I am still learning.

 Transportation was a disaster today. 45 minutes after the scheduled pickup today I managed to get the shuttle people to find out that the ride had been canceled.  It is too involved to get into but some dumb decisions by the boss there. I managed to get a ride later to see her for a pickup of 2 pm to return at 3 30.  I finally got there at 2 50 Unfortunately instead of coming at 3 30 it came at 3 15.  So I just came home with only a 20 minute visit.  But I mainly wanted to see her and let her know I was there. We went out on the patio and sat until time to go.  It was very warm so was a nice time with her. 

I made a fool of myself this afternoon and I can learn from it.  A woman went ahead of the line waiting for the elevator and tried to get on in front of everyone else.  When the next one came she went to try to get on but I told her to get in line.  She sort of acted confused I later realized and there was something that made her do what she did.  I am very sad about how I handeled this when I should have offered her my place in line because she did seem confused when she went to the back of the line and could not seem to know what she was doing. I  learned something.  Let someone else be the bad guy.  After it was over I believe she was not doing what she would have normally done and had some dementia there.  The lady behind me is from Berlin (many years ago)   I notice she repeats the same question quite frequently.  I have a good time showing her how smart I am by using the few German words I know on her.  I showed her a couple pictures of Germany and promised to show her more.  She was in Berlin when the Russians took it in ww2 and they raped her and abused her.  I have only got a small part of the story yet but hope to get more. You wonder how people can live here for 55 years and still not speak perfect American English. 

A little about me in Berlin 1945

Miserable picture of me at the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin. The Germans made great cameras but they also made some bad ones just like we did. The one I had was a borrowed one and it was rainy so the picture was bad. Note the white sign just to the right of me which is a check point I think. Although at this time Oct. 1945 we were able to go back and forth into east Berlin without restriction that day. The day this was taken I and a truck load of others had gone to Berlin from Darmstadt which was the HQ of the 3rd Inf. Division Artillery. The reason we were able to go was there was a football game between the 3rd and another outfit and we were supposed to watch it. I wanted to see Berlin and couldn't care less about football. Just to my right off camera is the German Reichstag the German parlement. My buddy who took the picture and I went down into Hitlers Bunker where he killed himself. This was behind the Reichstag. After looking around a little a Russian came and run us out. This means we were in the Russian zone and makes me wonder if I have been wrong all these years about exactly were we were. I am wondering if the Reichstag was on the other side of the Brandenberg Gate. Something I haven't thought about for 65 years. I had been thinking that the Reichstag was in the western zone but becaue the Russian ran us out means it was in the
Russian zone. You can see two or three people on the sidewalk on my right. Note there are no autos. We still had the Autobahn to ourselves. No civilian traffice yet. I drove from Darmstadt to Kassel at the Jeeps max which was 67 MPH without seeing a civilian car or military that I can remember. I will see if Google can clear this up.

Chapter 21: More of the Occupation

After my return from Berlin we settled down doing our occupation duties. I was still driving the Ex, Officer Col. Coyne. There was the one prison camp at Marburg under our jurisdiction. There was a book written by James Bacque titled "Other losses" that claimed a million or so German Prisoners were starved in American and French prison camps under miserable conditions. It certainly didn't happen where we were in charge but the U. S. did participate in some reprehensible incidences such as Operation Keel Haul which turned over huge numbers of persecuted Russians back to Stalin to be sent to the Gulag. Few ever came out. These were the ones who fought for Germany after being captured. No one ever claimed this was not an atrocity. Just like war, immense governmental operations of all kinds which is too huge and mystical for the ordinary human with limited information to understand. So operation Keel Haul rests in the dustbin of history.

I can believe the French were capable of it from what I saw of prisoners when I returned from Le Harve and got lost on my way back by a different route. You can see from the picture of the prison camp that these prisoners were well housed. What they ate I have no idea.

When we were doing duty we got an opportunity to look around. Here is a picture of me in front of a dump for destroyed war planes.

Occasionally there would be a formation to give a medal to someone who had been recommended for it but had not yet received it. That is what this formation is about.

I, with the letter needs no description.

More tomorrow hopefully

The Post bar had a bouncer, and you paid for your beer with this script as there were no American money. There were usually a lot of women in the bar at the invitation of soldiers because they were permitted. This was at the time there was extreme hunger and want. So women were easily had. Take a look at the picture of Darmstadt after the raid.

One time the Col had been trying to find a tailor to modify one of his uniforms. This was shortly after I became his driver. Apparently he had had trouble finding one. He asked me to see what I could do about it. So I just went to the neares twon and started asking where there was a tailor. No problem. Shortly I was directed to a tailor. So I went back and got it done for him. Later he asked me how I managed to find the tailor. I simply said. "Ask Questions" That seemed to make an impression as if no one had thought of that. Later one day in my room the lieutenant who was a West Point grad. came in and told me out of the blue that "to be a sergeant you have to be a soldier and I was not a soldier." I suppose I didn't jump to attention quickly enough and what ever planes to make me sergeant evaporated with my response. I didn't have any idea I was being considered for the promotion in the first place. If I had known I would have jumpted more quickly. So the promotion went to Blake. This is one of my regrets that I didn't make sgt.
Oh well, my mother didnt' have me to make me a soldier. This also meant that who knows what it might have done if I had made sgt and stayed in which meant I would have no doubt gone to Korea later and I might not be writing this now if that had happened. So who knows but God what is the best for you. What seems bad might have turned out for the best all along. As I am still here at 86 what I did seems to have worked. From dodging automobiles to not making sergeant way back in 1946.

Look at Bill's war. 4 years in ww2 with the 3rd Infantry Division