From the outset, the training program was hampered by a lack of equipment. Thus, at the beginning the REDSTONE program had to furnish the nucleus, but many courses were unsatisfactory "paper and pencil" affairs. Eventually, excellent synthetic trainers were fabricated, but even this phase was delayed by the late delivery of the manufacturers. This, and other problems having a bearing, caused frequent rescheduling of the training. To make up for some of the unsatisfactory conditions, ABMA development laboratories were used to the extent possible. Still this was not sufficient to acquaint students with checkout and maintenance procedure 105 . Because of the lack of an agreement with the NATO countries, toward the end of 1958, it was necessary to make major changes to the training plans. It was realized that NATO troops could be used to man the second and third squadrons. Thus, this left ABMA with one USAF-manned and two NATO squadrons to plan for. In fact, planning was the only thing that could be accomplished because of the lack of an agreement. However, before the entry of foreign students into the course, the opportunity was afforded to remove Restricted Data information from the texts and training program 106 . In many ways, at the end of 1958 the JUPITER program was at an impasse, a situation it had experienced many times before. For all practical purposes, little in the way of training was accomplished during the first half of 1959 although several false starts were made. For one thing a government-to-government agreement was concluded with Italy on 27 March, and it was thought that deployment could commence. However, there _____________________________

105. Hist of the JUP Tng Pro, pp. 36-37. 106. Hist, ABMA, Jul-Dec 58, pp. 19-20, Hist Off files.