Category: Journal

I corrected the post below, the beds do have fitted sheets, but there are no top sheets.  They look very strange this way, especially because there are no ordinary blankets, just down comforters.  The beds, in this hotel at least, are very firm.  I mean, I’m used to sleeping on the floor and I find these beds firm!

The hotel serves breakfast.  I suppose it is what should be called “Continental”, but if this is the model that American hotels were thinking of, they have failed miserably to immitate it.  There was a large assortment of breads – mostly whole grain, one white bread for slicing, yogurt, cereal, especially granola (I had some granola that had chocolate chunks in it!), jam, nut butter, sliced meat and cheese, cottage cheese, and soft boiled eggs.  The hostess brought me a pitcher of coffee and a glass of orange juice.  There was a toaster, and I toasted some fresh white bread, interestingly, it only toasted the bread on one side.  The nut butter, called Nutella, is made from hazelnuts and chocolate.  They had whole peanuts set out but SGT Claspell told me yesterday that they don’t have peanut butter and you can only get it at the Commissary.  I only had a very little bit of the cottage cheese, but I don’t think I could have eaten much more, it was very rich.  The sliced cheese turned out to be much softer than I expected, I don’t know how they can possibly slice it, and it was also very rich.

After last night walking around the village, I decided I needed gloves.  I have only military gloves and I’m missing one of the dress gloves, one glove doesn’t do much good.  I took my military dress glove to the hostess and asked her “was ist dis in Deutsch?” and she told me “ein Handschuh”, asking her where to buy a pair was a bit more difficult as I didn’t know the German for “where can I buy this?” and she couldn’t really understand English.  Finally I held up the glove and said something like “where shopping?” and she understood and circled several places on my map.  One of them, “Hohner”,  she said was very big and said what I guess was the name of a store or the word for “department store” maybe.  I looked puzzled and she said “uh Woolworths?” I thought this was an interesting choice of stores but I got the picture.  Another store she said was even bigger – “Karstadt”.  Then she circled another called “Handschuh Gründ” and she said it was a small place that had “Lederhandschuhe”.  All of these places were on the other side of the river or canal “Linker Regnitzarm” in what she called “the city”.  The area I am staying in is called Alt Bamberg, i.e. “Old Bamberg”.

I decided to go to the specialty store first.  I walked down “Richard-Wagner Straße” to “Hainstraße”, then to “Lange Straße” and easily found the shop.  They had only a few pairs of mens gloves, the shop being mostly womens handbags, which was slightly dissapointing.  The shopkeeper spoke almost no English.  So I held up my hands and said”handschuhe?”  and the lady showed me about four choices.  The gloves were high quality and very expensive, some nearly  €100.  They were a bit tight but the lady assured me that within one hour they would fit just fine.   I bought the cheapest pair which still cost nearly €50.  Then the lady wrote out a receipt and explained the gloves were guaranteed for two years and if the seams ripped out to bring them back with the receipt and they would repair them!

I then went back toward Hainstraße to Promenadenstraße which I followed to Franz-Ludwig-Straße and then to Grüner Markt, where I found Hohner, and yes it was like a large Woolworths.  Unfortunately, it did not have what I was looking for or at least I couldn’t find it.  I needed an adapter for the outlets.  My universal powerstrip with European plug wasn’t working, I suspected a bad fuse, and my other converter wouldn’t work because the European plug wouldn’t fit into the socket, the sockets here are recessed, rather than the flush ones they had in Iraq, so the whole plug, not just the contacts, must be the right shape.  Many electronic products will work on 220, if you have an adapter so you can plug them in, laptops generally ar fine.  So, I went to Karstadt, and they did have one plug that I thought might work.  Although it was rececessed, it appeared that an American plug could fit it if it were small enough.  I bought one and then went to another level to look for a scarf.  It was difficult to find a wool scarf, most were acrylic, and none were cheap, but I did find a rather nice wool one.  There were several Cashmere scarves which had been reduced to about the same price as the regular wool one, but they were too thin for my taste, so I bought the wool one.  I noticed some bedding on beds and it too appeared to have no top sheets.  My boys will be happy to know that the toy sections of both Hohner and Karstadt had nearly an entire wall of Legos, including some Star Wars Legos.

