FirstSpear TV

Archive for the ‘Cold War’ Category

Special Operations Forces (1984)

Sunday, November 3rd, 2024

This Army training video produced in 1984 was intended for Army Captains and Majors in the Special Forces branch and depict SOF’s role in defense at that time.

The evolving nations with political and economic power struggles have created a constant stream of worldwide special situations and these are the missions of SOF:

1. Foreign internal defense
2. Unconventional warfare
3. Strategic and tactical reconnaissance
4. Strike
5. Strategic and tactical psychological operations (PSYOPS)
6. Civil administration
7. Rescue and evacuation
8. Collection security
9. Humanitarian operations
10. Terrorism counteraction
11. Civil affairs
12. Safeguarding of U.S. citizens abroad
13. Deception operations
14. Security assistance
15. Special Operations Aviation
16. Sabotage

US Military Liaison Mission Ends October 3, 1990

Sunday, October 6th, 2024

There were never more than fourteen at one time. They were licensed spies who were uniformed members of the United States military but who also held Soviet credentials or passes allowing nearly unrestricted access into and within the Soviet sector of East Germany. They were backed up by another 50 “off pass” personnel – drivers, equipment recognition specialists, analysts – all of whom were hand-picked experts in their fields. All were members of the US Military Liaison Mission (USMLM), a unique and elite joint service organization that was founded in 1947 and formalized in a bilateral agreement between the American and Soviet Chiefs of Staff. They answered only to the Commander-in-Chief, US Army Europe. The British and French had similar agreements – and the Soviets had liaison teams of their own, who patrolled throughout the Allied sectors of West Germany.


Mission Restricted Sign, in English, French, Russian, and German. These signs were nailed to seemingly every tree in East Germany, and consequently routinely ignored by the Allied Liaison Missions.

They traveled in teams (called tours) of two: an Army or Air Force officer who was a Russian linguist and Soviet specialist, paired with a noncommissioned officer driver who was fluent in German. They traveled in a standard four-wheel drive, non-descript vehicle, and were equipped with notebooks, binoculars, night vision goggles, tape recorders, cameras, compasses, maps, rations, and personal items, but no weapons. No espionage gear or other spy paraphernalia was ever carried. These “spies” never met with agents, conducted dead drops, intercepted messages, or participated in any clandestine activities. According to Major General Roland La Joie, a former commander of the USMLM, “the tours were really nothing more than overt mobile observation platforms crisscrossing the GDR [German Democratic Republic], seeking militarily useful information. The search, of course, was not entirely random.”


Potsdam House, the headquarters of the US Military Liaison Mission in East Germany.

Tours were assigned targets based on intelligence collection requirements from national and theater intelligence agencies. The targets included Soviet or East German garrisons, temporary deployment areas, field training areas, air-ground gunnery ranges, communications sites, river crossing areas, railroad sidings, and virtually anything else of military value in the country. Newly introduced or modified military equipment, especially combat vehicles and aircraft were always at the top of the target list. By virtue of the bilateral agreement, the only locations off-limits to the USMLM were “places of disposition of military units,” so the tours had to be exceedingly careful of where they stationed themselves to observe things such as military movements or tactical exercises. Tour members duly pursued, observed, recorded, and photographed whatever they encountered.


Members of the US Military Liaison Mission on a tour observing Soviet ground forces in East Germany.

The enemy’s capabilities were only part of the problem; the MLM was also tasked to look for indications of intent to use those capabilities. La Joie writes: “On every single day throughout the Cold War, eight or more Allied tours were roaming the countryside of East Germany. Every day, all night, each tour looking exactly for signs of imminence of hostilities.” Because of their unique and expansive access to Soviet military forces in Germany, the USMLM was included in all discussions about the Soviet threat, at both military and diplomatic levels. Their perspective from within the Soviet sector was exceptionally clear, even if incomplete.

Despite the official agreement, the Cold War had heated up over the decades, and the danger was genuine: On March 22, 1984, a member of the French Mission lost his life in a staged traffic “accident.” Almost exactly one year later, on March 24, 1985, Major Arthur D. Nicholson of the USMLM was shot and killed by a Soviet sentry while on a routine liaison mission. However, despite the dangers, the Missions persevered. Dutiful to the end, MLM members monitored the withdrawal of Soviet forces out of Germany and across the Polish border. They remained at their posts until the day the two sides of Germany were reunited, on October 3, 1990, at which time the Military Liaison Mission declared: Mission Accomplished.

By Ruth Quinn, Staff Historian, USAICoE Command History Office

Blast From The Past – “Shoot, A Fella Could Have A Pretty Good Weekend In Vegas With All That Stuff”

Sunday, August 25th, 2024

This never gets old. Is it wrong for me to miss the Cold War?

In my best Slim Pickens voice…

“Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find:
– One forty-five caliber automatic
– Two boxes of ammunition
– Four days’ concentrated emergency rations
– One drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills
– One miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible
– One hundred dollars in rubles
– One hundred dollars in gold
– Nine packs of chewing gum
– One issue of prophylactics
– Three lipsticks
– Three pair of nylon stockings.

Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.”

-Major TJ “King” Kong

843rd Bomb Wing

Strategic Air Command

Visit an ICBM Launch Facility

Monday, May 6th, 2024

The link below is a virtual visit to an ICBM launch capsule. Turn on the audio and listen to Emergency Action Messages, “Klaxon! Klaxon! Klaxon!”

www.aerospaceutah.org/virtual-tours/ICBM

Kickstarter’s Soviet Weapons of the Afghan War Is In Its Final Week!

