Paul Yates

The 18th United States Army Field Artillery Detachment (18th USAFAD) was a specialized unit of the U.S. Army stationed in Europe during the Cold War. Its primary mission was to provide custodial oversight and technical support for U.S. nuclear warheads assigned to NATO artillery units, specifically supporting Belgian forces equipped with Honest John and later Lance missiles. Activated in the late 1960s, the 18th USAFAD was based in Werl, West Germany, working closely with the Belgian 14th Artillery Battalion. The unit was inactivated in the early 1990s following the end of the Cold War and the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe.