Reforger is short for "Return Of Forces To Germany". Reforger 1978 was one of those big deals where all of V Corp as well as a boatload of troops from the U.S. went out and played army. V Corp consists of every swinging Army soldier in Germany.

We had one group of people with BLUE armbands, another group of people with ORANGE armbands and a third group of people with WHITE armbands.

The BLUE army tried to "kill" the ORANGE army (figuratively speaking) while the ORANGE army tried to kill the BLUE army (figuratively speaking).

The WHITE armband people were the referees. Their job was to tell people that they just "died" (figuratively speaking), that a perfectly fine bridge had actually just got bombed into dust, and stuff like that.

If you were told that you had just "died" then did that mean you got to go back to the barracks, take a long shower, and rest easy? NOOOO. You were recycled and became a "new troop" fresh from the states. So it was back to work for you.

Remember, the tab for all this playing army was picked up by the citizens of the United States. Gotta love it.

I really don't remember much about Reforger. We were real busy. I do remember pulling into some parking area for the evening while we were in route between one site and another. There was a long line of trucks pulled into a semi-circle. It was cold and dark and our platoon leader informed us that no-one was allowed to sleep in a truck. Our platoon leader, Sgt. Wallent, was a real gung-ho kind of guy and I guess he didn't want us to get "blown up" (figuratively speaking) while we were sleeping. I do know that I ended up sleeping in my sleeping bag on a cot in the middle of the semi-circle. It snowed while I was asleep. I froze my ass off. I also woke up with a steaming pool of melted snow around my crotch area.

I had never been colder in my life.

I doesn't get any better than this... NOT.