HISTORY - Page 77
This change brought a reduction in manpower
requirements, which carried over to the training
workload
109
.
Thereafter, an organizational change, prompted at the
insistence of NATO I, further reduced the manpower
requirements. USAF had envisioned that the two
squadrons in Italy would operate as separate entities,
each having its own headquarters function. It was also
believed that four crews at the emplacements would
be necessary for around-the-clock operations. To the
Italian’s way of thinking, a single headquarters and a
pool of supporting activities were sufficient. This was
called the "2 in 1" concept and was adopted. Moreover,
only after lengthy discussion did the Italians agree
that even three crews were necessary per site. Here,
again, the training requirements were reduced
110
.
Although the technical agreement was not signed,
resolution of the structure of the organization paved
the way for the entry of the Italians into JUPITER
training. In June 1959 the first increment of students
reported to Lackland AFB, Texas, to begin their
language training, and in September they entered the
individual training courses at Redstone. The English
comprehension level (ECL) of the first group was
relatively good, but oncoming personnel did not
register so high in ECL. To compensate for this, the
courses were lengthened and a little more night work
was accomplished. In the meantime, August 1959
marked the signing of the technical agreement with
Italy, and the way was at last clear for the deployment
of the JUPITER missile. Thanks to the lengthy period of
negotiation, it was now possible to man both
_____________________________
109. Ibid., p. 48
110. Hist, ABMA, Jan-Jun 59, pp. 6-8, Hist Off files.