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

[jeffmatsler at amaonline.com (Jeff S. Matsler)]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the words and the info!

Once I get there, we'll have to do some shooting.  I'm willing to bet you 
know where all the best places tourists don't know about are.

Typo there, as you guessed.  I was typing CPT and thinking Chaplain (CH).  I 
am both.

Glad to know there's a good Class 6 around.  Wouldn't want to run out of 
communion wine!  ;-)

Jeff M

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marc James Small" <marcsmall@comcast.net>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 11:19 PM
Subject: [Leica] Grotesquely Off-Topic: Virginia it is!


> 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!
>
>
>
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