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
