GRANDPA’s WAR – Part 37 – Freedom Bird

The apartment complexes began emptying out. The number of soldiers standing around and doing nothing was slowly falling.

And then, one day, we got word that our turn had come.

We spent that last night on the hard floors of the apartment.

We took our last ice cold shower.

And we had our last breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast.

We each dressed in the uniform we’d kept in a plastic bag, laced up our desert boots. and waited downstairs for the buses.

If waiting is the hardest part of all, then this was pushing it. We were getting an object lesson in patience.

After about half an hour, the buses arrived.

These weren’t the broken down, rusted out buckets that had picked us up months before.

These were well painted, well maintained school buses.

As we boarded, a blast of cold air greeted me. They were even air conditioned. We stowed our gear and sat down. Once all the buses were full, we left the complex in a long snaking convoy through the city.

When we reached the Airport, there were several aircraft waiting. One was a white Tower Airlines 747.

“Tower airlines?” someone said. “Never heard of them!”

I had.

I’d ridden then to and from NTC at Ft. Irwin, California.

“That was fun take off,” I said.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, the pilot did a full power take off and he pulled it up so steep, the floor became a wall.” It was the only time I experienced what the Shuttle astronauts must have felt.

We filed aboard, found our seats, and stowed our gear

Our flight path took us down the coast of Saudi Arabia and then up through Egypt. At one point, it was announced that if looked out the right side of the plane, we’d see the pyramids. I was sure from 25000 feet they’d be a disappointment so I passed on the only chance to say I’d seen them.

We did fly over one place and looking out, I saw an almost circular port. I’m pretty sure we were flying over Alexandria. I couldn’t help but look out at it and think of all they history that passed through it. And now, were passing over it.

I think the flight back to Germany seemed faster than when we flew down.

Maybe we caught a tail wind. Maybe it really was just faster.

Or maybe it was one of those weird time dilation effects not predicted by Albert Einstein.

One thing I did notice, the flight back was quieter.

We landed in Germany, where more buses took us to Ansbach.

Part of the band was waiting for us at Main Post. General Griffith was on hand to welcome us home. But the big thing was wives and children were waiting for those who had families there.

Since I had no one there waiting for me, I walked around and got pictures of those that did.

I don’t recall how I got back to my barracks. I want to say those who had cars ferried everyone back. There were welcome back signs on the doors of our rooms. There were cases of beer on ice and goodies in the break room. Everyone was overjoyed to be home.

But even though we’d been there for mere minutes, it would be a long time before we felt we belonged there. I’d eventually compare the feeling to a story Ray Bradbury had written about astronauts that landed on Mars. They open the hatch and there’s their hometowns waiting for them. I felt I was in a place just familiar enough to be home, but alien enough to be Mars.

But that didn’t stop me from trying.

That evening, I stowed my gear. I grabbed clean clothes and walked down to the showers. There I took a shower to end showers. An almost endless supply of warm water seemed to be an incredible concept.

I shaved, splashed on cologne, and put on civilian clothing. Somehow, it felt odd wearing regular clothes.

It was May 12th if my notes were correct. We were two days shy of six months of being gone. There were cases of beer for everyone to drink. Everyone was getting cleaned up to go out on the town.

Spc Hahn came down the hall in jeans and a fringe jacket. I looked at her and said, “If you’re going cowboy, I’ve got something for you.”

I loaned her my cowboy hat to complete her ensemble. She put a scarf around it. I don’t recall I got it back from her.

I took several pictures of everyone before they left.

The 1st Armored Division Band shared the barracks with us. One of the young ladies from it and I walked down to one of the finer Gasthaus’s in town where we treated ourselves to a thick steak and beer.

Everyone else hit the discos.

Her and I were both Star Trek and Star Wars fans and not into discos. Between us, we had all the Star Trek and Star Wars movies (that were out at the time). So we planned a night of sitting and indulging.

We purchased a six pack of beer, chips, and some other goodies. We sat down on the couch in her room and started watching the movies.

We were asleep long before the Enterprise ever left space dock.

I woke up the following morning, sore and stiff with her fast asleep next to me. We both had kinks in our necks from sleeping the way we had.

There seemed to be few survivors from the night before. Most everyone was throwing up and looked like death warmed under.

All things considered, I figure her and I had the best time of all.

Iraq was now a thing of the past.

Or so I’d think.

I’d deal with the ghosts from it for years to come.