Nov 21, 1971

 Dear Mon & Dad,

I seemed to have lost or misplaced all of my pens, so rather than writing in pencil I thought I would type this one for a change.  This way I can blame all misspellings on typographical errors.  I sure did like your tape which I got as few days ago.  I sent you another one right after I got yours.  I hope you have received it by now.  As I said in my tape, I did apply for a leave and I got it.  Yesterday I went to Frankfurt to get my plane tickets.  Here is my itinerary for the trip home: 

Date 18 Dec 71

From: Frankfurt to Copenhagen 9:25AM- Airline - Lufthansa #002

From: Copenhagen to Seattle 12:45PM -Airline SAS #933

From Seattle to Portland  3:40PM - Airline Air West #531

Arrive in Portland 4:27PM

So barring any unforeseen difficulties I should see you at about 4:30 on Saturday the 18th of December.  Please keep in mind though  that due to possible bad weather in either Frankfurt, Copenhagen or Seattle, I could be late.  If for some reason I'm delayed for more than a day I will send you a telegram, which takes a day or two at the most to get to you.

Well guess what happend after I sent that last tape to you?  This Friday I got a letter from The Department of the Army that said that my Voluntary Indefinite status has been changed back to my regular two year obligation!  This has been happening to quite a few LT's who were  V.I.  About two months ago I wrote D.A. and requested that they do this, but I was't real sure that they would.  My new date getting out is now July 21, 71. I am expecting that this date, also will be set up, because nowadays almost all OBV-2 (2 year obligation) officers are getting an early out before their 2 years are up.  This early out could be as much as 4 months.  Like I said, I am pretty sure I will get it because everybody that I know who has got out recently was released early to some extent at least.  I don't think I will request an early out though because I would just as soon stay in to July, but not much longer.  Well even knowing that I could be coming home for good, as soon as the end of March (If I do get the four month early out) I still have decided to come on back for Christmas, since I already had my leave approved and everything.  Also I got a fairly good deal on the ticket back.  The round trip ticket only cost $355., and that wasn't even the Military rate.  This was a Youth Fare (if you are under 25 nowadays you are considered a youth) which is cheaper than military.  

This Friday we had our first snow of the year here.  Today, Sunday, it is really coming down hard.  There must be two or three inches on the ground already.  Two or three inches is almost enough to completely bury my car!

Well that's about all.  I want to get this off tomorrow so you will know about me coming home as soon as possible.  I sure am looking forward to seeing everyone again, and I hope you all have a real good Thanksgiving, and I'll be thinking of you.

Oct. 13, 1971

Dear Mom, & Dad

Well it's been a long time since Iv'e sent you any pictures, so you're probably ready to see some more, so here they are.  This roll is quite an assortment of different subjects that I've taken in the last few weeks.

To start with, I have a few shots of the "Befreiungsholle"in Kelheim.  A few weekends ago, I went out looking for a place near Regensburg that I had read about.  It was a building that was supposed to look just like the Acropolis in Athens, and had been built in the 19th Century as a memorial to great Northern European Scientists.  Well I got to Regensburg OK, but someplace along the line I took a wrong road, and couldn't find the place I was looking for.  I was just about to give up, and go back, when in the distance on a very large hill, I saw this other massive building.  At first I thought this might be what I was looking for, but when I got closer to it, I could see that it was round, rather than rectangular.  

So as an alternative to the place I was really looking for I went to this one.  It turned out to be a very interesting building in it's self.  The name of this place was the Befreiungshalle", but I can't tell you exactly what it is since I couldn't find any information on it, in English.  I do know that it was built around 1850 and it has something to do with King Ludwig of Bavaria.  His name is above the entrance.  I think you will agree that it is an unusual design for a building.  You can get an idea of how large it was by looking at the people on the side walk.

These are just closer shots of the front of the building.  Those statues around the outside of the building are probably 10 to 15 feet high, I would guess.

