Ranger's PoV
Olson Hall, what a rat-trap and I thought the open bay barracks in boot sucked. Now
to finish check in and wait for the rest of the guys in RASP1 to get here. At least
the damned library is 2 blocks away from MWR, though the restaurant looks like the
usual craptastic US fake Mexican food, nothing like Mami or Tia Luna make.
Maggie's PoV
"Janes, Janes, Janes ... I know I just saw the Weekly here a minute ago." Dammit, my
mind can't be going, I am not *that* old! And it has to be here, there is nobody
around to shark it from me. I love the weeks between classes when I don't have to
fight for the books I want.
Tapping to flip to the desktop and locking my laptop, I roll back from the carrel and
slam into someone.
"Sorry Ellen, I didn't know you were behind me."
"No problem, I think I will live," rumbled a light baritone from behind me. How odd,
I don't think Ellen coul dhave had a sex change in an hour. Rolling around to face my
recent victim I find a very handsome young man.
"I didn't realize anybody from the new class was here yet. My name is Maggie. By your
tape, I see your last name is Manoso, but since I am not in your chain of command,
what can I call you?"
"Carlos. Army hurry up and wait. This new One Station Unit Training has some of us
staying here for advanced training," Carlos grumped. "I just got told that nothing is
happening for a week, but I can't go home and am stuck here."
"Sorry to hear that. What is your MOS going to be?"
"19D"
"Cav Scout? Great. Have you ever read 'Fiddlers Green'?" Now, where did I see that,
3d floor I think. I suppose it is in a book around here somewhere but I really don't
think he looks the bookish sort.
"Fiddlers Green? No, is that a place?" Carlos looked interested.
"Follow me - there is a copy on the wall up on 3." Rolling off to the elevator, I use
the key to access it. A quick ride and the doors open to the third floor lobby.
Halfway down the trail to Hell,
In a shady meadow green
Are the Souls of all dead troopers camped,
Near a good old-time canteen.
And this eternal resting place
Is known as Fiddlers' Green.
Marching past, straight through to Hell
The Infantry are seen.
Accompanied by the Engineers,
Artillery and Marines,
For none but the shades of Cavalrymen
Dismount at Fiddlers' Green.
Though some go curving down the trail
To seek a warmer scene.
No trooper ever gets to Hell
Ere he's emptied his canteen.
And so rides back to drink again
With friends at Fiddlers' Green.
And so when man and horse go down
Beneath a saber keen,
Or in a roaring charge of fierce melee
You stop a bullet clean,
And the hostiles come to get your scalp,
Just empty your canteen,
And put your pistol to your head
And go to Fiddlers' Green.
"Wow." Carlos looked solemn. "You seem to know a lot about the Army, were you a
soldier?"
I smile at the thought - at my age the only thing I could have done in the army was
be a damned nurse or a clerk. "No, I went into education, but now I write books and
articles. My husband was Navy, so I have access to military base libraries. It makes
research a lot easier." Rolling back onto the elevator, I hit the button to go back
to the first floor.
"I don't see why we need to go to school. If I had wanted to deal with books, I would
have stayed in college."
"Oh? Where did you go?"
"Rutgers, in New Jersey." he said finally. "I was taking business, but it was
boring."
Back at my carrel I look at my untidy sprawl of books and periodicals with yellow
sticky notes scattered everywhere. "I suppose. Though you do understand that the Army
wants assets, not cannon fodder?"
"What is the difference?" came a curious mumble. Carlos pulls a chair out and sits
down. "I thought the Army was about going places we were fighting in."
Oh my, another movie buff. Save me from all the John Waynes. Grabbing a notebook and
flipping to a blank page, I draw 2 dots with a triangle between them.
"OK. Left dot is Washington. Right dot is Berlin. It is 1941, and there is a maniac
in Berlin. You want to kill him."
Carlos gives a nod.
I tap on the first line in the triangle. "First leg of the triangle is strategy. You
need to get from Washington to Berlin, and strategy is how you are going to do it.
