Undisclosed Location in the Fulda Gap of West Germany
5 April 1985
TF Payne
Major Neville Oscar Payne “NOPE!” had grown up in Brooklyn, New York the son of a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employee. Major Payne was an academic scholar and an athlete. He played both Basketball and Football, excelling in both activities. It was a challenge growing up in New York City with the criminal activity on the streets of Brooklyn. His mother watched her sons, all five of them very carefully and was very strict with the boys.
Neville was a running back in football and a point guard in basketball. His academic and athletic achievements were recognized by Senator Buckley of New York. Major Payne earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He played football for Army as well and scored two touchdowns in his junior year (1977) against the Naval Academy. He did not play in 1978 due to an illness.
Neville Payne was promoted to Major in 1984 and assigned as Executive Officer, 1st Battalion, 33rd Armor located in Gelnhausen, Germany. On the 3rd of April, when his armor battalion defeated the East German advance, his battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Rose tapped him to lead a detachment consisting of roughly half the battalion with attached infantry to establish a defense behind the position where elements of the 2nd Battalion, 32nd Armor and 2nd Battalion, 36th Infantry (Mechanized) had been defeated. The 2-32 “Outlaws” were still using the older M60A3 Patton tanks and were apparently no match for the East German T-80 crews.
That evening, Major Payne issued his operations order to the company commanders and began a movement to their area of operations. They occupied their new positions after midnight and began a rest plan which included having combat engineers using dozers and back hoes to construct hull defilade positions to help protect their vehicles in combat.
By the morning of 5 April, Major Payne’s command was entrenched and ready to accept an attack by the Soviets. He was alerted that the Advance Guard from either the 5th Guards Armor Division or the 35th Motorized Rifle Division would engage him sometime in the morning of 5 April 1985.
He stood up in the turret of his armored fighting vehicle and poured black coffee into his mug. He took a sip and placed the cup upon the steel plating. Then he pushed the headphones for his Walkman over his ears and pushed play to listen to the cassette he would listen to while sipping his coffee. The song he listened to was
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. "I like my women just like my coffee. Black and bitter," he muttered and allowed a low guttural laugh to emit from his lips.
hanzo
