Entry #2: August 15, 2005

Hohenfels, Germany (somewhere near the Czech Republic border)

CMTC (Combat Maneuvers Training Center) Rotation

Ah, now it is the Ides of August or as my Soldiers like to refer to it…. Pay Day. It’s probably one of the better things about being out in the field for an extended period of time. Pay Day comes and goes… and goes… and you don’t have a chance to spend any of it—well if you’re single that’s true, some of my married Soldiers state that their wives go on spending sprees if left unsupervised. However, since I am single (ladies take note) I get to spend it on whatever my heart desires. I always buy something special/big when I come back from the field, sorta like my own reward. This time, however, my reward is a new engine for my BMW since I threw a rod (basically there’s a hole in my engine). Not sure what else I would buy anyway.

Well, the weather here is dismal, muddy, and much better than the last time I was here. February, my last visit to Hohenfels, it was -16 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s correct. NEGATIVE 16. Now for a Georgia boy like myself, you might as well have planted me on Antarctica with a colony of penguins. It was cold, cold. I mean the coffee we would bring out to the guards in the tower would start to freeze by the time it got to them. But, alles glah, as the Germans say. Indeed, all is well. So the Soldier’s life continues…