This is not division headquarters and I'm NOT in Ansbach!

The bus kept going and along the way, depositing brand new Privates into Army kasernes throughout Deutschland. It might have been about a four hour ordeal. Most everyone on the bus held great anticipation to arrive to their new unit. You could hear the excitement in the buzz of chatter that filled the bus. I have no idea who this person (or persons) was that kept trying to awake me. I imagine it might have been someone concerned they were sharing a bus ride with a corpse.

I was finally able to wake up long enough to ask a few questions; where were we, where have we been, how long before we get to Ansbach. "Oh, Ansbach?", asked the soldier, "No, we haven't gotten that far yet." I was ever so relieved to learn I was not going to be AWOL.

For the remainder of the ride I was able to muster up enough strength to stay awake. I was still tired and it was an effort to just hold my head up but at this point, the fear of missing my stop was greater than the need to sleep. We finally got to my stop, which was Ansbach, I thought.

The place was rather unimpressive, especially being it was a Headquarters Division! There was a big square court yard surrounded 4 buildings all facing inward creating the square. The buildings were old and the entire scene looked very WWII-ish. I almost expected a jeep to come whizzing past us with a general aboard kind of Hollywood style or maybe a tank to come crashing through one of those buildings. The buildings seemed eerily unoccupied; the courtyard and much of the buildings appeared to be empty and unused for quite some time. As I was sitting on the bus taking this site in, my WWII thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a sergeant that boarded the bus.

We were in a reception area for the 1st AD, he explained, and from here we'd all be shipping out to our units throughout the division. Unfortunately, due to the holiday, the division had a 4-day weekend so we would not be going to our units until Tuesday, it was only Thursday. In the meantime we'd be staying here --more holding barracks. He went on to give us some instructions like where and when to eat, what details would be expected of us, where to get clean linens for our bed and the simple sign-in process that would begin as soon as we disembarked the bus.

This is not division headquarters! I am NOT in Ansbach! More waiting! More checking in! More Army red-tape!

My temporary lodging was a big room with about 10 bunked beds in it. Everything was old and if I wasn't so exhausted, I might have taken a moment to reflect the stories this old barracks could tell. But the only real thought I had was getting to a bed so I could sleep. Much to my disappointment, I ended up with a top bunk (always a challenge for a short person) because I was one of the last ones to get to the room. When we got off the bus, our luggage was neatly lined up dress-right-dressed on the sidewalk. I was the last to get to the room because I literally dragged my bags across the walk-way and down the hall to the barracks room. I still didn't have the strength to lift them.

I threw the sheets onto my bed, ripped off my uniform and got into bed. While everyone else wanted to go explore, I wanted to sleep and sleep I did.