1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Cold War Warrior Page 2

Training aid, dated 1 Jan 1975

The Green Chip Award

Given by the Commanding General
of the 4th Infantry Division

I got my first Green Chip Award in 1979 after passing the IG Inspection for the final time. I think I should have got it the first time
when I was up for three days the day after graduation from TAMMS (The Army Maintenance Management System) School.
I passed that inspection and I will tell you, they didn't have a prayer before I redid their books. I still have it from the CG...Job Well Done.

My commanders weren't really big on awards, promotions or acknowledgements. I know that Lt. Lee was supposed to put me
and Kenny Davidshofer in for an Arcom, but he drug it out and we never got it.

We had a unit lose 11 men (not sure of the actual number, but I was thinking it was everyone on board) in a track that plunged down a ravine
killing everyone on board. They sealed the vehicle up and wouldn't let anyone look inside it. That is one reason I turned on my lights
when I lost contact with the vehicle ahead of me during a tactical operation while driving an APC. It was nighttime, the dust and dirt was like
that on the moon when in the summer months. You occasionally lose sight of that little 3/8 wide by 4' red tail light on the APC in front of you
at night. I told the TC that I couldn't see and pulled up. I told him that I remeber the spot we were in and that there was a drop off
near where we were. I told him I had to turn on the lights to see. I ok'd it and I turned them on. We were one vehicle width off the path
and directly next to the drop off. I was glad and so was the TC. We didn't tell the others because we didn't want them to worry,
but it was hazardous all the same, even in peace time. We lost a lot of people in a peacetime Army that never were given recognition for their contributions.

We were in the new barracks at the North End of Fort Carson. It was across the street from the Battalion and the Chapel.
It was down the street from the PT field and next to 1st Bn 11th Infantry. We bartered with 1/11 and on rare occasions used some of their equipment,
mechanics and supplies to complete our missions. You either worked together or suffered the consequences. We had a really good system.
I felt like Radar O'Reilly sometimes in that I had to utilize the "network" (we refused to call it the Black Market) to get what we wanted.
I am not sure that the officers ever knew about the network, but they had to. I think they just felt if it wasn't broken don't fix it and allowed us
to work our magic. Anyway, we had most of the post on the net through various people knowing certain people, etc. We didn't have PC's,
computers to keep all our items recorded or to search the internet like today. We had a FISH. A microfische system for which I would get
new sheets of part numbers that had NSNs (National Stock Numbers) on them so I could order parts. One month you might find
that the differential or some other part you needed was no longer an order item, but it was essential to keeping your vehicles in working order,
so you had to adapt and overcome the problem situation. We always overcame any obstacle, because we were good at scrounging
or modifying one item to fit another vehicle. Sometimes they weren't made for that vehicle, but the mechanics would "adapt" them to make them workable.

We had a dedicated group of people to work with. I remember we had a track (APC) go down in the field and we used the M578
to pull the pack. Davidshofer, Rudy, Swink or Hansen worked on it all through the night. It was a mess. We didn't have power tools
so everything was hand tools and makeshift lighting. We got the pack pulled, repaired and put in by breakfast. The only thing we had to do
was put the fluids in and test it. I cranked it up and it hyperventillated. The blower was stuck wide open and it was maxing out on revolutions
and the kill switch wasn't working. At first they would yell "runaway" indicating that the engine was out of control and could possibly tear itself apart.
It usually meant that we had to leave the area. Swink watched the damn thing for a mintue or two and it didn't explode, stop or change pitch.
It was deafening hurting your ears and just whining like a dying beast trying to escape. Swink grabbed a seat cushion from somewhere
and put it over the air intake and it finally choked out and quit. Not sure what the problem was but we couldn't shut it off inside the track
and the linkage was stuck open. Swink was never one that showed much emotion and he (like most of the mechanics) could fix anything.
He was stationed in Korea prior to coming to our company and perhaps he just had the real life knowledge that we youngsters just didn't have yet.
We fixed the problem and got the track back into service. One of many daily tasks that go unseen except by those who do the work
and just keep things running. Results are what are noticed, not how they come about. We constantly gave positive results and people just left us alone
to do our work because it wasn't broken.

Track pads came in large crates when you could get them. They were not really a critical red line item, but were required for a track
to make it to 100% compliance. We traded, bartered and litteraly swiped pads for vehicles to at least meet the percentage required for compliance.
You had to have so many percent of "good" pads on the vehicle to make it acceptable. I remember calculating the number of pads required
to make all my vehicles pass inspections and then took good pads off new tracks to make older ones pass inspection. It was a balancing act
all the time. I kept track of my expenditures and never broke the bank buying more than I was allocated and I was always able to keep my vehicles working.

