the

Pershing Cable
56th Field Anillery Brigade
Aprll 1980
Vol. 16, No.
Supporting lhe l-4lst, lBlst. :i.ut Field Artlllffies aad Ille Utb Infantry

Pershing goes amphibious

off-load
(Abo,.) 11,e powtr test statioa (PTS) and
bantry co,,trol nlff of Alpha Bltttty, lit
8attallo11, 81st f'ltld Artilkry ,xii a po,,loon bridge INI ferried 1ht eqwpmmt

a<NN tlle RW. rt,.,.. (Plloto by ~

1.- C. HIIOII) (Below) T1w Al'*9 Bat,
t..-y, ht BatullGtl, 81st Fltld Artll~ misslk afloat a po,,10011 bndat heads toward

...,._ ,-;q 1M Rw. r!Ytr aoulotC, n..

lit BattaliOII, lllt Fkld ArtU~ crosslag
.... ow by Bra,o Batt..-y, .3d 81t1alioa,
84111 Fitld Artillery tooli place lll'ia& Enr

die Crestt4 up. for 11ory alld pllotos on

lht rl crouings Ht pa1 r.... (Phol.o by
Sp<l Christopher Eotes)

Aprll 1980

Pershing

Cable

Pagel

Something to ponder
EDITOR'S NOTE: This 1.rtkle ,...
wrille by Sgt. W. Wayne Barette, HHB,
Isl Balllion. 41st Field Artllltry. It was
submllltcl Ha letter to lhe editor.
You probably wonder why I'm still alive
after all that has happened, and I suppose
it is quite a story. I'd been living and train
ing with the exiles for two years before the
attempted coup, knowing as we all knew
the penally for failure. There were months
of hand-to-hand combat and paratrooper
training and even some explosives practice
before we were ready for the big day, the
day we returncd to Carmel.
I'd lived the 25 years of my life in the
cities and towns and jungle villages of Car
mel. It was my country, worth fighting for,
every inch of it. W e left with the coming of
General Paulson, but now we were going
back. We would drop from the skies by
night. join the anti-Paulson military, and
enter the capital city in triumph.
That was the plan. Somdlow It
didn't work out that way. ~ mili
ti')' changed their minds about It
aacl we jump from our planes Into
a withering crossfire from General
PaulSCNl's forces. More tban lwf of
our libtratlon force of 6S were dtad
btfore ,.. reached the ground, and
Ille olhers were o,errun quickly. By
nightfall we found ow-selves prison
ers of the army in the great old
fortress o,erlooklng Point Bay.
There were 23 of us taken prisoner that
day, and there was one man - Thomas who had a bod wound in his side. We were
crowded into a single cell at the fortress
and left to await our fate. It was hot in
there, with the sweat of bodies and mustiness of air that caught at my throat and
threatened 10 choke me. r wanted 10 re
move my black beret and shirt and stretch
out on 1:tte hard stone Ooor, but I did not.
Instead. I bore it in silence and waited
with the others.

The officer !li&llecl, "What differ

,I-it make?~ day will be
liot. Wlio wants to i. under Ille
-.day - ? Al least DOW diere II I
bit of I breeu Old tllen."
"You must obey the orders," I insisted.
"Each order must be executed separately."
You can sec, of course, the reason for my
insistence. If the five orders were lumped
to&ether and carried OIII at once (as General Paulson no doubt intended), all twentythree of us would be shot. But if they were
carried out separatelr, the orders would
allow nine of us to ltve. I'd always been
good at mathematics, and this was how I
figured it - every fifth man would be tak
en from the original 23, a total of 4, leaving
19. The process would be repeated a second
lime, killing 3, leaving 16. On the thrid
round 3 would die, and 13 would be left.
By PYI, 2 Keil L Mal}'I
Then 2 shot. 11 left. And final 2 shot, and 9
One, two, three. four and the sound of
of us would walk out of the fortress as free
thundering roomcps go spcedins out the
as the air.
gate. It's the daily morning PT run going
You say the odds were still against me? full steam ahead. The lead runners keep
Not at all - if the officer agreed to my speeding up and slowing down like a rolaraument, I was certain to survive. Be lercoaster ride. The person in front of you
cause consider - how would the fifth man is out of step. The guy beside you docsn"t
be picked each time? Not by drawing shower like he should and the smell gags
straws. for this was the milital')'. We would you after you reach the mile mark.
line up in a single column and count off.
The guy in front of you docsn 't signal
And in what order would we line up -al- you that the curb or a puddle of water is
phabetically? Hardly, when they did not there and you fall on your assertiveness to
even know our names. We would line up in regain your balance before you hit the
the old military tradition - by height.
ground. One person trips and six runners
And I had already established during the bite the dust and cat concrete for break
night in the cell that I was the shortest of fast, due to the person who ltas been out of
step for the last IO minutes.
the 23 prisoners!
Running in formation with everybody
If Ibey started to COUIII-Off II tlte
singing cadence isn't that bad a way to
sbort elld of the liM, which was
start out the day. And we can run in for
unlikely, I would lways be safe, for
mation without anyone getting hurt or seI would always be Nmber 0....
riously injured. Here arc some thinas we
More likely, tlMy would start al the
all need to consider to avoid road ra,h or
tall end, and for 5 count-offs I would
an
even more serious injury.
always be last - dumber 23, 19, 16,
13, 11, and 9. Never a numbtr divisible by 5 - oetr 01N of t1N, dooine4
prisoners!

