In article ,
(ArtKramr) wrote:

The Rain at Pontoise

It had been raining for a week and our airfield at Pontoise was drenched.
The
squadron streets were a morass of mud. When you walked your boots sank
into the
mud and there was a sucking sound as you lifted each foot to walk. We
were
mostly hunched in out tents with a small fire in the pot bellied stove to
fight
off the wet. We whiled away the boredom by reading, writing letters or
playing
poker. In the mess tent we all sat with cups of hot coffee and felt
better as
the cook's stoves gave off heat that drove off the dampness and the
lights in
the tent cut away the gray gloom of the world outside. The boredom was
endless,
Later as evening came on we all wandered over to the officers club where
we
spent a few more hours drinking and talking to relieve that ever present
boredom.. Would this rain ever stop? As we walked back to our tents to
turn in,
the rain seemed to lessen and we could see breaks in the clouds overhead.
Even
a few stars appeared. The next morning we attacked the Rhine bridges at
Cologne.

Art, you give additional evidence that coffee is the most critical fluid
in the US military! I wonder if there could be a supply planning factor
for units -- every time you order xxx gallons of fuel, send yyy pounds
of coffee. :-)

AFAIK, the Air Force (Corps) has never taken coffeemaking to quite the
religious ritual used by the Navy. When I worked at a Navy software
development center, there were a group of petty officers that had taken
an option (this being during Viet Nam) to become an instant third class
if they had a BS degree in computer science (or equivalent), and a first
class with a master's degree. In general, they were the elite class,
and excused from most routine details. Coffee watch, however, was the
one thing they NEVER got out of.

The chain of command, after one memorable incident causing significant
damage to the CO's offfice, was delighted to take them off the interior
guard rotation. A nearsighted programmer with a loaded M-16 is not
anything you want to be near.