The trim vane is missing off this track (A-24) because I think (and I know it doesn't look like it) that the track was just painted again.
Most of the imperfections were from the damage to the photograph I think. The pads that would have been located at the bottom front edge
were taken off to add to the right side track. I always scrounged two new pads just in case. If I remember right, between each section of track
is a log rod or pin that has a locking nut attached to the inside. You locked the tread or track on the opposite side using a pair of latterals
which were long aluminum shafts which had a push button at the top. Your could push the button on the anchor or non-repaired side of the vehicle
and then, after you removed one pin between two sections of track, you could get the track sections to move forward or backwards
on the final drives or the cogged wheels at the front of the track. The sections were extremely heavy and inveriably they would not fit together easily
and usually had to be coherced with a sledge hammer, tanker bar or some other tool to make it willing to cooperate and fit together.
Surrounding the pin that went through the track section was a rubber bushing that always wore out and was the primary reason for replacing a track section.
You always inspected your track spacing with a metal gauge that went from the center line of one pin to the center line of the second pin.
If your spacing between the two was excessive it could lead to failure and that could be disasterous when hurling a vehicle that weighed
about 11-tons along a tank path to have it suddenly throw a track. Not Good.

The main problem is that you needed to have a certain number of track sections out of tollerance in order to warrant a work order
to have replacement sections ordered by Battalion or they wouldn't send in an order. The order could take over a month to fill and that means
a red-lined (useless or dangerous) track. You anticipated needing sections and "adjusted" your count to allow enough time for your repair parts
to come in before you actually really needed them. There was ALWAYS a flurry of requests prior to IG Inspection time which upsets
the Supply/Demand balance making for some very unhappy people. Experience taught you to order "off season" and store it until
you actually needed them and a week or so prior to the IG you had a track breaking party and all the drivers, TC's and crews
were on the hill side breaking track. Having little use on a set of new treads helped IG inspectors pass your vehicles and made it hard for them
to want to look for failure items. Another thing learned from experience. Never tick off the IG. They have the power, time and need
to find something wrong with a vehicle if you make them mad. You always have hot coffee and donuts and a clean desk and chair for them to sit in.
Never hurts to plan ahead. I never failed a single IG inspection.

Battalion was the only unit that had a steam cleaner and you paid dearly to get to use it, but it was the only way to get Petroleum,
Oil and Lubricants (POL) out of the engine and interior compartments of a tracked vehicle. You removed everything inside the track.
All the paperwork, tools, seat pads and anything else that you didn't want to soak. You put on an old set of fatigues, boots and then took
the bottom plates off the track and then steam cleaned everything. It took a long time to do and every member of the crew was involved
(except the slackers) to get your track ready for inspection. Keeping in mind that everyone wanted the steam cleaner, the bidding got pretty steep,
but if you knew where some of the bodies were buried, you moved up the ladder pretty fast. We had lots of body maps, so to speak...just kidding!

A broken trim vane was a dead line item. Not that we ever put one in a lake or were ever going to plan to, they would surely deadline a track
like no other item except a neutral safety switch or ramp cable. The trim vane was only a piece of plywood but should you ever want to float an APC
you need a trim vane to get into the water, otherwise the wake of water would over take the track, fill it up and send it to the bottom
like a bucket of mud. Every once in a while a driver thought he was driving a M-60A2 tank and try to knock over a cedar tree that grew everywhere
down range at Carson. They always broke the damn trim vane and you could get a replacement (maybe) but it always had to be painted
the tri-camoflage color. It was always sent in dark green from 704th and wasn't acceptable for inspection. The drivers usually took the trim vanes
off the track in anticipation but always lost the nuts, bolts and screws for the new one, which had to be ordered individually.
There were a lot of parts to keep track of and usually they failed to keep the original parts or damaged them while taking them apart.
We had to keep a specific nut, bolt or washer for that purpose because inspectors loved to gig you on having the wrong parts on a vehicle.
I had extras. I kept neutral safety switches in my desk drawer and the mechanics knew not to let a crew memeber put them in because
they always burnt them up somehow. Without the switch the engine wouldn't start and that prompted crew members to become creative
in bypassing the wiring to make the engine start. Mechanics were not very tollerant with people "Modifying" standard wiring, unless of course,
they did the modifications.

Kenneth John Davidshofer

Company A 1/22 Infantry

"Without Kenny, I would not have been nearly as efficient, as we were as a unit.
He is still one of my best friends today. I have known him longer
than most anyone left alive that I have met.
He is a great person and his entire family is the same."

Terry Kotschwar - 2010

The rather gruesome illustration on this training aid is a reminder of the ever-present reality
that Soldiers of 1/22 Infantry had to live with during the 1970's and 1980's. Nuclear war was a very real
possibility during those years, and 1st Battalion consistently trained in preparation for it.

List of all the vehicles in Company A 1/22 Infantry

"Don't ask me why I documented this information, but I always liked stats.
I wrote down the NSN's of all our vehicles we had in our company,
the number of each and the cost. Try and get them for that today!"

Terry Kotschwar - 2010

C-130 Hercules transport at "Pete Field" 1977.
C-130's and C-141's were the main aircraft used by 1/22 Infantry
during the many times they were place on alert while at Fort Carson.