|
Fifth Job of Bob - Army - Part XII - Crazy Jimmy's Polizi chase
This entry was posted on 11/24/2010 1:34 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob, cop encounters.
Crazy Jimmy bought another car. He had made Buck Sergeant - this fact un-and-to-itself should have made me take pause. I should have tried harder to make sergeant, how hard could it have been? To Crazy Jimmy's credit he was on his second enlistment. He had been in the Army about five years then. He must have found some cash somewhere, perhaps from a reenlistment bonus. He bought a little two-door, stick shift, European Dodge Colt from the Post Exchange. Don't laugh; my lieutenant bought a Harley. I believe the cost of big items was cut by Uncle Sam's benevolent subsidizing. Non-coms and officers seemed to be able to make better use of the benefit than rabble like me did.
Jimmy loaded me up one night and we headed out on a drunken expedition around Nuremberg in the little bullet car. Sorry, I can't possibly remember where we ended up or what we did. My memory kicks back in with two Polizi squad cars in hot pursuit of driver Jimmy. I will say this, it was like actually being in the movies. I remember going down countless alleys, and down several wide sidewalks. Every so often, another Polizi car would join in chase.
As buildings whizzed by at 65 miles per hour in 25 mile per hour zones (of course Comrade used kilometer per hour), the neighborhood seemed to get familiar. Soon we where heading straight for our Merrell Barracks barricade gate. The poor schlep on duty that night got the gate raised just in time as a flotilla of German Polizi blasted through the ancient Roman arch at the entrance into the old Nazi complex in hot pursuit of the Crazy Jimmy.
"Duck down and lie on the seat," Jimmy explained as he ducked the Colt into a gaggle of several parked cars in a dark area of the private vehicle lot.
Ya, what ever Crazy Jimmy.
I will never forget the sub machine gun tapping on Jimmy's passenger window and pointed straight at...me! A couple of the Comrades had their jack boots on the bumper, others had the little car surrounded. The word repeated was, "Aussteigen." "Get out!" There was probably the word Dummkopf - "idiot" - added in there somewhere.
In the local German jail I had to laugh to myself as I wondered, "Am I arrested for riding along drunk?"
After getting acquainted with fine German jail accommodations, finally, Jimmy pointed to me in the opposite cell from him and said to the guard, "Help me sir, that man is a gangster and forced me to drive him around to attend to his nefarious business. It was a horrible thing to go through sir and I am very distraught and psychologically damaged by the experience."
The German guards gathered around for a second and pondered the proclamation; one even glanced at me and then to the mug shots of "most wanted" posted on the wall.
I glowered at Crazy Jimmy and said, "Shut up you snitch; you know the penalty for snitching. When we get out of here, you know what's coming for a Stole Pigeon like you."
"See, my life is in danger from this gangster." said Jimmy. "I want political asylum in your country."
Then one of the guards finally said, "Was ist los mit dir?" And then in broken English, "Was ist you fucking problem? You Americans machen bekloppt (looney)."
A few hours later our sergeant and first sergeant came down to pluck us from the clutches of Comrade. Somewhere in the depths of Army paper work in some records tomb in Kansas City is a notation scolding me for being an...idiot.
As for Crazy Jimmy, he knew where all the skeletons were buried in our little corner of Uncle Sam's Army. I believe he got the same scolding, but with just a bit more crescendo.
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
