Feb. 14- Feb 21 1971

Dear Mom & Dad,
Well, I thought that I would start this letter to you tonight and try to finish it in a day or so.  The first bit of news that comes to mind, is the fact that it looks like I will be a Lieutenant for the rest of my tour.  This is because the Army has just changed the time required to be a First Lieutenant before you make Captain from 12 months to 30 months.  I should still make 1st. Lt. sometime around July of this year, but I would have to be a first Lt. for 30 months before I could make Capt.  By the time I would be up for Capt. I should be out of the Army.  I did get a pay raise last month though.  This is because of the pay raise that was voted in by congress some time ago just now went into effect.  My basic pay went from $916 to $950 per month which isn't too bad.

Well I've been bogged down in a sea of red tape trying to buy that Lotus.  As I told you before, I was trying to get a $2,500 loan form American Express which they assured me would be no problem.  Well I sent in all the papers for it and waited a week or so and when it came back they said I could only get $1,700.  So because I have enough to finance the rest from my own money I sent all the paper work back again, this time asking for only $1,700.  This time I had to wait 3 weeks.  When the paper work came back again they said I could only get $1,200!

By this time I had more than enough of dealing with them, so I said good bye.  I still can't understand their attitude on this matter especially since I had over $2000 in one of their own checking accounts!  Well anyway I finally went to the Federal Credit Union and had much better results.  I had by now decided that I would only need $1700 and the day after I applied for it I got the check in the mail!  It will take me 2 years to pay off the loan but the payments are only $80 a month which will be taken right out of my pay check.  The balance of the car, which comes to about $1900, I will pay from my own saving which will mean I own more than half of it to begin with.

Also there was the matter of the customs clearance which took about a week and then Insurance which I just got last week, and then my USAEUR drivers licence which I got this Friday.  In order to get that I just had to pass a written test of German traffics laws and road signs.  Finally, this Tuesday I have to go to a place about 25 miles from here and pick up temporary licence plates and on Wednesday of this week I will finally get the car!

Well I know you are interested in how my job is doing so I will try to spend the rest of this letter talking about it.  In order to become officially in charge of the club there has to be special orders drawn up on me.  This is about the only thing that is holding up the show because once you try to get anything done through regular Army channels you might as well expect a long delay.  In practice though, I am now fully in charge of the club, singing checks and doing everything else.

My main problems so far have been personal problems.  These are the people I have working for me:  One manager (Army SSG), 1 secretary (American Civilian), 1 bookkeeper (German Civilian),  1  bar tender (German civilian), 2 assistant cooks (both Army enlisted men), 2 waitresses (German civilians) 1 full time cleaning lady (German civilian) 1 dishwasher (German Civilian) 1 mess steward/handyman etc. (Army SSG). Also assorted part time help and special occasion extras.  Now here are some of the problems that I have with all these people.  To begin with  I can't really say that I can trust any of them fully!  Before I came, the bookkeeper had been caught keeping two sets of books, one for the auditors to see and one for himself.  Also before I came, the kitchen was short $2600 worth of food that was on the Inventory but was not in the store room.  Nobody seemed to have any idea where it was!!  Before I got here the food was of a very poor quality, but then we got this German Cook who is very good and we have very few complaints about the food when he is cooking.  He could make a lot more on the outside but because he gets some kind of financial assistance from the German Government he can only make so much.  That's why he is working here.  We pay him about 900 marks a month which is about $250 dollars!  On the whole, the wages we pay the German help are fantastically low.  (example:  cleaning lady makes about .75 an hour)  compared to American standards, but still, the wage expense is what really kills us.  Mainly because the club is open usually a lot longer than just 8 hours a day so we have to pay a lot of over time.  One thing I've done is to try and put a little more control over the time worked.  Before, everyone came in and worked as long as they more or less wanted too.  There were no written work schedules for anyone.  I had my manager prepare work schedules that would give us more control over the hours worked and eliminate people working at times when they weren't really needed.  Also the bartender used to keep his own time sheets.  Even though he claims to be completely honest, I didn't think that keeping his own time sheets was too good of an idea, so I put all the time sheets in mine or my managers control.  Well I've found that when you mess around with the amount of money people make on the job you're looking for trouble.  We tried to cut the bartenders hours down from way over 60 a week to 51 which would still give him a few hours of over time, but he wouldn't go along with that at all.  Well we're still trying to work out some type of compromise, because on a normal day the club   looses $30 to $40 and most of that loss is in overtime wages.

Feb 21
Well, I dug this letter out again, a week after I started it and will try to finish it now.  I will drop the subject of the club for now and go on to something more pleasant to write about.

Well I finally got my car this Wednesday!  It is really great!   A Lotus Europa, my wildest dream finally came true.

On Wednesdays I got up at 5:30 in the morning and met the agent here in Illishiem, who sold me the car.  He drove me  the approximately 200 miles to Kaiserslautern Germany which is west of here.  After getting lost in Kaiserslauten, we finally found the Lotus office in town, and at that time I gave them my money, two checks totally $3227.  There was very little fan fare fare for this much money changing hands, just a thank you.  We were told that we would have to wait about two hours while they gave the car a pre-delivery check out.  They gave us this complicated sheet of instructions on how to find the shop where they kept the cars, which was some distance from their office.  We spent most of the two hours trying to find it!  the shop where they had the car had a very interesting atmosphere - completely British!  It was way out in the boondocks and after going down about a mile long cobblestone road we saw what looked like and old bombed-out factory, the old "accordion" type.  On the front of the building was a heavy wooden sliding door with a very large "Union Jack" painted on it.  The door was opened, and there they were:  Europa's, Elans, Elites, some equipped for racing, others stock like mine.  The mechanics were just getting through with doing some last minute adjustments on mine.  They all had thick British ascents.  I will never forget that moment when I knew it was really mine!

