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Fifth Job of Bob - Army - Part XI - leave-time entry 3 - Walkabout the British Isles; Comrade stole my damn new bike at "The Wall"
This entry was posted on 11/23/2010 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
Some time after New Year's 1977 and I had returned to Nuremberg from Spain, the yellow Bug pretty much kicked the bucket. But, to it and its creator Crazy Jimmy's credit, I had driven the shit out of it for a year and a half. Dad got his 400 Bucks worth and then some.
I had one 30 day leave left before my discharge time in November of 1977 (Estimated Time of Separation - ETS they called it.) In fact as your time grew near, a guy might put a rolled up cloth 100 centimeter tailor tape measure in his chest pocket and once under 100 days left to go in Army, you pull the tape end out of your pocket, cut off the excess tape numbers, and let the "days short" number hang out for all to see - Short Timer. Each day you cut off centimeter working down to number one.
Over the year of 1977, I had befriended a guy from Cortland, New York named Dave. He kind of filled the void when my two chums from my first leave-time moved on as soldiers do - Smithy to be stationed in Berlin, and Roache served his time and went home.
Dave was a bit younger than me by a couple years and had a sharp, cynical jib on life that probably was acquired from coming of age in a society that had just lost a war, had a President quit, and now provided no jobs for its high school graduates after having told them for 12 years how wonderful America surely was.
My Scotish father handed me down a cautiously patriotic world view; from my flaming red-haired Irish mom I inherited an empathetic stand point for all worldly creatures, embattled, beleaguered, cast off, or otherwise - but, the caveat was, if one is ever doubled crossed by any of said creatures, holy war must be declared. I suppose it was not a coincidence Dave and I hooked up for a year before I left the Army.
I pretty much talked Dave into taking an extended trip to England and Ireland via train and back pack. Dave contributed by offering relatives to stay with in Belgium. Dave's mom was from Belgium and had married his dad just as World War II ended. Interestingly, Dave's mom's sister - Dave's aunt - had married a German during the war. We met her once in Fulda, Germany. I don't remember the German husband, maybe he was dead by then. Anyway, Dave's family reunions must have been...edgy at best.
On the way to England we did indeed stop over in Brussels to see his aunts and uncles. They were nice people who fed us and gave us a nice place to stay over night. They lived in an old house in a connected row of houses that reminded me of something out of a World War II movie. There was a big dinning room with an old chandelier type light fixture hanging over the big wood dining table.
Straight off, It became obvious we were moving slower because of using the trains and walking. The VW Bug had been far more efficient. But beggars can't be choosy. We just had to give extra time for every movement. And, somewhere I still have a copy of the youth Euro-train-pass I was able to buy.
We could not always afford a cab to get to a Bed and Breakfast or cheap hotel and sometimes we slept outside. I remember sleeping in a sidewalk tunnel, a cemetery, and most notably in Ireland waking up with cows looking at us in a pasture. Once a bartender in Scotland felt sorry for us and let us stay on the floor in his big old apartment that was in some big crumbling old building. "I am going to get a stereo system one of these day like you Yanks," I remember him saying over and over again. I also remember the dude spoke the Scotish language to his countrymen.
There were many train rides. I remember getting on the wrong train (bullet type non-stop train) in France and ending up 200 miles off course at 150 miles per hour.
Ireland was a departure. The trains ran about 30 miles per hour and they ran when they damn well wanted to. Ireland, England, and Scotland were a bit easier to negotiate than mainland Europe because Bed and Breakfasts were ubiquitous and the going cost was about five Bucks. They were actually in people's houses, not like the expensive few and far between tourist constructs here in America.
There was much drink taken, a wall climbed over to get back into a cheap hotel in Ireland after they locked the gate for the night. I have a picture somewhere of a cat siting in the hallway of the same hotel. I remember in those days, my wisdom teeth bothered me the whole trip. More drink was taken as medication.
I remember renting rooms with one bed and flipping a coin to see who would sleep on the floor. It's a hetero guy-thing.
One instance stuck in my brain over the year. We found a dance club in Glasgow, Scotland. Upon picking out a couple of blue-collar girls, we tried to lay on the world traveler line.
