For the first four-to-six months a soldier is in the Army, he is in "entry-level" status.  This period of time includes a "processing" week or so at a "Reception Station", Basic Combat Training (BCT) for about two months, and Advanced Individual Training (AIT), also about two months.  Some specialty-producing schools are longer, some not so long, and some guys don't even go to a school after basic training;  they go to a unit and learn a trade "on-the-job" (not so much anymore). ...

Unlike military bases in the United States, which can be nearly city-sized, Army bases in Germany are smaller, less populated, and often only house one or two units.  There are some big complexes in Germany;  Stuttgart had seven major bases, Mannheim had five or six, and Frankfurt had about ten at one time (not counting one of the biggest Air Force Bases in Europe).  These small bases are mostly former German Army bases, called Kasernes, and date back to or before WWII.  Ea...

In past posts and comments I have been hard on teachers in general because many of them have gotten cross-wise with me over the years;  some have come near to wrecking a kid or two of mine, and, again, in general, I don't like teachers.  But that does not apply to all of them.  Over the years we have had some excellent teachers working with our kids and grandkids and I value them above gold.  A teacher in Missouri, a state whose education system left me grinding my teeth and...

When the Army moves out of the barracks and into the woods to practice being an Army, all the soldiers get to practice the skills that they need to live and work and fight in the woods or desert or mountains or wherever the working and living and fighting may take place.  Sometimes a company-sized unit (usually about 100 to 150 men) will go out and operate by themselves;  sometimes they will go out and operate as part of a larger unit, a battalion (600 to 1000 men) or even larger. &nb...

The little house on 4th Army Road at Fort Ord was a perfect solution to our family's needs when we moved there in 1974.  It is the concrete house I described in my story about my tree-climbing son, Humbordt.  By the time we left there three years later, we had amassed a lot of friends, had had some great adventures, and most importantly, we had had a respite to re-group and get back on an even footing.  It was a great move for the family but also an important move for my professi...

The recipe below is offered as an answer to a challenge from a dear lady on another site.  I decided to share it here to see how you all would like it.  Don't make a pig of yourself, now.... Chicken Enchiladas Piedra 1 lb Chicken Breast Meat 1 tsp Chili Powder 1 small can Green Chilis 1 Medium Onion, chopped Salt and Pepper to taste Cook chicken and above ingredients in skillet until meat is done enough to crumble. Break it up until it is well shredded. Hea...

In late June of 1974 I re-enlisted in the Army, left behind my three-year "civilian tour" in Phoenix and returned to more familiar ground at Fort Ord, CA.  I have already posted a  couple of articles about that move and the challenges that I, and my family, faced so I won't belabor that aspect of it.  It wasn't all cracked up to be what it was.  But in spite of some serious setbacks and challenges, it was a great relief to be back in uniform and into a stable environment agai...

We are treated to images of demonstrations and protests and the news folks pump it up and make it look like a huge "movement" is underway.  With careful camera angles and editing, they lead us to believe there are "tens of thousands" when the real numbers are less than tens of hundreds.  The news does this because they want a certain opinion to prevail and they are in the business of forming that opinion for us.  So the idea is spread that tens of thousands of voters are against a...

The big news story of the weekend on into today, aside from the rock band that got bird-bombed off the stage (everyone's a critic), is the release of 91,000 classified documents pertaining to the Afghanistan War.  Some Aussie or Kiwi or Brit...one of those accents...who runs his own wiki-site is behind it;  he is anti-war to the max. The most disturbing piece of the story is the suspected source of the leak.  Okay, 91,000 documents is a significant leak...I agree.  But the f...

The pidgeons apparently liked the story so much they posted it twice!

I guess that one of the things you should consider in selecting a place to live is who is running it.  We selected the Swirling Epicenter many years ago based on a recommendation from a friend.  For the most part, the things he told us about the Swirl were true.  But there were a lot of things that we didn't learn about until we had lived here for awhile.   Thing one came up when I was managing a small,  local fleet of construction trucks,  just thirty-some trucks....

I guess that one of the things you should consider in selecting a place to live is who is running it.  We selected the Swirling Epicenter many years ago based on a recommendation from a friend.  For the most part, the things he told us about the Swirl were true.  But there were a lot of things that we didn't learn about until we had lived here for awhile.   Thing one came up when I was managing a small,  local fleet of construction trucks,  just thirty-some trucks....

On the 20th of July in 1944, 66 years ago today, a group of German army officers attempted to overthrow the Nazi regime in Germany.  The plot centered around the assassination of Hitler and the takeover of key facilities in Berlin.  The plot failed;  a large number of German generals and senior officials were hung for their part in the plot, or their association with members of the plot, or just because they looked like they may have had a hand in it.  One of the key players...

Coleman Barracks, just outside of Sandhofen, Germany (near Mannheim), sits just north of the A6 autobahn.  They all have numbers nowdays;  when I was a young trucker over there we just called them by names...The Frankfurt-Kassel...The Stuttgart-Munich...the A6 we called the Kaiserlautern-Mannheim autobahn.  Between the southern fence of Coleman Barracks and the autobahn, there is a rural-looking little neighborhood; a row of houses, really.  They were built in the fifties and...

  When we went to Japan in 1958, Doc was our sponsor.  He helped the Chief find a great house in Hayama, he introduced us to some really great Japanese people who helped us acclimate to their customs and lifestyle, and he had two kids who meshed very closely to me and Little Sister, so it was a good match, sponsorship-wise.  The ship was a small net-tender called the  Etlah.  It didn't have much of a net-tending mission, mostly salvage and repair work on bi...