I was a member of Battery A for 4 1/2 years. It is hard to believe but true: In that time period we had five different Battery Commanders. I don't remember many of the dates, but I have total recall of their names.
Our first Commander, CPT Lee Warden had been an enlisted man earlier in his career. It showed, and to his credit He took us through the training phase at Fort Bliss, but got promoted to Major, and transferred out just as we arrived in Germany. It broke his heart.
1st Lt James Logan, a big man from the south replaced him. He had been the Battalion S-2 and our Executive Officer, 1st Lt Rice was moved over to that position on Battalion Staff. Logan probably deserves a lot of the credit for the way we turned out. He always walked around alone with a worried look on his face. After he made Captain our sister Battery C in Giebelstadt had some persistent failures and Logan, now a Captain, along with our First Sergeant Howie Buck and a couple of NCO's from Fire Control Platoon were sent over there to "shape 'em up". There were so many Alpha guys over there that we referred to Charlie Battery as "Charlie sub Alpha."
1st Lt Jack J. LaSpina became our commmander and lasted about two years before being transferred. He also was promoted to CPT while our commander. He was replaced by CPT Robert Keller who saw us through a difficult time when we were co-located adjacent to Delta Battery at Wertheim while our site was being "hardened".
The fifth Battery Commander was 1st Lt Gunnels, just as I was leaving for Fort Bliss, Texas.
Al Garrett