I was pleased to find I could navigate back to my hotel without once referencing my map, but when I got back I realized that the extension cord on my MacBook has a three pronged plug!  This is strange, because you don’t need it, the normal cord has a plug right on the power supply and it has only two prongs, but it can only be used if the outlet is flush – I might have been able to cut off the recessed portion on the adapter I bought, but I couldn’t find a part to my MacBook that is needed to use the powersupply without the extension cord; so, I set about rebuilding the universal powerstrip that I bought in Iraq.  I found there was an extra fuse, but that didn’t help, the problem was a wire had come off the back of the place where the fuse is.  I now have it jury-rigged, basically, the wire is simply stuck under one of the contacts and left exposed because if I try to put the cover back on the fuse the wire will most certainly come out.  I’ll just have to keep an eye on it and unplug it from the wall when I leave.   At least now I can use my laptop and charge it up.

One thing I discovered is that Bean Hunting Shoes are not the best thing for walking here.  I thought they would work well and they are a lot warmer than my Timberland boat shoes, but something else entirely is needed and I’m not sure what it is.  There are asphalt roads in the city, but even there many areas are cobblestone, as is the entirety of Alt Bamberg.  Asphalt with a light coating of slush on it is bad enough, especially in a city area where it has picked up a coating of oil over a long period of time, but cobblestones are very slick; my boat shoes seemed to do better last night, but it has snowed lightly since then.

So I asked the hostess where to go for Rauchbier, Klosterbräu doesn’t have it even though they’re the oldest bräuhaus in town.  But Schlenferla does, they are the original Ruachbier haus since 1678 and oh my God do they have beer, or bier, or whatever it is, it’s amazing, I think I am in bier heaven.  And I had bratwurst too, most incredible, much thinner and longer than the ones you get at Hannaford’s and most amazingly, the sauer kraut is much sweeter than any I’ve ever tasted – try ours plus molasses – yup! The whole idea of a bierhaus is incredible, something we could really learn from.  Oh and they all think Obama is the real deal, as one of them put it, anything is an improvement.

Oh, and the answer is (after some embarassment due to the hostess having to come to my room to explain), you don’t get any top sheet in Germany.

We left the office and drove around a bit trying to find a place to park.  The TMP is a Mercedes van, not at all good for parking.  Then we walked around in circles looking for my hotel.  First the sergeant said “their’s your hotel” but later once we had parked, he confessed that he was just picking it because it was a hotel we were near.  We walked around looking for the correct hotel and finally gave up and he called the Trial Counsel, CPT Hanna who said it was actually the hotel he’d first picked.

We went there and it was gorgeous but obviously undergoing some substantial remodeling.  There was only a dog at home it first appeared, we yelled and rang the bell and got no one.  Finally some construction workers came downstairs and we exchanged pleasantries in our respective languages, though they didn’t seem to notice (or, less likely, they didn’t speak English) as they kept speaking in German.  We started to leave and the sergeant said there was another hotel closer to post he could take me to.  He described the area and I looked around me at the classic European village, the cobblestone streets, the bierhausen and das Bäckerei right across from the entrance and I said “this is too good, I’m going back to yell louder”.

I went in and yelled again “Hallo!” a few times quite loudly and rang the bell again.  Still no response, though more talking upstairs, more workers.  Back outside to ponder what to do.  Then the phone inside rings and I go back in, a woman is now magically sitting at the desk talking on the phone frantically taking notes.  She is wearing latex gloves and looks like she has been painting.  She gets off the phone and I find that she speaks English quite well (which probably isn’t surprising considering she’s at the desk in a hotel).  Anyway, they have no rooms, but they have another hotel around the corner, actually just beyond where we’d walked earlier when we were looking for a hotel (she describes this as “two minutes by feet”).  It’s hidden, but we find it eventually and it’s less than ten paces from Klosterbräu a rather largish brewery.  The hostess here speaks very little English (which is good, I don’t need to practice my English).  She shows me the room (apparently one should expect to check out the rooms here before committing).

Anyway, I’m trying to figure out if the sheets are missing, if I was supposed to bring my own, or if they don’t use such things!  I’m also wondering where to get some Euros so I can drink my first Rauchbier, the local specialty, “Rauch” means “Smoke” and I’ve heard several describe the beer as meaty or tasting of greasy bacon.  I also need a scarf so I will stand out less – all the local men are wearing scarves.  Time to explore!

