During the Cold War, there was a group who was referred to as "the first strike capability." Most people thought that referred to the U.S. Navy or the U.S. Air Force. However, very few Americans knew that the U.S. Army had its own "first strike capability" and it was the Pershing Missile System. The memoir that I have written is a personal look at the stress and professionalism shown by these men and women who served in this nuclear environment. It is a personal journal through nuclear stresses I and my family went through to keep the enemy on their side of the "Iron Curtain."