be removed. This required that I had to
remove a panel and crawl inside. It was a little bit eerie
crawling inside this thing that had been sealed up for who knows
how
long, but I got over it once I had to do battle with the old,
rusty hardware. It was quite a job to get enough leverage to work
the wrench inside the confined space of the fuselage, but I
finally managed it.
Once the missile was loose, it had to be broken down to be
transported on the German roads. This required that the wings and
rudder to be separated from the fuselage. Then the fuselage was
lifted by the crane onto a 40 foot flatbed trailer into a wooden
cradle we had built to secure it, so the fuselage wouldn't be
damaged while transporting it. Then it was covered with a canvas
tarpaulin and secured with tie-down straps. Oh boy! What a sight
that was! The Matador had looked like an aircraft, however,
without its wings and rudder, underneath a tarpaulin, its
appearance was really transformed. It now looked to all the world
that we now had a ballistic missile instead of a Matador. I'm
sure that's what anyone thought that saw it being transported
that day.
Well, we made it back to Wueschheim without any serious problems
and then the missile maintenance troops took over. They did a
really excellent job in refurbishing the old missile. Corroded
parts were replaced, dents straightened, surfaces repainted. The
wing had a new missile! A new pedestal was constructed and it was
mounted near the entrance of the GAMA (G.L.C.M. Alert and
Maintenance Area). It was good to see the old Matador had been
rescued from obscurity and put back in a place of honor as one of
the original ancestors of U.S. cruise missiles.
I hope its still in good shape, Wueschheim AS reverted back to
German control after the G.L.C.M. weapon system was negotiated away under the
Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. The rest of the nearby
USAF personnel left when Hahn AB closed shortly after, under the
Conventional Forces Europe (CFE) treaty. If anyone ever gets out
there, it'd be nice if they could check up on it, maybe get a
photo even. (Ed. Note - See Photos taken July 1999 - Photo
1: - Photo
2: )
History Hahn AB / 38th TMWg. History / Missile Sites / Cold War / Hahn Phone Book 1959 / Hahn Today / Links / Hahn Maps Hahn & AF Stories / Hahn Photos / Hahn Hawks Sports / 586th Support Sqdn. /
Here Lies the DEATH of HAHN AB Germany
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