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024

Written by Vlad Besedovskyy of Safar Publishing, “Soviet Weapons of the Afghan War” chronicles the arsenals that the Soviet Union developed and deployed to Afghanistan.

“Soviet Weapons of the Afghan War” is a meticulously researched and visually captivating book that dives deep into the arsenal that played a pivotal role in the conflict. Unlike other books on firearms, we are not focusing on the characteristic tables and manufacturing details, but instead we write about the practical use of the weapons. A substantial amount of effort was devoted to the examination of memoirs and conducting interviews with veterans in pursuit of the completion of this publication.

Get yours on Kickstarter before they are no longer available.

Soviet Weapons of the Afghan War

Tuesday, February 20th, 2024

Launching today on Kickstarter from author Vlad Besedovskyy is “Soviet Weapons of the Afghan War.”

The manuscript also includes weapons, which are not to be seen in any other work – such rarities as RPG-16, folding-stock RPKS-74, APB silenced pistol and others.

Each chapter is a comprehensive exploration of a specific Soviet firearm, tracing its origins, modifications, and battlefield performance. Whether you’re a military history enthusiast, firearm collector, or just curious about this era, this book offers a unique blend of information and excitement.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/345pdp/soviet-weapons-of-the-afghan-war

Blast from the Past – The Digital Message Device Group

Wednesday, December 27th, 2023

Not long after “ET” used a modified Speak & Spell to phone home*, select units within the US Army were using the OA-8990/P Digital Message Device Group (aka KY-879/P) to communicate.

I used the DMDG from the late 80s up until the mid-90s while assigned to both 3rd ID LRS and in 3rd SFG(A) on a SOT-A.

Manufactured by Racal Communications, it was a burst transmission device. Messages were formatted and encrypted via one-time pad and then entered into the device via the keyboard. The dot matrix screen could be backlit but was used only with caution so as not to give away the user’s location at night. Although, the nylon cover could be configured to partially conceal the screen from three sides, the glow reflecting off of the user’s face was noticeable, especially if he was wearing glasses.

The DMDG sent a digital burst signal when used primarily in conjunction with HF radios. Initially these were the AN-PRC-74 and 70, but I only ever used the device with the AN/PRC-104A and AN/PRC-132 SOHFRAD (Special Ops High Frequency Radio). It could also used with SATCOM systems such as the AN/PSC-3, AN/LST-5 and AN/MST-20.

In the photo at the top, you can see the cables used to connect the DMDG to the radio as well as an external battery such as the Magnesium BA-4386 (also used in the AN/PRC-77) which only provided about four hours of power.

The combination of burst transmission and HF comms was intended to thwart threat radio direction finding efforts but the baud rate was so slow (266.6 baud), messages took a really long time to transmit. At that speed, you could only transmit 27 characters a second on HF. For SATCOM shots, you could speed it up to 1200 baud but satellite time wasn’t as prevalent during the 80s and 90s.

During an International (NATO) LRRP exercise in the late 80s, I learned that the Dutch 104th Reconnaissance Co used the MA-4450 Message Entry and Read-Out Device. The MEROD looked like the DMDG, but offered onboard encryption.

By the mid-90s we began to transition to the AN/PRC-137 Special Mission Radio System which was much smaller and lighter than earlier radios and used a palmtop Data Messaging Device to transmit messages via a radio which could be queried by a base station for message traffic. When used for Special Reconnaissance missions this allowed to communicator to leave the radio a safe distance from the element. This combined with much faster data transfer rates greatly lowered the risk of threat direction finding.

The DMDG is now a relic of the Cold War. Today, handheld cellular devices provide more capability than we could carry just two decades ago. Communicators use a variety of multi-band devices which offer onboard encryption as well as data transfer rates high enough to provide live video feeds using waveforms which boast low probability of detection and intercept.

* “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” was a 1982 movie by Steven Spielberg. A famous line is “E.T. phone home.”

40th Anniversary of Operation Urgent Fury

Wednesday, October 25th, 2023

On the morning of October 25th, 1983, America awoke to reports that US forced had invaded the small Caribbean nation of Grenada, in order to liberate American medical students from danger posed by political instability. Joined by Regional Security System troops from a variety of Caribbean partner nations, they swiftly overwhelmed the Grenadian and Cuban troops.

While Operation Urgent Fury was in name a joint force operation, and included the use of Special Operations Forces, it highlighted many interoperability challenges, such as use of joint operational overlays and communications issues.

20131024-142110.jpg

Several stove pipe problems suffered by the pre-Goldwater-Nichols military were identified during this operation. Additionally, Urgent Fury was conducted with many systems dating from the Vietnam war.

Just six years later, during the invasion of Panama, saw the first employment of several new weapons developed during the Reagan buildup such as the F-117 stealth fighter and the Marine Corps LAV-25. Grenada was a great learning experience for the US military as it highlighted issues with joint service operations, particularly in the communications arena as well as interoperability between Special Operations and General Purpose forces. For example, SOF also took a much more prominent role in operation Blue Spoon during the Panama invasion. We’ve come even further in the past three decades.

Finally, as with any conflict, lives were lost. Let us not forget the 19 Americans killed in action and the 116 who were wounded. Unfortunately, there were also 24 Grenadian civilians killed in the conflict.