[Magdalen] Endless war...

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

different words, same song.  I worked out the same deal.  almost got devied
for Nam anyway (an admin person said I missed by one name), but lucked out
and spent my Nam-era time in Germany. A good portion in Berlin, where I
sang with a German choir for some time.
Once, I was at Kaiser Wilhelm Gedaechniskirche in Berlin, and heard a group
in the balcony rehearsing the Vivaldi concerto for ottavino.  I walked
forward far enough to look up and back and saw that the soloist was a tiny
girl. A friend later speculated that I was watching Michala Petri, who
would have been a toddler at that time.  Impossible to say....
Among the books at the donated books "library" at our barracks, I found a
number of books by Jim Pike, the sort of Jack Spong and Jesus Seminar of
that time.  Changed my life.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Fri, Sep 11, 2015 at 9:43 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 9/11/2015 5:08:34 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> oppenheimerjw at gmail.com writes:
>
> On Fri,  Sep 11, 2015 at 12:38 PM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > One of our student assistants (in the RN program) signed up  with the
> > promise she's be sent to Germany, where her husband was  serving.
> >
> > But at the last minute they decided they needed a  nurse in Korea and
> sent
> > her there for two  years.>>>>>>>
>
>
> Toward the end of my six week orientation into the Army Medical Corps
> at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX, we got out assignments.   We
> were all conscripts, and thus required to continue in the Army for  the
> next two years.  I had requested CONUS duty station (in the  USA).
>
> To my surprise, I was assigned to the 97th General Hospital,  Frankfurt/M
> Germany.  Then I noticed that the duty time required for this  assignment
> was 3 years, not the 2 expected.
>
> I saw the authorities, who told me that my assignment was a plush  one,
> and that if I didn't like crossing the Atlantic they could arrange for  me
> "to cross the Pacific".  This was during the Viet Nam War, and it  was
> a not so veiled attempt for coercion.  I took the Germany deal, and  in
> the end I was happy I did.  I fought the Viet Nam War on the front  lines
> of West Germany for somewhat over 3 years.  It was the experience  of
> a lifetime.
>
>
> David Strang.
>
>
>