THE FORT CAMPBELL HONOR GUARD COMPANY
By Dave Goldrup
The Ft. Campbell Honor Guard Company was organized by M.G. Wayne C. Smith, the Commanding General of the 11th Airborne Division for the purpose of providing ceremonial details for visiting dignitaries and military funerals as well as many allied ceremonies. The Company also fielded a drill team that performed at many functions in the Ft. Campbell area. What nobody on or off post knew about, however, was its highly classified mission of providing security escorts for the delivery of atomic weapons to locations in this country and installations throughout the free world.
The Company was formed on January 27, 1954 from troopers assigned to the various Regiments and Support units of the 11th Airborne Division and non-Airborne Post Units. The Company consisted of two platoons, one airborne and the other non-airborne. For the most part, the airborne members were at least three-year enlistees and the non-airborne, two year draftees. After the 11th Airborne Div. was shipped to Germany in 1956, the Company was transferred into the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team and into the 101st Airborne Div., after the 11th Airborne Div. was inactivated. The Company was disbanded in 1958 after a Congressman revealed its prime mission.
In 1999, several of us from the Ft. Campbell Honor Guard begin a concentrated effort to locate its former members, and in 2001 we held our first reunion in Hopkinsville, KY. In 2001, we met in Cody, WY and in 2003, in Portland, ME. In 2005, the reunion chairman was (Lt.) Mike Delgado of Dover, TN. We toured Ft. Campbell and the former Clarksville Base (Birdcage), where we picked up our important cargos many years ago.
We are making plans to meet in September '09 in Fredericksburg, VA, for our next reunion.
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