Only the top team members were sent, because we have to man the unit back home even though we were in a stand down mode. One of the other batteries had the con to watch for MIGs. Just a note here, so you know. Our batteries were only something like twenty minutes from the Czech border, which at the time was a Communist country. MIGs (Russian fighter aircraft, for the folks who are not inclined to know) would try us at times by flying close to our border, teasing us. We always had them on radar by one battery or the other. Well, back from the rabbit trail. Out top guys took off for the warmer climate of the Med and we watched things at home.
We were relayed information when they’d been down there for a bit and told they did a wonderful job and had destroyed the drone they fired upon. It’s nice to know you can actually do something that works. This little test was rewarded with a weekend to do with as we wish, so we did something special for ourselves when the guys got back.
Everyone in the battery was rewarded in some way, but some of us wanted something special and since now it was coming up Thanksgiving and we had four days to do something we wanted to go skiing. Our new doc was pretty well settled in from earlier in the summer and to be honest I had forgotten who it was who took the old doc’s place until now. The reason I remember now is because he was a skier and had come to us from and Army recreation site from a ski patrol unit. The guy always wore ski boots. If you’ve ever worn ski boots you’ll know how difficult this is to walk anywhere in them, but he did. They have an inflexible ankle and you can only use your hips and knees to bend. You ankles are nonexistent in movement. To top it all he was a very tall lanky guy which made him look funny when walking.
Well, not everyone was for the idea of skiing, but we had the 34 passenger bus and we filled it with those who wanted to go so we were all hyped up. Come Thanksgiving morning was very busy. The weather forecast was for snow. We just didn’t know how much. Any estimation would have been a wee bit low. Pops was our motor pool guy and he loaded some tire chains in the tool box on the bus so we would be ready if we needed them. Everyone had packed so we loaded up and started out to our destination. It was a small Army base in Garmisch-Partenkirchen as it’s called now. It was less than eight miles to the Austrian border in the south of Munich perhaps sixty to seventy miles. One other town we visited while down there was Oberammergau. Oberammergau was known for its production of the The Passion Play since 1634. It’s like history visited. I don’t think anyone else on the trip considered the impact of such an event, but I knew what this meant and kept it to my heart to remember that I had been there.
But, back to the trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. No sooner had we left the kaserne and it started snowing. It was lightly at first, but the further down the road we got the harder the snow came down. This was supposed to be a nine hour trip, but the snow lengthened this trip to fifteen hours. That should tell you how hard it snowed. The bus was full and we weren’t exactly a bunch of choir boys. The guys in the back and rolled a few joints and were smoking up the bus. If we’d been stopped we would have spent our weekend in a German jail. But we were at least civil. Just having a good time. Pops was driving and he would ask us to quite down every once and while as he was trying to concentrate on seeing the road. The main highways were pretty good, but we had to go through some small towns occasionally. The streets in a couple of towns had some pretty steep climbs and Pops thought it best to put on the chains. We stopped and all of us got off the bus and Pops got the chains out and started to put them on and realized they were the wrong ones. He had picked up chains for a single wheel ¾ ton truck with two rear wheels. The bus had four rear wheels and they were too much of a different size to put the chains on just the outside wheels. So we got back on the bus and struck out again, but when we reached one of those steep climbs the bus would not climb it. It sat at the bottom and spun the wheels on the ice and snow. So what do we do? To me it was reminiscent of my trip to Ft Sill when we hit Dallas. We all got off this much smaller bus and 34 guys pushed it up the hill this time and at least one more time along the way.
I remember when we passed through Munich. We passed right by the new Olympics stadium that was still under construction for the next June’s events. It was a huge stadium, too and it was covered in snow. I don’t remember much else about the trip till we go to our destination much after dark. The place we were we were to stay was a training facility for the Army. When we finally arrived we drove into the kaserne and parked and found our sponsors. They led us to our building which was a large at least three story structure facing us as we entered the walled in area. It had a huge courtyard and it was knee deep in snow where it hadn’t been pushed back yet. We were all hungry and it was about nine in the evening and we were told the town was just getting going and the food was good where ever we decided to go, but we were given the names and locations of the better establishments, so we all headed out. So not to bombard one restaurant we fan out and went to different recommended ones and got some food and drank a few beers and got back to the building around midnight and went to bed. I know I slept like a log.
