Something I saw once - a great story from Mostly Cajun

Wonderful story by Mostly Cajun:

Something I saw once�
If it�s spring, this must be Baumholder. During my tour in Germany as a young tank commander, springtime was the �tactical� part of our training cycle. One necessary part of this rotation was a trip to Baumholder, Germany. This was a nice trip. We�d get up early one morning, load our tanks and flatcars behind a very businesslike German locomotive, load our own carcasses in passenger cars of the same train, and off we�d go across the countryside, leaving our normal digs in Germany�s wine-producing region, headed for the hills southwest of Mainz, our home base.

Somewhere along the trip we�d swap our nice electric locomotive for something that I hadn�t seen in the States since I was a kid, a real working steam locomotive, and we�d chug on in to Baumholder, where we�d offload our tanks and do a short road march to the motor pool at the training area. Then we�d drag our gear to the transient barracks, put things up, and scurry to one of my all-time favorite places, Kanteen Hoffman, an eatery put there near the transient barracks for our use.

There I�d get the first of many beers and the real treat, eine jagerschnitzel mit frites, or in English, a breaded cutlet slathered with mushroom gravy and a side order of french fries. I and my cohorts would eat and then sit around talking and drinking beer for a while before returning to the barracks preparatory to the training exercises the next day.

Early in morning, in the still darkness we�d break the silence as 17 M60A1 tanks cranked off their 750-horsepower diesel engines. To this day the smell of a cold diesel evokes powerful memories. Anyway, shortly thereafter, we�d head for the hills and valleys of the training area and run simulated exercises.

Caution -- be sure not to have any liquids in your mouth while reading the end of this story. You have been warned...