I was musing over things that were common experiences for GIs in the sixties. Life was a lot different then, obviously, but there are a few oldies but goodies out there so I decided to play the old, "Do you remember..." game tonight. Wherever you go in the Army, you hear the troops talking about the places they've been and the things they had to do. It serves as a kind of bonding to have common experiences...it also provides your creds...you have been there and done that...you are one of us. So play along if you will...do you remember?
The schnitzel sandwiches at the main gate to Ammunition Supply Point #1 (ASP #1) more commonly known as just "Vilseck"? The trailer has been there as long as I can remember. I bet I've eaten more than a hundred of his sandwiches and never got a fatty or grissly one...always were top notch.
The 50 Staters Club on Graf main post...man if you went in there after dark they cancelled your life insurance. It was hands down the toughest EM club in Europe.
The hot dog stands set up in all the camps on Graf. AAFES hot dogs and German coke...a steady diet as long as the money lasted.
Man, we had to have a pass to get off post...and be in by midnight and be in your rack for bedcheck or get your butt wrote up. Some CQs were cooler than others, but you know sergeants, any one at any time can go lifer on you. Yeah, we had to be on the pass list to get a pass in the first place. Only so many could be on pass at a time and if you pissed off the toon daddy, you might never get to town ! And then you had to wear a coat and tie to get out the gate ! No jeans. No sweats or Ts. Hard shoes, no tennies.
Our mess hall was so screwed up, they served all the good food the first half of the month...we were in the club or in town chowin down cheap...and by the time we were broke and had to eat in the mess hall, all they had left was crap.
You remember that chili at the snack bar? Man was that stuff RIGHT on a cold day...I liked to hot rod mine up with those rehydrated onions and about three packets of crackers.
One time we had an alert on New Years Day !! Can you believe that? Drunk ass tankers driving their M60s out the gate in civies. You don't even want to know how much damaged we did that night.
You know on those old gas burning deuce-and-a-halfs you could be rolling through a village and turn off the ignition for a second or two and when you turned it back on....BAM....a huge old backfire ! I scared the crap out of more than a couple bicycle riders that way...and a pedestrian or four.
The German kids used to line up along the road in the towns and wave at us when we convoyed through. I saved all my empty C-ration cigarette packs and threw them out at the kids...they would scramble for 'em...then they were jawed up big time when they found out they were empty.
You go through the replacement detachment in Frankfurt? That mess hall was nasty. What ship you come over on? I came on the Geiger...the news letter they passed out about the ship's history said it had been sunk three times ! They didn't pass that out until we were already out at sea ! You know what I found out? Right across town they got a transient mess hall at Rhein-Main AFB that is just like a restaurant ! Man...them Air Force guys.
We got in a shipment of main gun ammo and guess who gets tagged for the detail. My hands are ruined, man, who thought that using rope for a handle on a hundred pound box was a good idea? My back ain't never gonna be right again.
I can't go anywhere on Friday nights, man...GI party. Toon daddy stays right there, too. Gotta strip the wood floors with steel wool then put down a new hot wax and buff it til you can see yourself in it. Then our platoon has the hallway...I hate that hallway...scrub til your hands bleed and you still can't get it clean enough for that old bucket head first sergeant.
You been there, too? You know what I mean then...man. The crap we put up with.