Since the entire German Army is not going to let you wander in and shoot him, you
have to make plans."
Carlos nods again.
Tapping on the second line, I say "Second leg is tactics. How you accomplish your
strategy. You need to divide the maniac's attention. The mutual non-agression pact
that Molotov and Ribbentrop made has started falling apart. Best way to do this is
get Russia involved. But we still need some place to land. Britain has been fighting,
and needs help with supplies. As I remember, Britain was being starved by German subs
attacking shipping. Something like 80% of their food and supplies needed to be
imported."
Carlos looks thoughtful. "So we need to help Britain and that is how we ended up with
lots of our military there?"
Smart kid, now I seem to be able to lead him to water, can I get him to drink ...
"Exactly. Now the base of the triangle and in my opinion the most important part is
logistics. The art of getting stuff where it needs to be there, when it needs to be
there and most importantly, knowing what stuff needs to be there." Ha, success?
"So? I am not an officer, why do I need to know this?"
"Well, say you now you will need ammunition and you see that someone forgot to order
it. What are you going to do, wave your weapon at them?"
*snicker*
Oh, he is cute when he does that.
"I suppose not. I would have to ask my sargent about the missing ammo."
"Exactly. And part of what you will be learning is what you will need to learn - the
joke around here is that all you hefty young guys think that training ends when you
graduate, but the secret is that you never stop studying. My husband was always going
off to additional schools up until about 2 years before he retired at 20. There is
*always* something more to learn, or a skill to update."
Ranger's PoV
Well, damn. I really don't want to get studying all the damned time. I was hoping
that getting out into the real world would stop that. "So, I need to deal with the
Soviets and convince them to attack Germany, and go ahead and deal with Britain so we
can start from there ..." mused Carlos.
"Exactly."
"And we need to know what the Soviets and the British need, so we can use it to
convince them to help. I can see why Britain needed help, but why did Russia need
help?"
"Good question. All most people know about World War 2 comes from movies, and is not
really very accurate. You can use the library to help you understand what was going
on at the time. I could always ask my father or mother, they were both your age in
world war 2 and had very vivid memories. Especially my father, he fought his way from
the coast of France to the end of the Ruhr Pocket. Quick and dirty answer, the Soviet
Union at the time was controlled by a absolute idiot that screwed his own country
over with his insane paranoias. Stalin killed off significant numbers of his own
population, and the food supply was trashed because of his policies."
Holy shit, that is messed up. I can see that the movies were not telling it all the
way it was. "So, part of the tactics is getting everybody onto the same page about
getting everything in place to get the job done." That sounds about right.
"More or less. You need to learn how to determine what kind and how much of
everything, and then how to move it."
"I guess I have a lot of studying I need to do."
"Yup." Great, she is smiling at me now ...
"And I am here a couple days a week if you ever need suggestions."
Thank god for that. I think I am in over my head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Title - Of Their Own Accord - Sua Sponte, Motto of the 75th Ranger Regiment
Olson Hall - one of many barracks at Fort Benning.
RASP1 - Ranger Assessment & Selection Program - An 8 week course for junior non-
commissioned officers and enlisted soldiers [pay grades E-1 through E-5] that is a
combination of testing mental and physical abilities and beginning training in basic
required skills.
Check-in - When you recieve orders and arrive at a new duty station, generally there
is a check in procedure involving being issued housing and going around to different
locations to both confirm where they are, and to get signed in for various things.
One of which is dropping off your medical file at the medical center, the mess hall
to get your ID card authorized to draw your rations and MWR [Morale, Welfare and
Recreation] for on base entertainment. If you are in an education program, typically
the base library is added to the list.
Janes - Jane's Information Group - a company that publishes all sorts of reference
books and weekly periodicals that are defense oriented. Seriously interesting if you
have the slightest interest in the area.
The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket - One segment of the allied army was tasked to capture
an industrialized river valley supplying the German Army - part of the story is told
in the movie The Bridge at Remagen.