Stuttgart, Germany used to be an unusual environment, militarily.  There were six or seven major Kasernes in the immediate area and as many in Ludwigsburg, just a few miles north of the city.  This in itself was not so unusual;  Frankfurt am Main for example was a bigger city with many more Army and Air Force bases around it, but Stuttgart was unique in that it was home to two major commands:  the U S Army VII Corps housed at Kelley Barracks..(.commanded by a three ...

  Jim was a "roach coach" driver.  Dozens of those trucks roamed around Fort Leonard Wood training areas, selling sodas and candy and hot dogs and burritos and a large variety of snacks to the trainees while they were on their breaks.  Jim was a regular at the training area designated TA-190 where we spent a lot of time teaching new Army drivers how to steer in rough terrain and shift gears and other things they needed to know about the Army's different vehicles.  I pe...

REFORGER was the code name for a program begun in 1967 and implemented throughout 1968.  The idea was that LBJ wanted to decrease the number of troops in Europe but assure our allies that we were still committed to the defense of NATO countries.  So  we withdrew a couple of divisions from Germany but left their equipment there in storage.  The idea being that it is quicker to fly the troops over and get the equipment out of storage and into the war (should something happen)...

  Christmas is over (finally) but the memories linger;  the trees and decorations linger as well, but I'll get around to taking them down before long... before Valentine's Day, anyway.  I watched all the littlies cruising around the house soaking up Grandma's magic:  a little group of stuffed snowmen seemingly in a choral frenzy,  a little door in a baseboard that makes them wonder who uses it, a half a dozen nativities in various places and one...

  The first people we met when our bus from Frankfurt pulled into Baumholder were two E5s from my new platoon.  A buck sergeant, whose name escapes me,  and a Specialist named Greg.  They took me and my family to the StadtKrug Hotel and got us settled in and  then took me on post to sign in and begin the "processing" process.  Over the next couple of months,  I learned more about my new stewardship:  twenty-five vehicles,  twenty-some drivers and f...

I was sitting in a foxhole about thirty meters in front of a ditch that had a small stream and lots of bulrushes or reeds or something like that.  It was hard to tell because it was dark.  Across the ditch and about forty-five degrees to my right there were lights;  I couldn't tell what they were, but there seemed to be a town or village or something there.  It was New Years Eve, 1965, or more accurately, wee hours of January 1, 1966.  I was in this foxhole look...

The M-60 Main Battle Tank is 11 feet, 11 inches wide.  I didn't know that when I first met one.  I was a young Private with no real Army experience when I arrived in Bad Kissingen, Germany in December of 1964.  I had never been near a tank before;  had never heard a tank's engine, had never felt the ground shake as one went by, had never been stunned by the muzzle blast from the main gun, had never experienced the clanking and squealing of tortured steel as it ro...

For those who know her and may care, Sabrina (Little Whip) is in very poor health and may well be nearing her end.  If you would like contact information PM me and I will forward.

  Two snowstorms in a week, each worth about six inches;  lots of shoveling, scraping icy windshields, slipping around on snow-packed roads, and putting a couple hundred miles of wear on my tires trying to get up my driveway.  Battery chargers and jumper cables,   snow-frosted dogs,  and many pairs of wet socks.  And a windchill that would freeze the balls off of a brass bedstead.    The sun peeks out and the snow melts, even though the temper...

  We were involved in a huge military exercise covering most of Southern California.  My unit, the 301st Trans out of Fort Ord California, was in direct support of the 7th Infantry Division and was set up in a tent city on the end of the runway at March AFB in Riverside.  Every fifteen minutes or so a huge flying gas station would take off right over our heads.  The newer ones based on the DC-10 were noisy but tolerable compared to the older KC-135 which was based on the 7...

  Way back in the early days of "new world exploration", there were a lot of Frenchmen who came to this hemisphere to work the forests.  These French lumberjacks brought their axes, their saws, their big woods boots and probably checkered flannel shirts.  What they failed to bring were girls.  That lack began to manifest itself after a bit and the obvious solution was the Stephen Stills solution:  "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're wit...

  I have heard that one of the strongest memory stimulators is your sense of smell.  A fresh-out-of-the-oven apple pie will bring you back to the days when grandma was baking them and you were a little kid.  A certain perfume will arouse the memory of a long-ago love.  A smell can take you back to a familiar place, too.   I was the son of a sailorman;  I grew up next to an ocean, a few different ones, in fact.  The smell of salt spray will bring up a v...

  It was a late spring, early summer Saturday.  We got up and did some chores and then loaded the boys into the car and headed out for an adventure.  We didn't have a destination in mind, just out to have some fun.  First stop was at KFC for a bucket of chicken and then the Circle K for sodas and snacks.  We started off going Northwest on Grand Avenue.    We stopped in Wickenberg for a little bit and just looked around.  There is a big tree in...

  El Cajon, California is my home town;  well, as much any place can be a home town to a Navy brat.  I spent most of my high school years there.  Went to several grade schools there.  I have memories of walking to the El Cajon theater with a quarter and that would get me into the Saturday Matinee with enough left over for popcorn and a coke.  When I was six or seven I would walk from my Aunt Essie's house to the Donut Center on El Cajon Boulevard and buy a do...

They purchased a new Corvette and set out across the great USA in search of adventure and...I don't know...it was too early for all that hippy transcendental crap so just fun and chicks, I guess.  Anyway, we watched them every week as they took odd jobs and met people who needed their help.  I am sitting here hearing the theme song in my head; it was on the pop charts for a while...piano tinkling with a mellow backbeat, not the Bobby Troupe/ Rolling Stones song, just a mellow...