PLDC III

Aside from my self-induced PLDC fears and those induced by PLDC Sergeant, I had other worries too.  I knew I'd not be able to see Newsome for a long time and Connie too, for that matter.  Connie had been a part of my daily life since the day I got to 1st AD.  Severing almost all ties with barracks living, she and Newsome had become my only two friends now.  If I wasn't with one, I was with the other.  Also looming on the horizon was the fact that Connie was soon to leave Germany for good and then not too long afterwards, I'd be heading back to the states as well.  As much as I hated being overseas and wanted to go home, I was dreading having to leave.  And I was dreading Connie leaving too.

So with all that Army fear and unsettling feeling about PLDC, attached to that was things were soon coming to and end and the unknown of what was to come next was eating away at me.

But before I actually got to PLDC I'd have my second and last Christmas in Germany.  And this is when Connie and I got a live tree and put it in our apartment.  Though only a slight step above being a Charlie Brown tree, we decorated it with pride and piled gifts for each other underneath it.  I made our Christmas dinner, a feat in itself with the very limited kitchen tools we had --

And one of my Christmas gifts from Connie was a VHS of Lady and the Tramp, one of my favorite Disney movies and childhood memories . . . . and we watched it that day . . .

and we called home after a million tries because all of the overseas lines were busy . . . . .

and we felt sad and depressed after having talked to our families because we were not there and we were in some tiny little above-bar apartment in Germany watching Lady and the Tramp . . . .

and eating a substandard Christmas dinner . . . .

and in just a few weeks we'd be saying good-bye . . .

after nearly two years of friendship and hardship . . . .

and after 4 weeks of enduring PLDC . . .  .

if in fact I'd make it the entire 4 weeks . . . .