This is a poor picture, because my one little flash bulb didn't give out enough light, to illuminate the whole inside of the building, but it will give you a general idea of what the inside of it was like.  I took this one from a balcony looking down on the main floor. (Note the people walking along the side)  Besides the ring of statues, holding hands, and the inlaid tile floor, there wasn't much else inside.

As I said, the building was on a high hill which offered a very good view.  I took this from the top of the building.  That's the Danube River and the small town of Kelheim, below.

These next five pictures were all taken in Bamburg.  The event was the annual "German-American Shoot".  This is when we open up one of our rifle ranges here on post to the public, Germans and U.S.  For a small fee a person can come and try out one our M-16's.  It is co-sponsored by the Bamberg Polizei, and the funds collected go to some kind of worthy cause, so I'm told.  Also as you can see a lot of the units here bring out some of their heavy equipment for the kids to look at, and play on.  I thought some of these were kind of interesting pictures of your tax dollars at work.  I know for a fact that three 50 cal. machine guns were broken during this demonstration, by kids.

These next two were also taken in Bamberg.  I wanted to get a shot of some of our German allies.   A Bundeswehr truck, and some Bundeswehr (German army) troopers.  It's not unusual to see the Bundesweher on and American post because we do a lot of joint maneuvers and training with them.  

These next pictures were not taken in Cody Wyoming, but Bamberg Germany!   This is a travelling rodeo that goes all around europe to American installations and puts on shows.  All the riders and contestants except a few, are local GI's who enter it for  small cash prizes.  It was real good entertainment for a change of pace,

 My last shot is of a small collection of German beer mugs I have started.  The one on the far right is a 1/2 liter mug.  This is the usual size given in Guest houses and restaurants.  The 3 in the middle are 1 liter mugs.  This is the size that is usually given at Beer- fests and other special occasions.  The one on the far left is a 2 liter mug ( a little more than 1/2 gallon!) and is for real BIG drinkers.  I that one from the Lowenbrau "Beer House" in Munich.  Well that's all the pictures for now.  I will have some later from Heidelberg.  Also in my next letter I will tell you about a deal on how you come to Germany, Round Trip for $230.00

September 29, 1971

 Dear Mom & Dad,

Well true to my word I am writing again to fill you in on more details that I left out of my first letter.

I got Mom's last note yesterday, the one with the clipping on the drug problems in Europe.  The man that the article was mostly about, Dr. Forest Tennant, is working in Wurtzburg, about 35 miles from here, and his program for drug abusers is the one we are trying to model ours after here in Bamberg.  The article was correct in it's estimation of the drug problem over here.  In Bamberg alone, we estimate that over 60% of the troops use hash at one time or another, most of that number are frequent users.  Although hash is against the law, it is really not the area of greatest concern of the programs in Europe, to fight drug abuse.  After all, very few men who smoke hash, end up in the army hospitals and most of them are able to do their jobs as well as if they weren't using the drug.

When we give drug abuse classes to the GI's here on post, we don't harp on them too much about the dangers of Marijuana or hash, because for the most part they wouldn't listen anyway.  Usually we even tell them the right way to smoke it so the chances of getting bronchitis and lung damage are lessened.  This approach also gives them a little more confidence in the information we put out about the harder drugs, which are the real danger over here.  I am enclosing some posters that came from the drug information center in Wurzburg (called the "Now House").  I am making up some things along the same line for Bamburg.  We also have a drug info. center here which right now is kind of bogged down because I can't get enough people to work in it.  Right now I only have two young NCO's working for , both of them have Psychology degrees and experience with counseling drug addicts.  Before I started this job there wasn't anyone else in it an I am the first one to be in this position on this post, although there are other places in Germany that also have a Drug abuse officer.  There is no formal job description so it is sort of hard to describe exactly what the job is.  Right now I am trying to get our drug center (It will be called the "Light House" off the ground.  Also in a month or so we will probably get this drug education skit that was mentioned in that article you sent me.  I will be working closely with Doc Tennant for this and other things.