I couldn't really believe it until I was in it, and driving down the Autobahn.  it is really great!  I am going to take roles of pictures of it from every possible angle and send them to you.  Even though this is a European car, you see very few of them here.  I have only seen one other since I've been here.  It causes quite a few stares when I drive it around.  the Germans are very interested in cars and every time I stop some place people gather around and asks question, usually in German!  I've met a lot of people so far because of this.  I had a complete stranger come up and ask for a ride in it one time at a gas station.  The other day someone asked if they could take a picture of it while I was stopped for a stop sign!  I had one complaint.  I was asked not to park in front of this particular store because I was drawing away all their customers!

Well I could go on and on about my car, the club, Germany, etc. but I am limited by the amount of paper I can get in one envelope.  I haven't got any letters from you for quite a long time.  Please write, even if its short, they really make my day when I get one.  I will send some more pictures to you in another envelope.  By the way this might be of interest to you.  I can get you a round trip ticket to Frankfurt Germany for only $284.  I don't think you will find a cheaper price anywhere.  Well I guess I will close this letter and send it out tomorrow.
Marty

February 7, 1971

Dear Mom & Dad,

Here are some more pictures.  I hope you find them interesting.  There are 10 in this envelope and I will mail 9 more from the same roll in another envelope.  I will comment on each picture below.  I didn't go too far to take these pictures.  They are all of the post to give you a little idea of what it looks like.  There are also a few that I took of the village Illesheim which is only a 5 minute walk away.

Picture #1 is self explanatory.  it is the sign on the village limits of Illesheim.  By the way this is the story about the Illesheim:  Heim means home, and many many years ago a knight of the dark ages lived in this place.  Evidently his exploits were know far and wide and all in all he made quite a name for himself.  I don't know exactly what he was supposed to have done, but whatever it was it was good enough to get the rinky dink town named after him.  His name was Illes.  Thus, Illesheim. there are a lot of towns around here that end in heim, so there must have been alot of people who got towns named after them, way back when.

Picture #2 this is just an ordinary building in Illesheim.  I believe this is some kind of a bar or restaurant or something although I have never been in it.  It looks kind of shoddy.  Note the Coca Cola sign.

Number 3 and 4 are both examples of the homes on the main street through town.  In number 4 notice the crane.  The crane is used to load human fertilizer into trucks that take it out into the near by fiels.  The smell of this stuff is very noticeable where ever you go in rural Germany.  G.I's call the trucks that haul this stuff, honey wagons and I understand that it is not a wise idea to drive behind them.

Picture #5;  Even though Illishiem is a very small community it does have this fairly impressive church, as does every town large or small.

#6 Back to my home away from home.  The main gate of Storck barracks.  that little A frame type building by the white wall is where they keep sand for when the roads get slick.  the building on the left is the M.P. Station.

#7 This is a picture of the enlisted men's club, which is about 2 times as big as the officers club.  I might be running this one in a few months also.

# 8 and 9 are both pictures of the same tank from different sides.  This tank is just on display, and doesn't run, which I am afraid is the condition of most of the tanks here!  I've met many of the LT's who run the tank platoon here and most of them say that they spend most of their time trying to keep their equipment running and trying to find parts for them.  In case you can't read it the letters on the side of the tank say "Iron Horsemen" which is the nick name of one of the armored battalions here.

#10 A picture of some APC's (Armored Personnel Carriers)

Well that's all I can get in this envelope.  I will send another one with this one.  I hope you get them both at the same time.

Here is the rest of that roll.  The pictures in this envelope were all taken on post, my comments follow.
#1 (above) Picture of a truck parking area.  You probably will  notice that in all of these pictures there is no snow on the ground.  I took these about two weeks ago, but tonight we are once again getting a little of the white stuff.

#2 a close up of an APC.  This particular type of APC is used for scouting and is very fast, as this type of machine goes.  When in use it mounts a 20 mm cannon on top.

#3 Is another type of APC.  Very slow compared to number 2.  It is used as a mobile command post.

#4  This is a picture of the dispensary as you can read on the sign.  It can take care of dental work and minor illnesses, but for anything major you have to go to the Army hospital in Nuremberg.  There have been times in the past when expectant mothers were flown from here to Nuremberg by helicopter.

#5 A picture of an Army ambulance in front of the dispensary.

#6  I don't really know why I took this one.  These are just some junked cars on post.  I guess this goes to show that German roads and American drivers don't go to well together.

#7  This is the grade school for dependent children here on post.  Kids that are in high school have to be bused all the way to Nuremberg.  Many of the teachers who teach here live in the BOQ with the Bachelor officers.  Teaching in Armed Forces schools in Europe is a very good job for any young teacher fresh out of school.

Pictures number 8 & 9 are both of the family housing area, where most everyone lives because there is very little space available in the German communities near by.  They are kind of drab looking on the outside as you can see, but the apartments inside are better than most places you could find on the outside.  The BOQ is only 2 stories instead of 4 like these.  There are very few bachelors on post compared to married people.

Well that all.  I have another roll of 20 being developed now, and I will send them along when I get them.