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Show Fall Pershing Series Scheduled To Begin Next Week at Green River J w T3-ittalinn the SUDDOrt White Sands Missile Range, N. M., Aug. 22 Preparations for the fall series of Pershing missile mis-sile firings from Green River, Utah, to White Sands Missile Range will begin next week. Twelve Pershings will be fired in the series, starting during the week of Sept. 23 and ending around the first week in December. Firing the Persing-IA model Artillery-Ordnance rounds will be troops from Ft. Sill, Okla., the U.S. Army in Europe and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) Air Force. Under the annual service practice prac-tice (ASP) program, the firing units will be graded on their performance. Work is to begin next week with emplacement of control and operations vans at Geyser Site on the Utah Launch Complex near Green River. Other facilities, including a tent city to be occupied by about 400 participating troops, will be set up early in September. In a convoy from Ft. Sill, the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Field Artil-. lery Missile Group, the support unit for all Pershing Per-shing firings, is scheduled sched-uled to arrive at Geyser Site about Sept. 7. Key countdown and firing fir-ing component support items to be set up will include the Mobile Instrumentation In-strumentation Support System, known as the MISS Van and the Persh- ing Instrumentation Control Con-trol System, commonly called the PIC Van. Other participants scheduled to arrive in Green River in mid-September, representing the Pershing Project Manager's Man-ager's Office of the U.S. Army Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.; the U.S. Army Field Artillery Missile Sys tems Evaluation Group from Ft. Sill, and elements ele-ments of White Sands Missile Range. Among the latter will be National Range Operations Oper-ations and Army Missile Test and Evaluation directorates di-rectorates and the Strategic Stra-tegic Communications Command Agency. Batteries of the 3rd Battalion, the support unit, will fire the first two rounds during the week of Sept. 23. Moving in to fire the next four rounds, two during the week of Oct. 7 and two the week of Oct. 21, will be units of the FRG Air Force. Elements of the U.S. Army from Europe will fire the last six rounds, launching two each week during the weeks of Nov. 11, Nov. 25 and Dec. 2. The series will wind up the 13th year of Pershing firings and bring the total number of Pershings fired to 280 rounds. Firings Fir-ings began at Cape Canaveral, Can-averal, Fla., in 1960. Since then 268 of these missiles have been launched including 68 at Canaveral (Cape Kennedy) Ken-nedy) and 200 fired onto WSMR from various off-range off-range launch sites. The first firings onto the White Sands range were conducted in August Aug-ust 1963 from Hueco Range south of WSMR. The following month Pershings Per-shings were fired from Blanding, Utah, and in October, November and December of 1963 from Ft. Wingate, N.M. Later Vinson, Jfl Slte near u5 SI'I Utah. Per,hHanH Kennedy h CJ E" 1973. hll this yearit, shing najl e , Most powerful J -A.y's operat a ' f f sile weapon ZSyl the two-stage & , ational since 19s deployed with J' 1 North, AtlaSc'S Organization dehMe forces in Europe t The Martin-rj Aerospace Corp., oj , do, Fla., is prim . tractor for Per missiles. The ineS : stem effifc-i solid propellants Jf speed. It is capable J - r operating in any weajie conditions. '. Weighing 10,000 poj,f5 at launch, thePershJ 35 feet long and 40 inchi-'of es in diameter. j;:A |