One thing that's come up, that is a very interesting possibility is that there is a chance (a small chance at the present time) of my going to the Yale University Drug Dependence Institute in New Haven Connecticut for a two week training program!  There is an awful lot of red tape to go through first, and I won't know anything definite on it for a while.  

In this job I am working out the office of the Deputy Installation Coordinator which has the following duties:

Internal Security

Post Police

Readiness, Test and alert notification

Coordination of post support activities

Inventory of funds and stock-post services

Operation of Government Housing area

On and off post discipline

Coordination of incident and accident control

Coordination of athletic and recreation programs

Coordination of snow and Ice control programs

Coordination of German-American Relations

Someplace in there, fall my duties with drugs and Equal Opportunity.  Besides those two things though, I have also been given a few other jobs:

Post athletic and recreation officer, Officer in charge of Head-Start orientation programs, and Abandoned Vehicles officer

On the whole, these additional duties are minor and do not take much time .  As A&R officer I coordinate use of the two gym's and 7 athletic fields we have here on post and make sure all units have equal time to use them. I haven't had anything come up under abandoned vehicles yet.

The Head-start Orientation p;program is the only one that takes up a good deal of time.  What this program is, is an 8 hour class given twice a month to all new GI's who have just come to Germany.  We get in about 50 a week here at Bamberg.  The class is kind of like an orientation that might give to new freshman who just came to college.  My job is to get about 5 or 6 different instructors together, arrange class rooms, etc.  Also I give a short talk on the GI's purpose in Germany, NATO, etc.  The next day after the class we take them on a two hour tour of Bamberg so they will be a little more familiar with their environment.  On this, I have to coordinate with the local tourist agency for guides, buses, etc.

Now besides all this, I have also been given the job of writing up a report on the critical housing shortage here in Bamberg, which I almost have done.  

So you can see that I am involved in several things, which tends to keep the job interesting.  

I haven't  mentioned anything about Equal Opportunity yet.  It's  is a lot harder problem to get your teeth into.  A week ago I had a long talk with the Division Equal Opportunity officer who is a Lt. Col, and he didn't seem to know what he was doing along these lines either.  The only thing he was doing was writing a very complicated questionnaire, which I will be helping to distribute.  The only thing that is going on here at Bamberg to help ease racial problems are weekly "sensitivity" sessions, which I'm sure you've heard something about.  These are day and a half sessions with groups of whites and blacks where they talk about in detail, racial and personnel problems.  They are usually fairly good, but they have the limitation of not effecting too many people.  In November I will be going to Berchtesgarden (Hitler's old stomping ground) for a USAREUR Equal Opportunity conference which might give out some good information.  (Also skiing is great there!)

Oh, by the way I just heard that the writers of this series of articles about the Army in Europe were in Bamberg for a day, and one of their stories is on u, so you might watch for it.

Well I hope I've given you some idea of what I'm doing now.  So far I really like the job.  It's interesting and varied and the hours are a lot better and so far Iv'e had every weekend off!

You can keep sending letters to the Officers club, because it's easier to pick them up there than to change it.

So for no, I will close this one.

September 28, 1971

 Dear mom and Dad,

Well I want to thank you all for all your letters that I have been so slow in answering lately.  Also I hope Mom had a real great birthday.  I hope you got my gift by now, and I also hope it got through the mails OK, since it was very breakable.  Also Dad might be interested in some of the Stars @ Stripes I wrapped them in, and also a copy of the notorious "Over-Seas Weekly"with an article on Bamberg in it and also my commanding officer, Col DeRamus.  

