30. Secret Military History

1979-0606, Gender, West Point, LCWB.
Last all male West Point class graduates. This class will always be known as the proud, “Last Class With Balls (LCWB).”
AFA, Class of 1979: LCWB - These initials on the class ring represented, "officially" Loyalty, Courage, Wisdom, and Bravery. It really stood for the Last Class With Balls "all men" and apparently every 79 graduate agrees. A cadet with a license plate with LCWB was stopped by SP’s and when the SP asked what it stood for; the information leaked back to the Commandant. Class of 79 lost the 'privilege' of the ring dance until someone took the blame and marched “lot tours.” LCWB was not put on their ring and was not allowed to be engraved inside the ring by the ring maker. The Class of 79 valued their unity and spirit and decided to stick together when told to attend an AOG meeting a month or so before graduation. They were told to bring their checkbooks and while they stood around waiting for the doors to open everybody agreed that no matter what they were selling nobody was buying. The AOG started off with a pitch about the tradition of a class painting done by a local artist, Rick Broome, who told how he had done these for cadets for a long time and this was their chance to own a print. Class of 79 had put the B-1 on their class crest in protest of the canceling of the B-1. So, Rick Broome started with a slide to show his finished painting of B-1A flying over the cadet area and then show how he painted it. Rick Broome had put LCWB in the painting and that pleased the cadets in 79 and they bought copies in mass quantity. However, the Commandant found out about the LCWB in the painting and forced him to cover them up on the original painting donated to the Cadet Wing (hangs in Arnold Hall). However, the LCWB made it to the printed copies that the Class of 79 purchased.
Ranger School needs a LCWB ring.

1979-0615, Media, the movie the Great Santini.
Robert Duval plays a hardnosed USMC, LTC. In one memorable scene, the LTC chews out a USMC GSGT for not being as professional as he should in an office environment.
That movie did great damage to the Military officer-NCO relationship; Soldiers emulate the silver-screen stars. I saw many officers reenacting in real life the scene where the LTC screams at the NCO for no good reason. Officers, please remember lower enlisted look at their platoon sergeant (PSG) as a father figure. If you treat senior NCO harshly, the Soldiers will not respect you.

1979-0615, Alcohol, No More Happy-Hour.
New Army regulation ends all "happy-hours" at Army clubs.

1979-0615, Military, Secret, Armor vs Aviation, Armor Won.
US Military conducts a massive test at Ft Hunter Liggett, CA, Avn Vs, Armor. Armor wins. The test shows tanks kill tanks better than helicopters kills tanks. Called Tactical Acft Effectiveness and Survivability in Close Air Support Anti-Armor Operations (TAS-EVAL). The results worried Army aviation but made the Armor branch proud.


1979-0824, Drugs, in Germany.
Army releases the results from a major drug study in Europe. 16,000 US Soldiers in Germany us heroin on a regular basis. 8-percent of US Soldiers us heroin. Heroin in Germany is strong, 46-percent pure. Rep. Glenn English (D-OK) said heroin use is now as bad as it was in Vietnam; he blames East Germany for supplying the drug. A hit of heroin costs $10 (39-2022.) 61-percent of Soldiers think smoking hash is no worse than going out for a beer. Officers, NCOs and MPs are involved in drug dealing. 43 NCOs and 1 officer convicted of drug dealing in 1978.

1979-0915, Gender, Female Soldiers Marry Male Soldiers.
50-percent of enlisted women are married to Soldiers.