A certain custom has existed in the

The officer stared down at me for what
country, a custom which has been observed in revolutions for hundreds of years. seemed an eternity. finally he glanced
through
the orders in his hand once more
tways faced with the problem of the de.led foe, governments had traditionally and reached a decision. "All right, we will
carry
out
the first order."
ent down the order: Kill every fifth man
and release the others. It was a system of
We lined up in the courtyard by height
justice tempered with a large degree of with two men supporting the woundedThomercy, and acted as a deterrent while still mas, and started the count-off. Of the 23
allowing something of on opposition party of us, 4 were marched over to the sea wall
to exist within the country. Of course, the and shot. The rest of us tried not to look.
eighty percent who were released often
Again, and three of our number died
regrouped to revolt again. but the threat
that h~ng over them was sometimes agaisnt the sea wall. One of t he remaining
16
was startin3 to cry. He had figured out
enough to pacify their activities.
his position in the lineup.
Thi<, tho11, was the fate that
The officer formally read the third exec,.ailed 11< 23 prisoners In a
utive order, and three more went to the
gloomy fortress by the blue waters
wall. I was still last in the line. After the
or the bay. Wt had reaS011 ro.. hope,
fourth order two o f the 13 were marched
bKa11St most or 11< had the odds on
to their death. Even the firing squad was
our siclt, but wt had reckoned witltbeginning to look hot and bored. The sun
oul tlte cold-blooded calculation of
was almost above us. Well, only one more
Gtmral Paulson. The orcltr came
count-off and then nine of us would be
down early the following inorning,
free.
and it was read to ,.. throltaJ, the
"Walt!" The officer llllouted, as
ban of the cell. It was as we luid
expected: E,ery firth .,.. will he
the firtt IIIID be&H lo count-off
a gain. I tumed my nttk in horror.
uecuted immediately. The remaining prisoners will he released in
Tboaw hid fa.Ilea from the Bae ....
the blood was gushia from ~II side.
twent)'rour hours.
He was cltad, and the 11 wu sllldBut then came the jolting surprise. The
cltnly reduced to 10. I wu the tenth
officer in charge kept reading and read the
one as tlte last cot11t began!
same message four times more. General
The fifth man s tepped out of line, then
Paulson had sent down five identical executions orders. No one was to survive the six, seven, eight, nine, ten. I didn't move.
ex.ccution.
"Come, little fellow," the officer said, "it
is your turn now."
I knew something had lo be done. and
You ask how I came to be sitting here,
quickly. As the guard unlocked the cell
door I went to the officer in charge. Using when I was so surely doomed, when my
my deepest voice I tried to reason with careful figuring had gone for nothing? I
him. "You cannot execute all twenty-three stood there in that moment, looking death
in the face, and dad what I had kept from
of us. It would be contrary 10 orders."
doing all night and morning. I knew the
He looked down at me with something officer would obe:Y General Paulson's orlike scorn. "Be brave, little fellow. Die like der to the letter lo execute every fifth man
a soldier!
and that wa.s what saved me.
'"But t he firsl.order says that every fifth
I took the beret from my head, let my
man should be executed immediately. It hair fall to my shoulders, and showed
means just that. They should be executed them I was a girl.
before you read the second order.
Are we really equal?!!

