Last but not least…

It is great to see things didn’t end up being a full blown conventional conflict as to where our tanks would have been needed.  I guess we did our jobs in just being there. Who will ever know?    I can’t help but somehow feel kind of sad seeing the Armor leave Germany, considering how many years I spent in Germany and Baumholder in particular (3 years).  I did one tour in the late 70’s and one in the mid-80’s for a total of about 8 years combined.  I acutally extended one my tours in the 80’s for the lack NCO’s in my BN and the feeling of being more needed in USAREUR rather than stateside.
Although the saying of; “If it ain’t rainin’ we ain’t trainin’.”  always comes to mind when I recall being a Tanker in Germany and remembering how much I hated that cold, rainy, muddy, weather, I can’t help but somehow have bitter sweet memories of it. Even some of those miserable alerts.
I went on a lot of REFORERS, both in country and from CONUS.  I made a lot of German friends, I trained with the German Army, I made some friends from the U.K, France and a few other European nations many of who I still correspond with. I learned how to speak German, I learned a new respect for our European cousins, I leaned some lesson which proved invaluable in my civilian careers. I recall being somewhat aggitated by some folks when I returned home who had made comments about our need not to be there and thinking that I had just returned from some sort of European Vacation of fun and site-seeing because they failed to understand that we were performing a mission essential job during the cold war.
My hat is off to everyone who served with me, before me and after me in USAREUR.  At the end of the day I guess we can say it all ended well.  Turn the page…..