WEIRD THINGS THAT HAPPENED WHILE I WAS IN GERMANY

 

1.  Nov 88, right after I arrived at Rhein-Mein Air Base, while still in the terminal building, a blizzard hit, bringing severe cold and snow for the first week of my tour.  For the next two years I was there, It didn’t really snow at all.

 

2.  Dec 88 or Jan 89, within a few months after I started working in my new section (of about 10 Soldiers), one guy from my section was discharged out of the Army for, what I learned a week after he was gone, was homosexuality.  He lived next door to me in the barracks.

 

3.  An NCO (Sergeant) in my section, who had been going to the psych ward each week for mental therapy for about six to nine months, got his hands caught in a winch and severely crushed all the bones in both hands and lost parts of a few fingers and thumb.

 

4.  Another NCO in my section was court-martialed for stealing a money order from another Soldier. 

 

5.  I was awakened one night (again) by my drunk roommate and his drunk buddy.  We ended up in a brawl, which I tried to avoid, and all three of us got Article 15 from CPT Buning, our Company Commander.

 

6. Normally, urinalysis testing is one only once or twice a year, but CPT Buning ordered three in one month.  Three guys came up “hot” (the lab found drugs in their urine), including one sergeant from South Dakota.  The other two guys were mechanics, one of which was the same guy who cut me with his ring in the fight.  They were all administratively separated (discharged) soon after. 

 

7.  Our company went to Grafenwoehr in September 1990, to qualify on the M-16 rifle.  We stayed for 3 or 4 days in tents.  We had already qualified and were waiting until the following day to go back to Hanau.  During this time, one guy from the motor pool took his M16 and butt-stroked a guy in my section in the back of his neck, temporarily stunning him and almost knocking him out.,