Today was supposed to be a pretty easy day. Get up at 0530, run a few miles, then meet with a few troops at 0700 I was taking down to Hohenfels to enbed with an Engineer Battalion. Well, you know how it goes, nothing really ever goes as planned.
When we went outside for PT it was raining - again - 15 days in a row and counting. But rain can not stop our dedication to fitness, or the fact we need to run off last night's snitzel, pommes, and two slices of struedel. Running in the rain is all good anyway. It keeps you cool.
At 0700 when the troops were supposed to meet me. They were not there. The Sergant Major was and he was a perflexed as I. We were told they had driven down to the mini-PX to get some coffee. Bad Move. At 0645 every morning, every road on that side of post is barricaded by the MPs for mass formations of PT and no vehicle is allowed to move until PT is over. They were trapped. We had to be 100 miles south at 8. This was not a good start to the morning. To make matters worse, they had left thier camera equpiment on the other side of post - the side that was barricaded. I was mildly pissed. I will leave it at that.
We finally got our crap together and headed south through the rolling hills of southern Germany. We rolled up to the back gate of Hohenfels and drove across the countless ranges covered with tank, artillery, and engineer units training. This is always an impressive sight to see finely trained units training.
When we got on main post we pulled up to "the flagpole" the post headquarters, dare I say an uncomfortable place to be, but in my job a regular place to be. We met up with the post PAO (public affairs officer) and his deputy to coordinate the embed of our soldiers.
It ended up they were to be put sent out with a recovery team that was pulling a stuck tank out of the mud. That takes some doing. And when they were finished they were then joining an EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) team to blow up some munitions, and then they were being attached to a sapper team to complete the day with some Hooah crazy army training.
Only in public affairs are you continually placed in the seat of the action on post. Every commander wants us to report on the exciting things that are happening in his unit, so he works his staff to ensure our soldiers are there to report. on it. I told my troops this at our end of the day briefing. I told them they are the luckiest people in the army. They get to experience the most exciting things that are happening all of the time and then walk away to write the story.
After we dropped off the troops we refueled the vehicle and headed back to Grafenwoehr. But we had noticed on the way down this morning, there was a little bakery in a little village in the middle ofnowhere. Now who am I to pass that place up. Fresly baked goods every morning. Cakes, struedels, and assorted foods I have never seen the likes of.
I don't spead German so well and in these little villages they don't speak a word of English. So I just smile, point and politely say, "Eine struedel bitte". It works. They appreciate the effort and laugh at me at the same time. Hell, this morning I was bold and said, "Auch, caffee milch bitte". You know what, I got a crazy delicious slice of heaven and a robust cup of European coffee for like two bucks.
Ok, so it was'nt such a bad morning after all. I had to deal with some knuckle heads, but in the end there was a beautiful drive through the German countryside, some great conversation, and a visit to one of my favorite places, a German bakerei early in the morning.
I can't wait for tomorrow when I head for Stutgart.
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