Boy, I was really sorry to hear about the dry well.  I really thought you would hit water.  That sure is a lot of money to spend for a hole in the ground.  Mom wrote me about the different options you have open to you, and of the ones she mentioned, the one that sounded best to me was to secure permanent water rights from the guy next door, if he would let you.  It seems like buying the whole house and land just for the water (unless you really wanted it for other reasons) would be kind of extravagant and drilling another hole, with at best a 50-50 chance of hitting water seems like too much of a gamble at the price.  If you did secure his water rights you could always drop them at some later date if you wanted to try another hole and hit water, couldn't you? Or you could maybe buy the house at a later date when it was financially easier.  As far as me buying it with you; that sounds like a real good deal, but right now I just don't have the funds available, mainly because of unexpected auto repairs which kind of set me back and when I do get my funds built up again I feel that it would be best for me to hang on to it for Education. after the Army, especially if it happens to be med school.  If I did have enough money that I could spare, I would do it, because I can see the advantages of investing in land, especially at my age.  Well I will move on to other things.

The picture that mom sent of the three Burrows family fiddlers was very good.    also I was very happy to get the house plan and I looked at them very carefully.  Is that the exact plan you will be using?  If so, it looks very good. 

Mom kept referring to the fact that I had said I was bored in my job at the officers club.  I guess I did say that, but it was a bad choice of words on my part.  I want to clear that up now, so you won't misunderstand.  I was never bored in the usual meaning of the word.  For the whole 9 months that I worked in clubs I worked an average of 12-14 hours a day and usually 7 days a week, and was always kept busy.  And during the time that I did have off I was never bored, because there are so many interesting places to go and see here in Germany and I have made use of my free time over here to get as much exposure to the people and place of Germany as possible and have enjoyed that part of my time here tremendously!  But those times were far and few between and until I started this new job I hadn't had one full day off for over two months.  So bored wasn't the right word, but the job just wasn't too productive or in my opinion, worthwhile or important.  So I hope you understand that I wasn't satisfied with that type of work, but I wasn't really bored either.  

Well I like my new job so far.  I know you're interested in it, but if I go into all the details right now it will take 3 or 4 more pages, so I'm going to stop this letter right now because it's getting real late and I have to get up early tomorrow.  Instead of putting this letter aside and finishing it later like I sometimes do, I want to get it in the mail tomorrow, because it's been so long since I last wrote, I'm sorry to say.  I promise though that I will sit down tomorrow night and start another one and fill you in on all the things I left out in this one...So until then.....

August 26, 1971

 Dear Dad & Mom,

I got Dad's letter a few days ago.  He kind of left me up in the air though; down to 462 feet and still no water!  What happened?  I bet that they did find it eventually, though.  I wouldn't think that the neighbors world hit water and you couldn't.  I'm really glad to hear that the plans on the house are moving along so quickly.

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over and that school will be starting shortly.  I wish Lore the best of luck in the sixth grade.

Before I get into my news, I must ask if Dad's birthday present ever got there.  I figure it should have arrived two or three weeks ago at least.  If not, please let me know right away because it was insured and I might be able to get some of my money back on it and get you another one if it never got through the mail!

Well I've got some pretty big news which I just found out yesterday.  I knew that sooner or later somebody would realize what a waste it is to have two officers working at the club, and that some kind of change would probably result.  So, it turned out that the brigade commander here at Bamburg found out I had a BA in Psychology which seems to be a rather rare degree among officers.  So because of that he tapped me for a position which is empty now, but he had been trying to find someone for it.  the name of this new job which I will start officially on Sept 5, is Drug Abuse and Equal Opportunity Officer.

