OH! MY! -- WAIT ---WHAT???? We're going to WAR?

Being a "newbie" to my unit was much like being a freshman in high school and those upperclassmen would see to it I was fully indoctrinated.

When I first got to the 1st AD there was some political unrest which meant we, the lower enlisted, had to pull guard duty through the night. I had pulled guard duty in basic training. I knew I didn't want to pull guard duty! From what I could gather, this guard duty consisted of walking the inner perimeter of the kaserne while in full gear; helmet, flak vest (bullet proof vest --and it was heavy!), pistol belt, M16 rifle . . . yeah, didn't exactly sound like my cup of tea. I was happy to learn soldiers that were inprocessing would not be put on the duty roster. Whew! I did escape that and turns out, by the time I was ready for full duty, we no longer had to pull this extra guard duty. But from the get-go, I did realize I was in a different place. This wasn't American soil and things would be different. During my tenure in Germany, depending on the political climate at the time, we'd get notice of certain countries being closed off for soldiers. Most of time it was a short temporary ban. Also, the threat may or may have not been real serious (to consider the ban) but the Army wasn't willing to take chances and I'm sure they erred on the side of caution. It did make me feel slightly uneasy. I felt like at any time anything could happen and then one morning, it did.

One very early morning, while nestled snugly in my Army issued bed partially behind a flimsy white plastic shelf, sheltered from the outside world by a thin layer of contact paper, I was awaken very annoyingly by loud knocks on the door while someone was yelling, "ALERT! ALERT!" All of my roommates promptly knew what to do. Though grumbling and still half asleep, they all got up and began to bustle around. Outside of our door, I could hear a lot of commotion --lots of loud talking, people walking, etc. I thought perhaps I should do something but what? I kind of sat on the edge of my bed for a while and then finally asked what was going on. One of my roommates replied, "Girl! We're on alert! You betta get yourself up." Okay, Einstein, I heard the man pounding on our door yelling, "ALERT!" I pretty much gathered we were on Alert. Alert? What exactly was Alert?

Well, if everyone else was getting up and dressed, all we like sheep --I'd get up and do the same. My roommates one by one were dressed and left. Where were they going? What were they doing? After a little while they came back and (crap) in full gear. I asked a different roommate what was going on. She said, "You don't know?" Well duh, why does everyone keep giving me such stupid answers? No, I told her --I certainly did not know what was going on. She said, "Well girl! We're on Alert! We're going to war! Packing up! Moving out! Did you get your weapon yet (I saw she had hers)? You better hurry! The Arms rooms is gonna close and girl! How you going to war with no weapon?" She just walked away. That's it.

OH! MY! -- WAIT ---WHAT???? We're going to WAR? Okay, I'm scared. Maybe I should sit on my bed and cry. What about my family? My Mom isn't going to like this. I don't think she envisioned me going to war. What about Courtney and Morgan? If I get killed in action, they will never remember me. What will my sisters think? War!? Me? I'm a female. We don't go to combat! What's going on? I can't go to war! I just got out of basic training! WAR??????????????? OH DEAR GOD HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like everyone else had done, I went down to the Arms room and got my weapon. We were to report to our appointed place of duty which in my case, was SJA. It was a rather short walk across the parking lot. When I left the barracks I noticed Army vehicles were beginning to line up in front of division headquarters. Soldiers were scurrying about. There was a lot of fast paced activity. Once again, a plot to go AWOL briefly crossed my mind. Yes, I was scared --I was quite scared. I had no idea what was going on and in some way, the not knowing was the scariest part.

I got to the SJA office and was surprised to find that though it was a very o-dark-thirty in the morning, business at SJA was status quo. Everyone was in full gear but sitting at type writers, desks, etc. Didn't they know we were going to war? Oh man, I hated to be the one to break it to them. I was a little suspicious though so instead of just blurting out the news --like Germany had been invaded or something, I decided to just sit and listen and see how things play out.

My NCOIC asked, "Do you want to go get breakfast? The mess hall is going to be crowded." Good idea, I thought. I mean, I can hardly fight a war on an empty stomach!

Slowly but surely it became clear to me we were NOT going to war. This was in fact just an exercise of readiness. The CG (Commanding General) would determine when we'd have these surprise alerts --much like those fire drills in grade school. The point was to remain ever ready --so we'd all be expected to gear up and line up as if we were pulling out. It was one of many Alerts I'd have to go through but this by far would always be the most memorable one.

Thanks, roomies! Hmmm --- I wonder if I over paid for that elevator pass they sold me. I bet I could have gotten it cheaper!