1979-1015, Accident, 13 Marines Burn to Death:
Camp Fuji remembers Marines killed in 1979 blaze ignited by largest typhoon on record
13 Marines killed in a blaze at Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji.
Typhoon Tip — the largest tropical cyclone ever recorded, created a living nightmare for 1,200 Marines and sailors bunkered down in Quonset huts on base.
During those days, Camp Fuji hosted a farm that stored 5,000 gallons of fuel in rubber bladders behind the huts on higher ground. Tip’s destructive winds, which reached up to 190 mph, ruptured one of the containers, causing fuel to gush down the hill and into the huts.
A kerosene heater inside one of the huts then ignited the river of gasoline. Then-Lance Cpl. Donald Fox said he saw the fire overtake the camp.
“I felt something like a hand of heat pick me up and push me out the door,” he said at the ceremony, during which each fallen Marine’s name was read followed by the ring of a bell. “All I saw inside was fire and darkness.”
American and Japanese firefighters worked together as the blaze raged for two hours, only to contain it and watch the fire burn itself out.
The injured were taken to local hospitals in Gotemba; the medical center at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo; and flown to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, the speaker said. In all, 81 people were hurt, and 13 Marines died in the incident.
“In the days after the fire, with little billeting left for Marines on base, many local residents of Gotemba opened their homes, and [Japan’s] Takigahara Garrison opened its gate to the U.S. Marines,” Col. Michael Reilly, Camp Fuji’s commander, said at the ceremony. “These acts of kindness and humanity should never be forgotten.”


1979-1119, Porn, First WAC in Playboy.
SPC Coleen Donovan poses for Playboy magazine.

1979-1210, Religion, Muslims Burn Down Chapel.
Normandy chapel at Ft Riley, KS burned down by Muslim Soldiers. The Muslims were showing support for the hostage taking in Iran. PFC Efrain Vergas arrested.


1979-1210, Aviation, Pilot Ejects Female at Air Show.
An AF CPT kills an 18-year-old German female while showing her how an F-84 ejection seat works. An audience of 50,000 watches her fly 200’ in the air and fall to her death.

1980-0407, Weapons, Hellfire.
Hellfire II missile exposed through a transparent casing, showing laser homing guidance system in front, copper cone explosively formed penetrator (EFP) in shaped charge explosive in middle, propulsion in rear.
Weapons, Hellfire Missile Introduced, Link.
Army announces that in tests conducted on the new Hellfire missile that it cannot miss. The accuracy rate was 100-shots 100-hits.
2008-0414, I guess Hellfire can miss:
An errant missile from a helicopter destroys US vehicle, the US military says an Apache helicopter accidentally destroyed one of its own armored vehicles in eastern Baghdad.
The military says the incident occurred, when the chopper spotted a group of four militants placing roadside bombs. It says a Hellfire missile hit the group, killing two gunmen.
The Army’s statement says that a second Hellfire was then launched. However, it missed its target and struck a US armored vehicle instead.


1980-0415, Gender, Women in Combat Study.
Army study finds that women could be combat Soldiers if they could just figure out how to protect them from men.


1980-0615, Accident, Golden Knight Death.
SPC Thomas A. Johnson died when his main and reserve parachutes did not open. He was the first member of the Golden Nights to die.

1980-0615, Quartermaster, Army Switches from Boots to Running Shoes.
The Army adopts the running shoe for PT instead of the black boots. Soldiers can still wear the boots if they want. Soldiers must buy their own running shoes.

1980-0615, Gender, the Movie PVT Benjamin.
This movie could be a Documentary on women in the Army: Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) is receptive to the pitch delivered by an Army recruiter. She should not look forward to the private room, fancy clothes, and sauna bath that she is used to. PVT Benjamin goes through basic training like any other Soldier. This turns out to be a real growth experience for the pampered PVT, who for the first time in her life must work for her privileges.
A brief affair with a Soldier ends PVT Benjamin's Army career, but she turns out to be an adequate Soldier. She can weather a further disappointment when she has a second affair with a physician.

1980-0615, Race, German Bars Off-Limits.
“NO BLACK GI” says the signs all over Germany. German bar owners are protesting the acts of many black, US Soldiers in the off-post bars. Soldiers get drunk, start fights, harass women, and steal the fancy glass beer mugs. “Black Soldiers have no idea how to behave in Germany,” said Karl Gustafson a bar owner in Hanau.
Germans are also disgusted by the dress of off duty black soldiers, plain white t-shirts, blue velvet pants and broad brimmed felt hats. Germans see them as aliens from outer space, not American fighting men.