[Leica] Grotesquely Off-Topic: Virginia it is!

[marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)]

At 04:52 PM 5/4/2007, Jeff S. Matsler wrote:
 >Hello,
 >
 >Just got word from the Army Chaplaincy that I'm to be assigned to Ft.
 >Eustis, VA.   If all goes as planned, I'll be a Chaplain for a
 >Transportation Battalion.
 >
 >This entire process, including this assignment has been a "God-thing",
 >with doors opening that never should have by "normal" standards - and
 >an assignment to exactly where we feel we need to be.  Va was our
 >first choice - which NEVER happens on a first assignment.  Best of
 >all, because I was medically released, my years out of service still
 >count for pay.  I'll be a CHAT w/ 12 years (which is a heck of a lot
 >better than a CPT w/ 5!).
 >
 >Thanks for all of those who have been praying for Michelle and I.  My
 >new assignment begins 15 June, or thereabouts.  There will be plenty
 >of photo ops to put the Leicas through their paces - and the Minoltas too!
 >
 >If any of you live in the area, or nearby, I look forward to putting a
 >face with the many names and personalities I've met.
 >
 >I should have my orders in a week or so.  At that point - and only
 >then as Ross can tell you - it's official.
 >
 >I will be re-commissioned next week at the local VFW chapter.  That'll
 >be fun and I'll try to get some pics.

Fort Eustis is a flat and level place, a post of 
mud and dust and not a lot more than that.  It 
was established as a Coast Artillery post to keep 
the British from seizing Richmond, though Queen 
Elizabeth the First and Second seems to have done 
that on her own this past Thursday, followed by a 
triumph at Williamsburg and another yesterday at 
Jamestown.  When my father was pulling his 
enlisted hitch with the 52nd Coast Artillery 
(Rwy) at Fortress Monroe back in the 1930's, he'd 
occasionally be sent over as a member of a party 
to pull maintenance on the guns at Eustis.

Eustis was established as the home for the 
Transportation Corps during the Second World War, 
after we figured out that our Army Air Force was 
bigger and meaner than the Royal Navy, and so we 
really didn't have to guard the James River 
environs to Richmond that closely.  For years, 
the US Army's logistics doctrine development and 
schools were divided between Fort Lee in 
Richmond, Virginia (supply -- the Quartermaster 
Corps), Aberdeen, Maryland (maintenance -- the 
Ordnance Corps), and Fort Eustis, Virginia 
(Transportation Corps).  After forty or fifty 
years of agony, the latest Base Closing and 
Realignment (BRAC) process has decided to close 
down the Ordnance, Transportation, and 
Quartermaster Schools with their related doctrine 
development sections and to consolidate these in 
a new Logistics School to be located at Fort 
Lee.  Aberdeen Proving Grounds will now be a Test 
and Development post.  Fort Eustis has no real 
future mission and will probably be a victim for 
the next BRAC, currently sugested for 2012 or 
so.  You will, of course, be rotated out by that point, so no hu-hu.

I did my Commissary and PX shopping at Fort 
Useless when I was in Law School at William & 
Mary, but it's been donkey's years since I've 
been there.  I currently live about ten miles 
from Fort Lee, about sixty miles or so from 
Eustis, and our property values are going up due 
to the folks being transferred here from Aberdeen 
and Eustis.  I would suggest waiting a while 
before buying a house, as the values will 
probably bottom out in another year or so.  The 
problem this has caused here at Fort Lee is that 
the closest gate to the Class Six store is being 
renovated, so we have to drive around to the Shop 
Road Gate, rather a bit of going around Robin 
Hood's Barn.  I will take my wife tomorrow to the 
Commissary while I visit the Class Six store, 
that most vital part of the post to us retirees.

In any event, welcome back to active duty.  I am 
not certain just what a CHAT is, but 
congratulations on becoming such.  Is this like 
becoming a member of the Ancient and Honorable 
Order of the Society of Turtles <he grins, and 
grins again in the memory of Wally 
Shirra>.  Sometime, I have to tell you about the 
time a friend lost a railway engine at 
Eustis.  Well, he didn't lose it:  he just got 
appointed to a Company Command and the engine was 
on his property book and no one could find it, so 
he refused to sign, and that was the only 
rational thing to do.  The tale grows from that ...

Marc




msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!