Hello All,

I know that you're all DYING to know how our rail load mission came off, especially since General Winter had occupied our AO (Area of Occupation), but first I want to send a Thank You to everyone that has sent letters and cards and cigarettes (HOOAH!). In these times of e-communications, a piece of paper with a hand written note is a VERY nice form of correspondence. Oh, and there is still a (see ONE) computer here that I, and the rest of the company, can use to send email.

Back to the news from the front of the rear...

Well, as I told you in my last email, General Winter has occupied Ft. Mc Coy. This is a typical move by his CO, Mother Nature (there's an old saying in the Army, "If it ain't rainin', we ain't training!"). The temperature each morning was single digits, and things looked bleak. However, Mr. Sun rode in like the Air Calvary, and beat the General back with direct fire. The temp reached a balmy 28 degrees (not bad considering) and we were able to get a lot of work done during the daylight hours. However, it's important to remember that Mr. Sun is a UNION employee (just like the Dutch Army), and retired from the field around 1720 (5:20 for you lucky, and warm, civilians). With his departure, the General attacked in full force, and hampered our activities with a light (15 mph) wind and dropping temperatures (8 degrees). Being soldiers, we tucked in our snivel gear, set our jaws and continued on with the mission. We left the rail cars at 2300, and returned the next morning for the blessing (a RAILROAD inspector has to check our work, and if he doesn't BLESS our work, we do it again, yep, LOADS OF FUN). It only took a couple hours and the blessing was given, and a communion (using Jack Daniels instead of wine) began inside the platoon. I believe that we've all earned that touch of whiskey, and for those that don't drink (or don't like Jack) I took their portion (what a nice guy I am, always look out or your soldiers).

Well, you're probably thinking, "what is he doing now that ALL the equipment gone?" Is he bored, sitting around picking his nose and wondering what's going to happen next? HA HA! NO! The green WEENIE (see ARMY) always has another mission. Now we have to prove to the powers that be (I still have no idea who those bastards are, and I don't like them very much, see HATE) have decided that we need to do a full crawl, walk, run of all our mission tasks.

What is a crawl, walk, run of mission tasks? It's when you baby-step through your Army mission (see CHEMICAL WARFARE) to develop team cohesion, mission knowledge and efficiency. Not a bad plan you might say, if you want to be good at something, you have to practice my parents used to tell me. And I agree. I really do. However, their methods (the powers that be) are unsound. We have been training for this mission for years (12 1/2 for our
Hero) and would like the opportunity to test out ahead of the curve, because we've only been tested on these same missions for YEARS! and I believe that we're way beyond the crawl phase. Oh, and did I mention that I have to be validated as an instructor, even though I've been teaching soldiers for 10, that's TEN, years. Now I believe in being thorough, I REALLY DO, but why didn't they make me validate before? What is the point of all the training we've been doing? But, we're soldiers, and soldiers do what they're told to do. So, I'll just give up on my rant.

Oh, looks like the next guy needs to send an email to his girlfriend, I just hope that his wife doesn't find out!

Stay tuned to hear about what SNIVEL gear consists of, especially the Mickey Mouse boots.

Love,

Will