Right now I really don't have much information on exactly what my job will consist of, except for the fact that it will deal with two of the most pressing problems that the army has right now, especially in Europe and Vietnam, which are drug use among the troops, and racial problems; mostly between blacks and whites.  Of course I will just be concerned with the problems here in Bamburg which takes in several thousand men.  There have been a few other places in Germany which have created this position in the past, all accompanied by a lot of publicity and pats on the backs from Generals.  So you can see that the brigade commander here doesn't want the be left out of the lime light, so he jumped on the band wagon too.  I won't start until Sept 6, because on Monday we are having our annual I.G. (Inspector General) Inspection, which is the hardest inspection a club can get, so I have to stick around for that.  I really am looking forward to the change in jobs.  I was rapidly getting tired of the club routine, although everything has been going OK, and this new job sounds pretty interesting.  I just hope it is a job that I can really do something in, and not just an empty position like a lot of jobs in the army are.  Well I will let you know all the details about the job when I find out more myself.  the only bad thing about it is that it might be a lot harder to get leave during Christmas now because it's kind of tough to ask for leave right after you have started a new job.  I'm going to still try, but I really don't know how good the chances will be.  I can promise one thing and that is, whenever I do get another leave it will be home.  I really don't think you know how much I miss everyone.  You might think that I would get used to it after as long as I've been here, but it really gets worse every month!  There is some very promising news, that has been going around lately, and that is that some officers that are VI (voluntary Indefinite), like me are getting their 3rd year obligation taken off.  I know one 1st Lt.who has already had this happen to him, so instead of 3 years to serve he only has two!  If I don't get that, which doesn't seem too likely at this time, there is still a good chance that I might be able to get out as much as 3 or 4 months sooner.  Well, I've got a least one more year not matter what, so i hope this new job isn't too bad!

It was good that Nixon put on the wage and price controls, I think, but it was a lot better that they exempted raises due to promotions for military people.  I was really worried there for a while that I might not get my extra money for First Lt. which had been rumored.  So far Nixon's policy hasn't seemed to have much effect on the US dollar over here.  It's still going down in value, just like before.  When I first got here, the dollar was worth 3.68 Marks, now as of today, it's down to 3.39, which is quite a bit if you happen to deal with large amounts of money, but for the average American over here who doesn't spend large amounts of US dollars on the German Economy, I don't think it hurts too much.  One good thing to come out of it, is that my car will be worth 10% more when I get it back to the states, I think.

Well I better close for now.  Please write as often as possible.  Keep me posted on the progress of the house.  I really hope I can see everyone within the next few months. 

August 12, 1971

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well by now I imagine that you are enjoying your summer vacation.  I hope everyone is well and having a good time. I got Dad's letter and was glad to hear that you are progressing with preparation for building your home. 

Well everything is going smoothly over here for me.  It's been some time since I've written a detailed letter, so I will try to bring you up to date on what little news that I have.  In June the Custodian of this club was sent to Vietnam.  I had rather thought that I would be put in charge when he left, but as it turned out they sent in another man to take over, leaving me in my somewhat undefined position.  The new custodian is a First Lt., with a masters degree in accounting and a CPA.  I must assume that they made him Custodian because of these qualifications rather than a lack of ability on my part.  I say, assume because no one has said one word about it to me one way or the other.

One of the worst things I have found about the Army so far is the lack of communication between myself and my superiors.  Ever since I have been here I have never been corrected, reprimanded or counseled in any way, or for that matter, praised or applauded.  But yet I find myself in a job that must be considered limbo!  It is neither challenging or stimulating and definitely not necessary and it has long ago ceased to be interesting!  I sometimes wonder if my card that has my name and rank on it, was folded, bent or mutilated and as a result I have been misplaced in this vast red tape machine that they call the Army.  If the Army has a category for people like me, in my type of positions (because I know I'm not alone) then I think they should call it missing in "Inaction"!  I don't want you to think it's all bad though because it really isn't,  just somewhat boring and a little disheartening.

