1,000 Word Excerpt


When I first checked into the 350th, this Alert situation was drilled into my head from the very start, and I was told I needed to have my Alert Bag ready to go by the end of that first day. As the seasons changed, you would receive a list of clothing and materials that were mandated to be in your duffle bag at all times. You could add other items not mandated as long as space was available in the bag. To make certain you paid attention to those requirements, the contents of your Alert Bag were fair game during any inspection. The Alert Bag was always packed and positioned on top of your locker ready to go with no delay. In fact, when an Alert was called, you opened the window in your room and threw your Alert Bag out to the ground below where you could then drive by in a vehicle and pick it up on your way to the Alert staging area.

Alerts could come at any time, but the usual procedure was for Corps Headquarters to call them from about the 15th of the month on. Requests for three-day passes and leaves seemed to pile up at this time each month, and the Orderly Room personnel had to make certain not too many troops were gone at any one time. Naturally, most Alerts were called in the middle of the night and sometimes at night on weekends just to add to the confusion of the situation. In reality, this timing was actually helpful because each unit would then have the opportunity to test its notification procedures, particularly necessary with those EMs and officers living off base. And that, my friend, is where the perk of being on Battalion Duty Driver came into play. You see, if you had the Duty when an Alert was called, you were temporarily assigned to Battalion Headquarters and did not have to go to the field. As unlikely as this sounds, for the few months I was assigned to the 350th, I had the Duty on two different occasions when Alerts were called. Others could not believe my luck with this and constantly harassed me about it.

So, here is a description of a typical Alert. Its 0130 hours and the companys Officer in Charge (CQ)1 for the night would be notified by Battalion Headquarters that the Alert is on. The CQ and the NCO on duty with him would then charge around the barracks getting everyone up and moving and begin making calls to those off base. After throwing your Alert Bag out the window, you would join in the usual rush on the latrine to empty out before heading out. Troops would then start lining up in the basement to sign out their M-14s or other assigned weapons and, following that, head out for their assigned tasks. After I had completed my tasks at the barracks, I would head over to the Motor Pool to sign out my truck, drive back to the barracks to pick up my Alert Bag and then drive to the hangar to hitch up my trailer containing those aircraft tools and other supplies. My Section Chief had another three-quarter-ton truck with a special cap, or shelter, on the back and it was in this vehicle that we carried the ground-based communication equipment including the field-phone switchboard. His truck would be the Communication Sections Command Center while we were out in the field.

At the hangar, I would be joined by one of the aircraft maintenance NCOs who would ride shotgun with me out to the Alert area. Most of the time we would travel to the field exercise area in a convoy of vehicles, but on occasion, I would go as a single vehicle. Luckily, the NCO with me knew where our Alert area was located as I had no clue as to its whereabouts the first time this happened to me.

Once in the field, I would place the trailer where the Maintenance Chief wanted it and then join my Section Chief and roommate to help get communications set up. Naturally, there was much urgency to get the field phones and radios operational to allow the various commanders to communicate with one another. Therefore, we started stringing the companys commo wire immediately to the various components of our company in order to get our switchboard up and running as quickly as possible.

In several instances while I was assigned to the 350th, the Alert would last just until Corps Headquarters knew all units were in the field and adequate communications had been established between the various commands. At that time, the Alert would be called off, and all would go back to base. All except the Commo Section, that is. We had to remain behind and retrieve the commo wire that we had just finished rolling out and stringing up! The longest I can remember being in the field on Alert was for one full day. I was told other Alerts lasted longer, but then again, I didnt participate in that many Alert exercises because I was not in the 350th for very long. It was my understanding that the Alerts held during the milder months were the ones with the longest duration in the field.

When I was on the Battalion Duty Driver detail, however, things went just a little bit differently for me during an Alert. Both times, the Alert was called in the middle of the night, and of course, both times General Stahl was at the Duty Desk while both the Duty Officer and NCO were off in dreamland. After receiving the Alert notification from Corps Headquarters, I immediately rousted the Sleeping Beauties, and the three of us then initiated the notification network. How much more fun can one have than calling the Battalion Commander at 0300 hours with the exciting news that Corps Headquarters had just sounded the Alert!
1 Charge of Quarters.