When I was stationed in Germany in 77-80 and 82-85, it was accepted that any Soviet attack would most likely start with chemical attacks on, at least the REFORGER sites and the airfields with massive Spetsnaz attacks on headquarters and communications sites.
Being stationed on the border, I can still remember watching the massive artillery park across from the Fulda Gap, and wondering when those 152mm pieces were going to make my patrol "interesting".
The intelligence we had access to had the front line divisions at high readiness with the combat units reinforced (extra platoon in the company, extra company in the battalion), and supplies for up to 72 hours of operations. The greatest fear for us was a sudden attack, in winter, straight from the barracks.
As more and more intelligent was released to us after the studies done on the Yom Kippur War, our training included more anti-Sagger drills as well as better intelligence on the T-62 tank, the attitude was more of that we can take them in a straight up attack, the question was would they start with chemicals and would we nuke back...
This is why I always had problems with t2ks limited strikes, the intention always was, since the U.S. no longer was producing chemical weapons and was destroying the older stockpiles, AND since we considered chemical and biological weapons as equal to nukes, as weapons of mass destruction and with the policy of immediate retaliation on weapons of mass destruction, World War III would of gotten far hotter, far earlier than GDW had planned. Loads of fun to think about when your unit was doing the nuke attack training!!!
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The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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