She came to Patch off a messy divorce, a little wounded and looking for a way to regain some status and confidence. She was a Marine captain and took her new post as the assistant Protocol Officer at EUCOM. In spite of her ambition, she came across as uncertain, hesitant, and more than a little meek. A couple of the resident Marine officers came by and filled her head full of Marine stuff and tried to get her fired up and ...Marine-ish. Which led to the day of the CINC's update. USEUCOM is the highest US command in all of Europe. The Commander-in-Chief (CINC) of USEUCOM is the same Army 4 star general that is the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, who resides in Belgium at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The normal day to day running of the EUCOM headquarters is done by the Deputy Commander-in-Chief (DCINC), a 4 star Air Force General. Once a month the CINC comes down from Belgium for his "Update", where he gets up to speed on purely US stuff.
His C9 would land at Stuttgart Army Air Field and normally he would be brought to Patch on a helicopter but It was snowing all week and there was some discussion about whether the CINC, who at this time was a very fine gentleman named Bernard Rogers, should come in on the helicopter or come across town by sedan. It was decided that weather would allow a helicopter lift, so we gathered at the helipad to await his arrival. It was one of my duties to drive for him whenever he was in town. Protocol always sent an officer to escort him around and this day it was the first opportunity for the new Marine captain to get her chance to do that. It usually took two or three sedans to move the whole party from the helipad to the headquarters building, we were lined up, me in front, Manny the Breakdancer next, and another guy in the rear. We stood around the cars waiting. When I heard the Huey's thump echoing across the hills, I told the captain that we should move away from the cars, across the parking lot. She insisted she needed to be at the head of the walkway from the pad...I tried to explain why she needed to pull back...Manny and I both tried...but she went all Marine on me so I looked at Manny and shrugged, he shrugged back, and we walked off several yards across the lot.
The OD and White Huey made the turn over the Rod and Gun Club, flaired out, and made final onto the pad. I did mention that it had snowed all week? The ground guys from the airfield always sent a crew over to clear the pad whenever there was need to and they had done that...but not the grass surrounding the pad. About four inches of really nice powder snow was immediately kicked into a whirling blizzard all around the Huey. The pilot sat her down gently, wound it down to a slow idle, the door popped open and out stepped General Rogers and all his horse-holders. Manny and I and the rest of the crew dashed over to the cars and opened the doors and made proper salutes. The captain? She didn't move...didn't salute...didn't flinch. See, she was in her fine Marine OD wool skirt, that ribbed sweater they called a "woolly-pully" and that spiffy Marine hat that defies description. But you couldn't see any of that...not from the front...because snow sticks to wool and hair and she had at least an inch of it plastered all over every inch of her.
I got Rogers settled in the sedan and got in my side, started out to the HQ. He asked me who that was, I said it was our new assistant, Captain P and he said..."Slow learner". After we dropped the party off at the HQ building, I raced back to the pad to pick her up...she was done shaking the snow off of her uniform and out of her hair. She got in but had nothing to say. I dropped her off at her BOQ, on Einbahnstrasse, and we didn't see her any more that day.