HISTORY - Page 71
effort to secure approval to employ the system. OSD-
BMC appeared to accept the concepts, but the
Assistant Secretary of Defense withheld $6.8 million
proposed for FY 1957 GSE funds, and contended that
ABMA had no mission to develop GSE. This decision left
the Agency with permission to develop just enough
GSE to support the development program and train a
small cadre of Army and Navy personnel. Thus, other
than a research and development mission, operational
employment and training plans were at an impasse
97
.
Notwithstanding this apparent block, ABMA acted in
November 1956 to establish a separate division for
training with a specific responsibility for heavy
ballistic missile troop training. Ironically, the Training
Division began to function on 26 November, the date
of the Wilson roles and missions memo. Not only did
the Agency have to struggle to get a training plan
formulated, but they had to fight for the very life of
the JUPITER program. In keeping with the classic "one-
two" pattern, the Navy dropped out of the JUPITER
development program shortly after the Secretary's
decision, and it began to appear unlikely that a
training program would ever get under way.
Despite the bleak outlook, the new Training Division
moved along as efficiently as the situation would
allow. For example, they investigated requirements
for Ordnance officer training and prepared a tentative
training outline, identified specific skills that were
necessary to attain missile specialty ratings, arranged
for instructor factory training, and provided OJT
instruction in the ABMA laboratories. With these
efforts a
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97. JUP Story, prepared by Gen Medaris for S/A, l4 Dec 59, Hist Off files.