SGT Claspell picked me up from the USO and we drove to Bamberg, it took about 3 hours.  The base is really interesting and the law center is in the oldest building on the compound.  I’ll post pics once I get a camera.  There is no room at the Bamberg Inn (Army Lodging), as I lost my reservation due to the constant delays, so now I have to put up the money for a hotel (I’ll get reimbursed since the Army needs to house me, but I have to upfront the hotel).  On the good side, I’ll be downtown, so I get to spend the weekend in the town.  It’s a four day weekend as most Army units take the Friday before a three-day off, so I’m holding up the SGT from his day off – signing off for now.

I’ve arrived in Deutschland.  Waiting at the USO in Frankfurt.  The flight was shortened by over an hour due to very fast tailwinds coming out of Atlanta.

Today I worked at the OSJA on main post.  We were going to speak with the Deputy about asking OTJAG to have me assigned to Benning rather than the possibility of me being “returned to home station” which would mean being released from active duty (and job hunting).    The Deputy was busy for a while and while we were waiting, I got a call from Charlie Company at the CRC saying they had received my amended orders and were getting me a ticket. Apparently, HRC St. Louis finally gave in and amended the orders but said they won’t issue orders like I now have for anyone else.  From now on if you select PCS, you won’t go through the CRC.

I told them I would only fly out of Atlanta as I don’t want to lose my bags on an international flight and they weren’t able to schedule ground transportation for today, so they scheduled me for tomorrow.  I quickly wrapped up the three matters I had pending and went to rent a car for the night.  Several of us met over at Mike Tregle’s house and played poker, I was down twenty at one point but ended up ahead twenty.

In the morning I’m going to meet with CPT Dulhaney for an interview for switching over to the Regular Army in the JAG.  It’s not a committment at all, but knocks out one of the steps in case I decide to go forward with it.  Much easier to do it here than in Germany.  I must head for Atlanta by noon.  My flight is around 4:30 and will arrive in Frankfurt on Friday morning around 7:30.

Yesterday I worked at the SRP most of the day while contractors came through.  They only can get a fill-in-the-blanks power of attorney from us unless they are retired military.  Today we had military and gov’t civilians and there were a lot of IRR guys who needed a lot of things done.  I  worked the SRP for about 12 hours and I prepared about 14 wills and had several consults, most of which involved military regulations that I’d never dealt with before.  Some guys wanted to know about medical issues, others about getting married before they leave the country, one had questions about his citizenship application.

The office asked me if I wanted them to request my reassignment to Ft. Benning.  At first I said no, this is fun but it’s no Germany.  But then, I got copied on an e-mail this evening that said that I might be “facing . . . return to home station” which means they’d send me home and take me off active duty – over an accounting code.  This is dumbness beyond dumbness, because some numbers are misplaced they might not just have a delay in fixing it, they may have to admit defeat – Whiskey Tango Foxtrot – Over.  If you want to defeat the American’s start a war and then screw up some accounting lines, they won’t be able to move the troops.  I just don’t believe this, it’s beyond all of my wildest imaginings of stupid and I’ve been dealing with the Army since 1987 – believe me, I’ve seen some pretty dumb stuff.

Tonight I was also baffled to see that a friend, Jihad Muhaisen, who is an attorney in Denver, can’t use his real name on Facebook, even though there are multiple accounts for most modern dicators, such as Pol Pot, Roberto Mugabe, and Saddam Hussain (even though he’s dead).  I discovered this because one of my friends on Facebook lists one of the Saddam accounts among his “friends”.  I won’t mention that he actually knew the real Saddam or I’ll start some conspiracy theories going about whether Saddam is actually dead.  Shhh!

Last night began the third week of my stay at Ft. Benning.  Yesterday I went to the PX and sat in Starbucks reading Cormac Cullinans’s Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice through to the end.  I had gotten to a dry part in the book last Spring and set the book down, only picking it up again this Winter.  It was a very good book, the first two thirds were paradigm shattering.  The last third dragged a bit, but I’ll still read the book again, it was that good.  I will be discussing the ideas in the book here further.  Last night I paid for a day of internet service so I could get on to Facebook and also so I could work online without having to log off every thirty minutes and get back in line.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that I’m working from a MacBook that I bought in November.  It’s my first Mac and I love it.  Interestingly, I’ve seen about a dozen laptops here since I arrived, mostly owned by officers, and all but one were MacBooks.  I find that particularly interesting, since most everything the Army has in its offices runs on Windows XP (I haven’t seen an Army computer running Vista yet, Dieu merci!).