All the way, every day

The pace-people should concentrate on
keeping a nice, steady, comfortable pace so
everyone can keep time and not lose their
wind. Dress right is important so that the
rows stay even and everyone isn't tripping
over the feet in front of him. Maintain a
good clear distance from the rank in front
of you; that way the person out of step can
get in step, without hurting someone.
If you should cramp uf or for some rea
son you should fall out o the run, do so as
quickl)' as possible to avoid an accident. If
there 1s water or an obstacle ahead, signal
to the person behind you by raising your
right hand. I'm sure that everyone has got
ten a case of "runners high" and momen
tarily made contact with innerspace or
their karma. Signaling to the people be
hind will keep someone from hurting
themselves. Watch your personal hygiene
so you don't offend someone so early in the
morning.
These tips can help everyone enjoy the
morning run. So one, two, let's run some
more .. .

Fascinating and gorgeous

Treat her like a IQdy

By Sp4 WIL BUCl<ERY
Cable Reporter
I like the ladies. I mean I really like the
ladies. When I was nine my mother asked
me what l wanted for Christmas. I was
silent. She mistook my silence for indcci
sion. The truth is I didn't want to shock
her. You sec, I really like the ladies.
You're probably wondering what this is
all about. First off, let's get o ne thing
straight. This isn1 going to be a diatribe
on, or an indictment against homoscxuali1y; nor will it be a Freudian type disscrta
uon on the libido as ii relates to the hetc
roscxual. l don't talk like that.
So then, what is this all about? Well, as
we grow from puberty, we come to realize
that being an American male means a
little more than eating apple pie, losing
twenty bucks on the World Series or
breaking your posterior while skateboarding (I speak from cKperiencc).
It a,nns tbal you han deel0p
a ....,.,. alld lntelllceal ottliook towards <NW of America's greatest rellOIIJ'ces - lbt ladles. NOllng else
puts more ...,. oa lbt psychiatrist's
couc.. kttps judges ia the courtroom past nldnight, or ad,ertisers
up lalt lhi1kla1 of ways to con,lnce
Ille public tbal their prod.ct 11U1kn
ugly look htautifL
The ladies, so beautiful, so intelligent. so
capable and strong. I love them. from
Margaret Thatcher to Bo Derck, I find
them fascinating and gorg-cous. Whether
I'm at work or having a little recreation. I
appreciate having them around. Was life
ever meant to be any other way?
It's really sad to think th.al we, the men
of America, arc not doing them justice.
V cry often we arc discourteous, rude and
vulgar to them. Many tim I'll see a soldier display hostility and insensitiveness lo
some lady who hardly seems to know what
her crime was. More consideration is
needed for our womenfolk. Chivalry leaves

such a nice taste in the mouth, even, when

you say it.
I crew up I the 1950s. II wu a
differol time, 1 different world.
TltoM were the days when ii was
coasldered a shock and not trMa 10
ka111 that some ltHa~r was smoking, the days whe preinancy ind
abtion were dirty words that shnply were not said In polite convtrsalioa. If someone did say them. the
roon, l>Kame ery quiet. Vou felt
embarrassed. awkward. It was l ike
Ille fttlin1 you get wllen you sit in
Ille movies wit your nine-year-old
daughter ud suddenly there's a nude
"ene. You've got lo watch those IPG
ratings. I'm eettlng off llte track.
In the SOs ladies were real special. Kids
called a lady Mrs. So and So, not Barbara
or Annie baby. In fact she was called Mrs.
whether she was married or not. Your
mom made you do it. If you asked a lady
for anything, it was cookies or candy. not
cigarettes or a date.
Men were courteous. They held doors,
watched their langauge, and showed re
specl. Why, if a lady fell down on her
fanny you wouldn't even laugh. Maybe
you'd give a snicker if she was fal and
bounced a little.
Before you went to visit a lady you d:~
all kinds of wonderful things. You took a
bath, smeared Brylcreem in your hair, and
put on clean clothes. You remember the
outfit .. . cardigan sweater, bucks, and
slacks . .. with cuffs.
And you dkl'I co 1tt a lady Immediately arter a basketba.11 aam,e. I
see some soldiers walk off the basketball court and ao straleht to the
enllstt4 women billets. There 1ou
are te1Un1 ber bow hard you bustled.
Vou don't bave to teU ~er bow bard
yo. hustled, she atn smell ow Ila rd.
There's one no torious soldier who car/Continued on poge 6J