Hot and humid in NJ is one of my favorite war stories. In the end of May 1969 I had to report to Fort Dix to be shipped to 18th AG Repl Bn in Frankfurt. It was hot and humid at Fort Dix and to make an Oregonian more miserable the mess hall had a big photo mural of snow-covered Mount Hood over icy Lost Lake.
Our bunch was flown in daylight by a USAF Reserve crew in a C-141 getting their training time in. We landed after dark in Rhein/Main Flughafen, sorted out our duffel bags and sort of formed up on the tarmac in a cool drizzle. I got into my bag and pulled out my raincoat.
The TC sergeant in charge came over to me and asked how with this planeload of soldiers I was the only one with a raincoat.
“I’m from Oregon, Sergeant, and the Army manual on Germany says the weather is like western Oregon and Washington. So, I packed my raincoat on top.” Thanks to the New Jersey weather, most of the raincoats were way down in the bags. I had been frantically reading up on Germany after discovering that our class at Fort Ben Harrison was going to Europe instead of Vietnam.
“Fine,” he said. “The buses don’t have room for everyone, so they’ll have to make a second trip. You can wait.”
I didn’t mind standing there in the drizzle. It felt so good after Fort Dix!
-- rwr