Today more boring than most to describe, since I’ve spent most of it on this computer thingy.

So, yesterday (2009.1.8) I worked all day at the OSJA and saw one legal assistance client among other things.   I love it, it isn’t rocket science but you do have to dig into the weeds of the regulations looking for a way out for your client.  Everyone is friendly and many of them I went to Officer Basic with, so it’s kind of like a club.  No one is trying bill more than you and there is no pressure to get more work when there is none, just get it done when there is.  I can take ten minutes or all day, whatever it requires and country pays the bill.  Closed system communism works wonderfully.  We write letters on behalf of soldiers to opposes actions that the attorneys across the hall are helping the commanders with and when the day is over we can all go have a beer together and leave the office at the office.  There is a lot of griping about stupid commanders (stupid soldiers are a given and don’t rate mentioning), but that usually happens in the halls of the office before the day is out.  Last night a bunch of us went out to watch the game and although there was plenty of discussion of where everyone has worked before and his or her complete military history; cases, clients, and work in general were not discussed.

The deputy, sort of like the managing partner, has seen me several times but I don’t know if she has any idea who I am yet.  She looks kind of puzzled whenever she sees me, especially when she walked in to my office today expecting it to be empty.  I was on the phone to Headquarters Department of the Army, so I couldn’t explain anything.  I watched all of my RA (Regular Army) classmates get promoted to Captain yesterday, we thought this was going to happen earlier in the week, but the office delayed it in order to have all the attorneys present.  I got to talk to the SJA (Staff Judge Advocate – Senior partner equivalent) for a bit, so he now knows who I am.

Anyway, so today, before I headed down to main post, I checked in on the USAREUR LNO again.  She wasn’t in.  I mentioned that she didn’t get in until 1130 the other day and asked if that was normal.  I was told yes, that she works late due to the time difference with Europe.  I nodded my head but didn’t say what I was thinking: Europe is ahead of us.  At 1130 EST it is 1730 Central European Time.  Combine that with the fact that in my group there were a total of three service members going to Europe out of about 400 going through the CRC:  Now that’s the job I want!  She should be the USARPAC LNO.  This place doesn’t just have the smoke, it’s got the mirrors to boot.

Today for the first time I saw the e-mail thread in which Benning says quite clearly “we won’t ship without these accounting codes and he shouldn’t have ever shipped from Maine” and HRC Saint Louis says “we aren’t adding those accounting codes because they aren’t needed, stop bothering us”.  Part of the problem appears to be that everyone is questioning why I was sent through the CRC at all.  OTJAG grabbed ahold of that and said they’re requesting a “do over” (they actually used that phrase).  Recind the orders and simply make my orders for a straight PCS to Germany (with TDY in route to Benning not because I need to be here but because I am in fact here).

So, at least the Lawyers are winning the logic battle but so far no one is listening:

Benning: The accounting line is wrong, HRC St. Louis must fix it
HRC Saint Louis: There’s no problem with the accounting line and we aren’t going to change it
OTJAG: Actually, we’d like to send him to Germany

So, I did some research for the Chief of Legal Assistance, CPT Dean, while I waited around for the USAREUR LNO (US Army Europe Liason Officer) to show up in her office.  She got in about 11:30, I was waiting for her, and she says, “I want you to know I haven’t forgotten about you, I’ve been working on getting you out of here”.  Somehow, showing up at 11:30 doesn’t inspire confidence.  She then proceeds to call the people at HRC St. Louis who it sounds from the conversation (I am in the room at this time) haven’t heard about this problem yet.  She showed my orders to the transportation person again and now says Maine should never have cut me a ticket to come down here.

After this I took a shuttle to main post and filled in the good Captain on my research.  I asked him for more work and he gave me an office and a computer.  I figure the more I settle in the more likely they are to get things figured out and get me a ticket on very short notice, so my bags are all packed and ready to fly.  I’m going to the office tomorrow with the intention of a regular work day.

If this doesn’t work I’ll have to try to get a walk-on to airborne school, since that isn’t possible it will most certainly result in me being shipped.