Tactical missiles were painted green; first olive drab then later forest green. A very few missiles were painted in woodland camouflage. Pershing 1 and 1a missiles tapped for a shoot would have orange stripes added to the rocket motors and the guidance section and had a dummy warhead with black and white roll pattern. Pershing II missiles had orange and yellow stripes added for tracking. The white tip of the Pershing II was not a marking, it was a radome formed of a radar transparent ablative heat shield with the fuze at the very tip in black. The missiles had dummy warheads that contained telemetry equipment that monitored missile operation and radioed it back to the ground station. The Pershing 1 and Pershing 1a programmer test station and the erector launcher had a recorder installed to monitor all signals; for Pershing II this was installed on the erector launcher. The post offices at White Sands Missile Range and Cape Canaveral issued event covers for all launches. Most covers were created using a rubber stamp with the image of a generic missile and a stamped date and time. The first eight launches of the Pershing 1a were recognized with a specially printed cover. The first Pershing II launches were in 1977 using the original design configuration with the Pershing 1a motors and a new re-entry vehicle. The 1979 decision to increase the Pershing range necessitated the development of new motors. Launches