This, That and the Other.

Greetings All,

It was a typical week at work, which is not a bad thing. Little bit of news to pass. I thought I would be in Germany until the end of Nov but now looks like I will redeploy back to NC a little earlier. My new boss at Camp Lejeune has been shaking a few trees to find out when I was coming back and discovered that my replacement is scheduled to be here the last week of Oct and I will travel back to NC during the first week of Nov. A full 3 weeks earlier then I had originally thought.

That means home for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball, my birthday, and Thanksgiving. It is a Christmans mircle a full 2 months in advance. He also said my orders were extended until Nov 2010 (another year). I doubt it is in the bag but at least I have the backing of the command which means a lot as opportunities for reservist look like they are drying up. They like me, they REALLY like me!

Stayed close to home this weekend. Did laundry Friday night (really livin it up, huh?). Sat drove about an hour to a French PX which was kind of a bust. Just a small grocery store and small PX area. I had visions of Louis Vuitton at 90% of retail. I was going to buy one of those old time steamer trunks people used to travel with. They didn't have much but I did score a litter of Absolute vodka for around USD $10 and a $5 bottle of French wine. It's French so it must be good. Honestly, the wine prices did seem pretty good, although, I will admint I don't know much about French wine.

Sunday (today) I went to an art museum downtown as well as a limited time exhibition on Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

The art museum was great. Much better then the one I was at in Munich. On display were a several highly regarded Rembrandt paintings including "St Paul in prison", Claude Monet, Chagall, Salvador Dali, Jackson Pollack, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhall (last 3 not my thing but worth noting), and my old favorite Pablo Picasso. Long time readers probably remember my last Picasso experience. I am happy to say that there were about 18 "real" painting on display. A much better effort then the penis and testicals (No 2 pencil on white 8.5x11 paper) displayed in Munich. I suspect that once he became well known and sought after, someone threw a lot of money at him to create something special. As a joke, we created those drawing and convinced that person it was an incredible, inspired creation. Probably laughed all the way to the bank.

The Rommel Exhibition, at the history musem next door, was also an unexpected treat. My Military Occupational Speciality (MOS) is Armor (tanks), so my interest was probably a little higher then most people could generate.

This is not a permanet display and is ending this month so I wanted to check it out before it closed. It would have been better if they had English translations next to the displayed items. Each piece at the art museum had and English discribtion which made such a big difference.

As some of you know, Erwin Rommel was considered an one of the greatest tacticians in WWII. It was his masterful leadership of German and Italian forces in the North African campaign that established the legend of the Desert Fox. He is generally considered to have been the most skilled commander of desert warfare in the war. He later commanded the German forces opposing the Allied cross-channel invasion in Normandy.

Rommel is considered to have been a chivalrous and humane officer, in contrast with many other figures of Nazi Germany. His famous Afrikakorps was not accused of any war crimes. Soldiers captured during his Africa campaign were reported to have been largely treated humanely. Furthermore, he defiantly ignored orders to kill captured Jewish soldiers and civilians out of hand in all theaters of his command.

Between his brillant tactics and the vastly superior German tanks, the Allied forces struggled to contend with him in Africa.

Late in the war, Rommel joined the conspiracy against Adolf Hitler , but opposed the failed 20 July plot of 1944 to kill the dictator. Because of his great prestige, Hitler allowed him to commit suicide. He was buried with full military honors, but the real reason for his death didn't come to light until the Nuremberg Trails.

He was given two choices that day, commit suicide and save his family name, as well as his pension for his wife, or go to trial, be found guilty and hung. He called his wife a few minutes later to speak with her one last time and 15 minutes later, he was dead.

I can't help but wonder how the world would be different if that plot succeded. The war certainly would have ended earlier and fewer people would have lost their lives. At any rate, the war would rage on for another 10 months before the unconditional surrender of Germany on VE Day, 8 May 1945.

On display were numerous documents as well as many of his personal and uniform items. It is always eerie getting that close to real history. It was the same feeling I had when I rode the elevator up to the Eagle's Nest and stood on the deck of the Mighty Mo on the exact spot Japan surrendered WWII. The same feeling I had when Jodi and I visited Fort Sumter where the Civil War started.

Well, that is about it from here. Have some travel to plan since I am only going to be here for 3 more months. I suspect I will not see everything I hoped to.

Cheers,
Michael