Finally Identified

fter all of these years I have finally been told the formal name of that big lump of earth that Charlie Battery was built upon, and where we all lived and performed our duties.

Not knowing any formal name for it, I just called it the "Plateau". However, I have learned from Uwe Koch, of Kleingartach, that it is formally known as "The Heuchelberg". Where Berg means mountain then it is, in English, Heuchel Mountain.

New Materials and Documentation

New materials keep coming forward that continue to document our Charlie Battery experience. It's almost like the Nike Base of Kleingartach has been given a new life and appreciation. We keep making new friends both here in the U.S., and in Germany as well.

Of course, I am delighted that people in the villages and Heilbronn are finding the website, signing our Guest Book, and contributing new items for our Archives and photo record. I am looking for a way that the website can have a German language version, which could expand participation even more. So if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

New photos have be submitted by John and Charlotte Standerfer of Dallas, Texas, which illustrate Brackenheim, the Crete ASP facility, and Heilbronn. It's nice to have a more personal record of those who live in the surrounding villages. A view of that daily life that most of us who live at the base did not experience. Some of the photos were taken on May Day, a holiday in Germany, and show the dance around the May Pole and scenes of a marching band as part of the parade. Thank you John and Charlotte...!

Also a very nice collection of photos have been provided by Ron Daum of Washington state that are a wonderful blend of Neighborhood, Battery, and their Annual Service Practices. John Standerfer and Ron Daum were at Charlie Battery during the same time period in the late 60's.

In fact Ron lives just down the road from me, and he came over for a visit. We swapped stories and while viewing his photos. I scanned about 30 plus color images. Some were added to already existing areas, like “Our Neighborhood”, the “Barracks”, and the “Launching Area”. A great many of them have been added to newly created area that is an excellent documentation of a brand new created firing range on the island of Crete. Thanks Ron we appreciate your contribution.

Crete Annual Service Practice Range

In 1968 NATO created a new Annual Service Practice Firing facility on the Island of Crete, which is part of the country of Greece, located in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Ron has written the introduction to the new area of “Crete”, located as a sub-heading in the “Assigned TDY's” section of the navigation bar.

The Following is a quote from Wikipedia: “NATO Missile Firing Installation or NAMFI (35°34′22″N 24°10′25″E) is an extensive missile firing range located north of Souda Air Base. NAMFI was established in 1968 as a NATO training facility for Air Defense Systems and it takes advantage of clear atmospheric conditions throughout the year.

Currently NAMFI is regularly used by the armed forces of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and the United States. In the past it was also used by Denmark, France, and Norway.

Today the firing range is used mostly for Patriot and Hawk launches, although a wide range of surface to air and air to surface missiles are fired occasionally. As the trajectories of the missiles cross busy air and sea areas, an Air and Sea surveillance radar system is used to resolve possible conflicts.”

It seems that at some point the drone aircraft were replaced with a system that created a “Virtual Target”, thus reducing expense, and increasing reliability. I can't speak on it to because I know almost nothing about it. Maybe one of you could give us a lesson on Virtual Targets, which I will add to the website.

And it turns out that Charlie Battery was one of the units chosen for the initial trial run shoots that got the facility up to speed and operational. So Crete is a whole new area that documents Charlie Battery's history and record, so be sure to check out. It's great to have another historical area that can be so fully documented.

There are a great photos to view, a nice mix of Nike pics, as well as some of the local landscape and architecture that really gives one a sense of the historical and cultural feeling of the area.