"You ladies ever been to America?" I asked.
They both looked at me none-the-least impressed and one frowned at me and said, "We've been to Blackpool!"
Blackpool is just down the road a ways from Glasgow. She cut my world traveler legs out from under me like a rhetorical chain saw - short, sweet, and lethal - my ego handed to me in shreds.
I seem to remember leaving Dave in Brussels on the way back to Germany so he could catch up further with his long lost relatives. I headed back to Nuremberg to pick up my new bicycle I had double locked with a chain to the heating radiator in my room. My original bike I bought from Crazy Jimmy had been wrecked by an Army colleague while I was on one of my other leaves. They had taken the bed apart (which I had locked the bike to) to undo the lock to basically steal the bike for a time...seeing as how I was not going to need it for a month. This time my new bike was still waiting faithfully for my return.
I still had a week of leave left so I hopped on a train and headed south to Austria. I remember the train conductors always gingerly stowing my bike in the cargo car of the many trains. It was a nice little journey. I got back late at night and I still had a day to kill before I was due back to duty.
Suffice it to say I found myself down at..."The Wall." After some nefarious encounters that good night with the dark side of the German culture and what I thought was a splendid evening with a German chick, I came out to the sidewalk with a bit of a cocky swagger to find my new bike...stolen. The cable lay on the ground next to the bench it had been cabled to; and even a hammer with a sharp cobble stone cutting end, requisitioned from a street repair tool shed lay next to the scene of the crime.
That turned out to be a bit of an expensive foray. Not swaggering now are you dumb shit?
I remember showing up to roll call that first morning back...with a month's growth of beard. It was priceless. But Ol' Uncle Sam demanded his faithful be clean shaven. I was summarily sent to the latrine to, "cut'er off."
I did catch up with Dave after the Army. He had moved to Loveland, Colorado and I made a motorcycle ride out to see him. He was delivering milk. I was even offered a construction job out there but declined. Wounder where I would be now?
My old backpack and sleeping bag still sits on a pile of boxes in the basement. Tried to Google Dave, but he seems elusive nowadays.
See you then, sometime again maybe Dave. Maybe we could meet up in Blackpool.
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)
Army Private First Class Nicholas Emerson Riehl, 21, of Shiocton, Wisconsin, died Friday, April 27, 2007, in in Fallujah, Iraq. He was assigned to D Troop, 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division based out of Fort Stewart, Georgia. Riehl was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his unit during a combat patrol in Fallujah. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned PFC Riehl grew up just outside of Shiocton, Wisconsin and was a 2004 graduate of Shiocton High School where he was quarterback on the high school football team. He also played for the basketball team. Nicholas was also known to sing and play guitar. He was a member of church choir were he sang tenor. The Journal Sentinel went on to say Nic had a reputation for being a solid participant in many of his activities. He briefly attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after high school.
The war casualty data base iraq.pigstye.net mentioned via information from the Post-Crescent that Riehl had a chance to get home for Thanksgiving just before being deployed to Iraq. There were 54 members in Riehl's high school graduating class. Nic was the school basket ball team's most valuable player his senior year. Shiocton is a village of 959 people and is around 20 miles northwest of Appleton, Wisconsin. The area is in northwestern Outagamie County. Riehl joined the Army in November 2005 and arrived at Fort Stewart, Georgia, in April 2006. He was deployed to Iraq in January 2007 and was a cavalry scout.
A biography for Nicholas Riehl found at clinehansonfuneralhome.com notes that he was born on December 2, 1985 in Appleton, Wisconsin. The biography goes on to list that at the time of his death he was survived by his parents Rick and Patti; a brother Evan Riehl; a sister Roselynn Riehl; paternal grandparents Duane (Sandy) Riehl; and, maternal grandparents Lloyd and Theresa Bunnell. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also mentioned survivors as good friend/cousin Trent Riehl; and, godfather/uncle Robin Riehl. Private First Class Nicholas Riehl was the 73rd Wisconsin military service person killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
98,872 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,784 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,432 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1399 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
827 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,989 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,368 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
103 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
26 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
144 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; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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