When I awoke the next morning I had to release some of that rented beer so off I went to find the head. I was in the front of the building with a beautiful commanding view overlooking the courtyard and the town seemed to slope away from that point, so I could see the rooftops of the town. Snow covered everything. We were told the night before it was the first of the season and skiers would be out in full force. The remarkable thing we were told was that it had snowed three and a half feet the day before through into the night. But this morning the sun shone brightly and here I go on a rabbit trail again. I gotta go pee, so let’s find that head. I went out into the hallway and looked both ways trying to decide which way to go and the best way I figured was to just take a right and go. Not too far down and I found I made a good choice. There it was toward the back of the building. So I entered the head and I was startled to see out the window solid granite rock not more than fifty feet behind the building. Peeing would have to wait just a second. I had to look out the window at this. I stepped to the window and looked out and discovered this building was built practically on the side of the mountain. I had to look straight up to see the top and when I did a little cloud came over the top of the mountain and dropped a little snow shower. I had seen these type snow showers before, but not like this. To be honest for a moment I felt like I was home. I was in heaven. I loved it. From that time on till even now I’ve wanted to go back to my home country. The good ole United States of America is my birth country, but this sight made me realize in some spiritual sense this is where I should be.
Now here I get all philosophical and I’m supposed to be telling about a trip to ski with a bunch of Army guys.
Time to pee. No more waiting. I relieved myself and went back to my room and decided I might as well take a shower so I went back down to the head shaved and showered and by this time the rest of the guys were wandering the hallway looking for the same location I had just exited. I went back to my room and dressed and met up with Ed and we eventually congregated with the rest of the group and went down to get some breakfast.
By the time we gotten the necessities out of the way we were told we’d have a guide to show us where to find a ski rental and take us to the slopes. Little did I know what lay before us. Only one of us knew how to even stand on skis. What I didn’t know is some of our crowd started drinking early. Hitting the slopes took on a whole new meaning for some of us. In spite of our lack of prowess on the slopes we were determined once we got there we were not taking the novice slope. No, no. We were taking a more experienced slope.
Thank goodness for the locals having packed the slopes before we got there. It was fairly slick and ready when we got there. First I had to learn you waxed those sticks you buckle to your feet. Once I we got that done we go our skis on and proceeded to see if we could still stand as we rode these skis down the slope. I’ve never had such a hard time in all my life. This skiing stuff is hard. And to add insult to injury, because I did fall a few times, is that once we managed to get to the bottom of the slope was to watch the five and six year old kids ski by on flat ground. Made so mad. How dare they make us look like the idiots we were.
So, not to be outdone we went back up the slope and we found some of the guys had decided to try skiing in powdered snow. Neat idea until I watch on of the guys successfully ski down the slope and when he got to the bottom he sank in the snow to his chest and he started yelling that he was in water up to his thighs. Seems the snow fell so fast the day before the pond at the bottom hadn’t had time enough to sufficiently freeze over. When our guy hit the top of the pond the ice wasn’t enough to hold him up and he broke through the ice. It was a mess. He got fished out and the rest of the day was about as adventurous as we watch each one of us one after the other fall, run into each other and other assorted skiing incidents that kept the local fare amused.
To say the least we were tired, wet and cold at the end of the day and you guessed it, hungry. It didn’t take much to get cleaned up off to town to eat and drink a few more beers and back to the building for some much needed rest. Boot camp would wish it could dole out such punishment. The problem with us was it was self-inflicted.
We did some touring and I got to see Austria for a short bit the next day. It was only seven or eight miles from our location and that was pretty much the second day. The fourth day out we had to head back home, but the roads were much clearer now and the ride back was less trouble and we got back to the barracks in Kitzingen on time for the next day back to work. What a trip. Everyone should try it sometime. I recommend it.
