Visitors get rare insights into Fort Sill Training Support Facility

It doesn’t happen very often that the Air Defense Artillery Training Support Facility (ADA TSF) at Fort Sill opens its doors for visitors.

“It’s strictly a training facility,” Correy Twilley, director and curator of the ADA TSF, said. “We train our soldiers, foreign soldiers, even fighter pilots from Sheppard Air Force Base.”

In honor of the Training and Doctrine Command’s (TRADOC) 50th anniversary, Fort Sill is hosting a week-long celebration until Friday, and decided to offer public tours of various notable venues on post, including the ADA TSF, as well as the Field Artillery Museum, the Fort Sill Half-Section Corral and the Historic National Landmark Museum. The week-long celebration will culminate in a cake cutting at 1 p.m. Friday in the Kerwin Auditorium in Snow Hall, 1210 Schimmelpfennig Road.

“The essence of TRADOC lies in its commitment to the people. By placing people at the core of our initiatives, we continually strive to enhance the overall climate and culture of the Army,” Don Herrick, Director of Public Affairs at the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill, said. “Through our centers of excellence and schools, even after 50 years, we remain dedicated to our original mission of developing doctrine and providing training that effectively counters present and future threats faced by the King of Battle and First to Fire schoolhouses.”

First to Fire — that’s the motto of the Air Defense Artillery Branch and the doctrine of a successful air defense, according to Twilley, who was giving a public tour in the ADA TSF Wednesday morning. While a good part of the facility consists of classrooms and more, another huge part houses a plethora of military equipment.

One of the first areas of this exhibition leads visitors right into Pearl Harbor. The First to Fire advantage was clearly on the Japanese’s side, as they caught the Americans completely by surprise.

“If you don’t do your job as air defender, that’s the result,” Twilley said and pointed at the picture behind him, a photograph of the bombing.

Twilley then walked by the 3-inch anti-aircraft gun M3.

The M3 was developed in the 1930s and served into the early years of World War II. However, its range was not satisfactory, Twilley explained.

“The Japanese figured out eventually that all they had to do was to fly over it,” he said.

Today, only four M3’s remain in the world. Only one of them is located in North America. At Fort Sill, to be more precise.

Besides the M3, the ADA TSF houses a range of other extremely rare weaponry. For example the M247 Sergeant York, a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, developed in the late 1970s. Or the Fliegerfaust, a German prototype of an unguided, man-portable, multi-barreled ground-to-air rocket launcher. Or the 3-inch anti-aircraft gun M1918, which preceded the M3.

ADA TSF is also in possession of a special American flag. It is a hand-sewn flag made by American POWs in Japan and raised over the camp at 11 a.m. Aug. 18, 1945. It was the first American flag to fly over mainland Japan during that time.

The tour at ADA TSF is not everything that Fort Sill had and still has to offer throughout this week. Historic howitzer fire outside the Artillery Museum with a Pack 75mm howitzer will take place one more time today at 11 a.m., as well as one more tour of the Artillery Museum at 2 p.m., and two tours of the ADA TSF at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.