On a brighter note, I will tell you that I was promoted to First Lieutenant, right on time, June 22 which is almost exactly a year since the time I went on active duty.  It's no big deal because everyone gets promoted to first Lt after one year unless you are a complete mongoloid idiot, in which case you are promoted directly to General.  The day I got promoted, I got a phone call and was told to report over at Brigade HQ in a uniform.  Finding my uniform and putting it all together was the hardest part.  I reported to the executive officer, a Lt. Col.   A Major read my orders and the XO pinned my silver bar on.  I shook hands with him and the major and a couple of Lt's who were witnesses and left.  That's all there was to it, short and sweet.  It is nice to be a first Lieutenant though, at least it's not the bottom man on totem pole, and of course a little more money.

A month or so ago, my car broke down and I had it in the shop for about a month, so I have't been going around the country side too much lately.  I have my car back now and it's running OK again, but it was so expensive that I hardly have enough money left for gas, at least for the rest of the month.  I must admit, that as much as I like that car, Iv'e had a whole lot of mechanical difficulty with it.  Much more than should be for a new car.  I'm going to give it another chance though.  I had so many parts of the engine replaced this time, that it should be almost like new...I hope. 

Boy I really miss everyone and I sure would like to come home around Christmas, but at this time it is impossible to say if I can do it or not.  The trip would cost at least $400 round trip, so that will pose a little problem, but not too big. 

Although the Army stinks, Germany is still great.  this is the beginning of the beer fest season when beer flows down thousands of German throats like water.  We had a beer-fest of our own here at the club last week, with a 16 piece brass "omp-pa-pa" band.  We went through 15, 50 liter kegs of beer.  Needless to say a good time was had by all.

Well I have to close this letter now since it is midnight and I have to go downstairs (I am writing this in the office) and close the club for another night.  Write whenever you can I really look forward to your letters.

July 20, 1971

Dear Mom & Dad,

Well here are my final pictures that I took while I was on leave.  I hope that by sending these pictures to you I have in some small way been able to share my trip with you, because I really wish you could have all been with me.  After these last pictures, I will get off a more comprehensive letter.

Well after driving through the rugged mountains of Switzerland I finally made it to Interlaken.  This picture is of the river that ran through the town, which joined the two lakes together that Interlaken is between.  The water in this river and in the lakes, is the cleanest looking, that I think I have ever seen.

Here is one means of transportation that you can use to see Interlaken.

This one was also taken on the river with a few of the mountains in the background.  It was a little too cloudy when I was there to see Jungfrau.

As you can see, progress and tall buildings even come to places like Interlaken eventually.

Well after Interlaken I went back "home" to Germany, but before I went back to work I took another day at one of my favorite towns, Rothenburg.  I think it was June 1st when these pictures were taken and that happened to be the day of the Meister-Frank festival.  To make a long story short, this is to celebrate a time about 300 years ago when a group of attacking Huns came into Rothenburg and were about to destroy the town.  However the leader of the Huns made a deal with the Burger-Meister of Rothernburg; if the Burger-Meister could drink 10 liters of beer in one large chug-a-lug they would go home and leave the town alone, if not, then the Huns would stay.  Well the Burger Meister took the challenge, and drank down the 10 liters without so much as a hic-up, right in the middle of the town square.  The Huns were good to their word, and left and the Burger-Meister became a town hero.  Every year there after the  townspeople have held a celebration in honor of this event, and also because in later years it has proven to be pretty good for business.  That will explain, I hope, these next pictures.  Above you see a couple of young men riding down a street dressed in what were the local garb of the time.

Here we have some of the "good guys" resting up before participating in one of the mock battles.

This man is riding a very large horse, as you can see.

This is the man who plays the part of the Burger-Meister and as a matter of fact he really is the Burger Meister.  By the way that armor is the real thing.

Here come the Huns, about to meet the Rothenburger's in a mock battle, which was pretty wild even though it was just acting.

This character is the leader of the Huns, a real villain-type

And once again, here come the "good guys" led by the "Burger-Meister"

At the end of the day they had a parade down the main street, with this  group leading the way with authentic 18th century instruments.  They played very 18th century marching tunes, also.

Well that's the end.  I will try to get a letter off shortly.