Entry #9: September 23, 2005

Wackernheim, Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany (just west of Mainz and the Rhine River)

McCully Barracks

Imagine having $440 to spend on a cookout. The cookout has to feed around 50 people. You can buy whatever cuts of meat you want, along with any side items, and drinks (provided they are non-alcoholic). Such was the scenario presented to my platoon sergeant and myself. We reversed jobs for the cookout. I let him do all the planning and buying, while I merely cooked and did the dirty work of marinating them. To be succinct, it was glorious. Tasked with cooking 18 sirloin steaks, 17 T-bone steaks, I was a rung on the ladder below heaven. Sometimes I had to use the grill utensils to thwart off overeager Soldiers, but each steak was cooked to order and insatiably devoured. There was also an abundance of bratwursts, hamburgers, and chicken, prepared and grilled by SGT Marshall Codd, an NCO from the upper peninsula in Michigan, all the while he engaged in drinking some federweiss. Federweiss is a German word meaning “feather white” and is wine made from the freshest grapes and bottled and sold immediately without going through the normal wine process. It is only sold at this time of year, when the vineyards harvest their grapes. I have yet to try it, but I will.

SGT Codd and SPC Fugate (another member of my platoon) are gifted musicians and songwriters. SPC Fugate plays the guitar and SGT Codd plays the mandolin or a recorder/Irish flute type of instrument. Well, the two of them had written a song inspired by me from events which occurred at CMTC. They debuted the song yesterday and it was hilarious. It sounds like one of those old Irish drinking songs, and is very clever and witty. It was one of those songs where you laugh so hard, it feels like you went through a strenuous ab muscle workout. A good time was had by all who attended the B CO cookout. As I said to Shawn while I was grilling a half dozen steaks, “God is in His heaven, and all is right in the world.” For the moment anyway. We’ll see what the future brings. So the Soldier’s life continues…