Camp St. Barbara, South Korea, Feb. 27, 1959: Men from D Battery, 1st Field Artillery Battalion, 31st Artillery Regiment of the 7th U.S. Infantry Division prepare an Honest John rocket for its first airburst firing. The battalion was the only 7th Infantry Division unit employing the surface-to-surface weapon. “We practice every day,” Capt. Richard Trefry, the battery commander, said, “but fire only 12 times a year.”

“In training there is always the anti-climax when they push the plunger and nothing happens.” Pvt. Jerry White, one of the newest members of the battery, pushed the button that launched “Old Diablo” on its way. He described it as a “good feeling.” “You almost feel like the missile was your own,” he said.

Pictured here is a scan of the original 1953 print created by Stars and Stripes Pacific’s photo department to run in the print newspaper. The red marks indicate the crop lines. Only the part of the image inside of the marks would appear in the newspaper. As all pre-1964 Stars and Stripes Pacific negatives and slides were unwittingly destroyed by poor temporary storage in 1963, the prints developed from the late 1940s through 1963 are the only images left of Stripes’ news photography from those decades. Stars and Stripes’ archives team is scanning these prints to ensure their preservation.

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