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Date with fate - post 20 - Too important to have a beer with a buddy - Fifth Job of Bob Part VIII
This entry was posted on 8/5/2010 1:41 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob, Fate Fairies.
Aside from my own name and my wife' name, I rarely use real full names when writing stories regarding experiences I have had in life. I do it out of deference to people's privacy. And, like the old TV show said, "The names have been changed to protect the innocent; or, in my pen's case...often the guilty. I will also often use a good amount of first names - some real; some made up. And, I must admit, if someone is really turning over every stone in my vignettes, they may very well recognize themselves.
I think I will break ranks in this posting and use a real name. I am not sure what prompted me to look at some Websites dedicated to military lore. A couple of weeks ago I had to go in the hospital for a rather serious episode - perhaps I was prompted to search for things from the past by yet another bout with mortality. I have searched for my old duty stations before on the Internet. There are dozens of Websites set up to help former GIs find old buddies and see what their old bases might be like today...if they are even still in existence.
My old duty station was in a decrepid facility the Nazis had build in Nuremberg (Nurnberg), Germany. It was called Merrel Barracks. While perusing a Website about all the Army units that had been stationed there after World War II and during the Cold War, I only ran across one guy from my small engineer unit (84th Engineer Company) that was throwing out a holler to anyone that might remember him. When I emailed the address he had posted, it was no longer good.
I actually have thought of Ol' Jim Divelbiss now and then. He was in a different platoon than me. He was about the same age as I was. And, he had arrived at that poor old engineer unit, in that facility from hell, about the same time I did. We nodded to each other now and then. And after almost three years we had become as familiar to each other as some teacher might have, that you never took a class with yet saw in the hallway all the time.
Jim was a quiet guy. They called him "Woodstock." Had I taken the time to actually get to really know him, perhaps I would know what the nickname meant. He was from California as far as I remember.
For three years, we traveled through time together with about 120 other GIs that rotated in and out of the small unit. In those years we were dragged to every corner of Southern Germany for some reason or other. All the time, never really getting to know each other.
And, when it came time for us both to go home, that too we forged through in sync. One day, I was sitting in some other guys' room in our corner of the creepy old military barracks. In sauntered Jim in his usual laid-back, California way. To my surprise he headed straight for me.
"Hey Bob, you want to go get a beer before we head for home in a couple days?" Jim said.
I did not take too much time to return, "Pretty busy Jim, maybe tomorrow."
But, tomorrow never happened. I blew off the offer. For some reason, of a million moments in the Army, that moment often comes back to my mind. Not the big guns, not the girls, not the Russians, not the beer, not the tactical nukes, not the stress, not the homesickness, not our junk equipment, not the Germans, not the assholes one deals with in the military...but there, there often comes to my mind, that moment when I flippantly blew off a comrade's olive branch.
Jim was wiser than I was. He must have known we would never meet again. He also must have had the intuition to understand that two guys that had experienced so much bullshit together, might regret not having sat down to have at least one chat over a beer.
Jim Divelbiss, I hope if you Google your own name, you find yourself on my pages. You are a rare dude indeed in these high tech / hyper-information times, because when I Google you, only that one sight comes up with your old out-of-service email. You can find my email on the Webpage version of my platform or...oh what the hell? Just email keithrg13@cooldadiomedia.com and that should do the trick.
I hope you are well Jim; and, I hope there is still time to have that beer.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Senior Airman Adam Peter Servais, 23, of Onalaska, Wisconsin died Saturday August 19, 2006, when the vehicle he was in came under hostile fire in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron, 720th Special Tactics Group out of Hurlburt Field, Florida. The Website pigstye.net (a data base set up for military casualties) states Servais was a member of Air Force Special Operations. Two other soldiers were killed in the incident. The data base went on to say Senior Airman Servais died along with two Afghan soldiers during combat with more than 100 insurgents. He had joined the Air Force in 2002 and was a combat controller in its elite special operations command. Servais was assigned to the Air Force's 16th Operations Group located at Hurlburt Field. The group is the Air Force's largest special operations unit, "with 7,000 highly trained military professionals who stand ready to conduct special operations missions at a moment's notice," according to a Hurlburt Field fact sheet. The group conducts unconventional warfare, counterinsurgency and psychological operations. The troops in Uruzgan are part of a U.S. mission to train the Afghan National Army. The data base also mentioned Adam was a 2001 graduate of Onalaska High School and was a standout athlete who excelled at hockey and football. Adam was also "well-liked by his classmates," said to have a good sense of humor, and also was known to put his heart into everything he did. The 2007 - 2008 Wisconsin Legislature Senate Joint Resolution 31 states Adam Servais was born on September 1, 1982, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He had served with distinction in his elite unit and earned his combat controller red beret in June of 2003, and was in his second tour of duty in the Middle East. At the time of his death, Senior Airman Adam Servais was survived by his parents Pete and Susan Servais of Onalaska. Adam Servais was the eighth Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Afghanistan since October 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
97,140 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,575 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,413 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1209 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
764 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,897 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
7,150 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
19 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
142 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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