Looking for help decoding Army Specialty Number

Grant,

There would have been a number of missile systems your father could have crewed for during his Army career as a Field Artillery Missile Crewman.  There was the Redstone Missile system, designated SSM-A-14 in the 1950’s.  This was a fairly large liquid-fueled ballistic missile that took a lot of men and vehicles to support and launch in the field:

A second missile system of the time was Corporal, designated SSM-A-17 in the 1950’s.  Like the Redstone it was a liquid-fueled rocket that required a lot of ground support equipment to launch in the field.  It is seen here on an experimental transporter-launcher:

A third Army field artillery Missile system was the Lacrosse, a truck-mounted short range missile that used a form of radio-control for guidance as well.  Known as SSM-A-12 in the 1950’s, Lacrosse, like all radio controlled missiles,  proved vulnerable to electronic jamming.  Here it is on its M398 launcher vehicle:

The final missile system was another truck-mounted weapon, this time the solid-fueled, unguided Honest John, also known as the Artillery Rocket M31.  This rocket was mounted on the M289 transporter launcher, although a later version, the M386, is shown here:

All of these systems were nuclear-capable and were integral parts of the field armies they supported in Europe and Asia, primarily in West Germany and South Korea.  These weapons were formed into Field Artillery Battalions which specialized in one system.  Multiple battalions would form the 1st Missile Command in Europe.  There was a 2nd Missile Command at Fort Hood in Texas.  I cannot find evidence for a 3rd Missile Command for Asia, so it could be that the Field Artillery Missile Battalions were directly attached to Eighth U.S. Army in South Korea.

I hope you find this information useful in your research.

A. J.