After Mass and a beautiful moment on the porch watching sky water, you might call it "rain," fall from the heavens, it was time to brave I35 and take the Specialist back to Fort Hood. It's not a bad drive, despite nightmarish roadworks in Waco, and before you know it there you are at the home of III Corps, Phantom Warriors.
As we drove down Tank Destroyer Boulevard, I growled "Phantom!" and he told me they'd had to practice exactly that cadence(?) to welcome a visiting general. Call it out soldiers, "PHANTOM, PHANTOM, PHANTOM!" Which they did when the inspiring pencil neck war leader arrived.
"How," asked the once and maybe future Cadet, "does an armored corps count as 'phantom'?" I held my tongue and didn't say "magicke, son." And then we were at 11 Signal Brigade HQ and the boy's incredibly pleasant looking barracks. Of course he feels most hard done by because he has to share a room, with a kitchen, no less.
I resisted the heady urge to say "height of luxury, m'boy!" and instead took a few photos of Brigade HQ. There it was, the Thunderbird Headquarters, and I was impressed. Quite a set up. His unit, 57th Expeditionary Signals Battalion (ESB) is fairly new, conceived of in the 1920s and activated in WWII, where it fought in seven campaigns, not least Anzio and D-Day.
57th ESB didn't see action again until Gulf War I, II and Afghanistan, where it served well, being awarded two Meritorious Unit Commendations as of 2019 with B Company, my son's, having an additional award. He wants to stay in B Company. He's also finished the paperwork to start a degree in Computer Science in October, which is most important.
Well done young man, keep it up.
Phantom,
LSP
8 comments:
With a kitchen? Dear me. Well, it is stateside. We thought we were well off with a single soda machine in a two story barracks, but that was West Germany in the mid-70's. OTOH, these folks were a five minute walk outside our post gate--
https://zirndorfer.de/
RHT477
Mid 60's Hanau we didn't have any kind of vending machine in the barracks However, we were a five minute stagger from the EM Club. Singapore Slings, $.25.
"Well, back in the OLD ARMY.....etc."
Who remembers the VOLAR program of the early 70's that provided civilian KP workers, free bus transportation to town and BEER MACHINES in the barracks? Funny thing, though, I don't remember any of my fellow sodjiers saying, "you know, I'm gonna re-enlist because of the VOLAR bus, that's a really good thing."
WWW--
Never heard of VOLAR or saw civilian KP workers, at least on our post. There were civilians in other services like laundry, mostly Turks. We called them Germany's wetbacks.
What I do recall is the R&R program. Five days of R&R time that did not count against your accrued leave. Unit provided a ride to and from the train station, train ride to and from R&R center in Garmisch was free. Hotel room was $3 and change/night.
Nice one, RHT. And I know, kitchen = height of luxury!
.25, WSF? I can imagine that'd be dangerous.
WWW, I remember a short walk to an unpleasant NAAFI...
Lap of luxury, RHT!
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