A Trost Und Freude PSA....

[gwendolyngrace]

And a question about John.

The PSA Part: I'm working on edits to Chapter 16 (thanks as always to the all-knowing and powerful beta etakyma) and awaiting her comments on 17, but as I have to pack tonight and I have much, much to do in the way of other work, I fear that Trost Und Freude may not be completed posting by, um, tomorrow. I had this plan where I was even going to try to post the last chapter Thursday night from the airport, but at this point, that's not going to happen. Sixteen *might* be up tonight or tomorrow, depending on how crazy I feel.

But in order for that to happen, I must consult the collective power of the flist!

A made a comment in Chapter 16 about John's knowledge of German. You may recall that he parsed "O Tannenbaum" for poor Sam back in Chapter 2 and he'd indicated that he'd taken a tiny bit of German in school. A, I'm sure, didn't remember that (because she's good, but holy crap, that was 4 months ago!), but in 16, the topic of German language skills comes up again, and A asked, "Is this something he picked up, maybe while stationed in Germany in the war?"

Now... I kinda like this idea, that he was fudging the truth a little and that really, his knowledge of German is from coming through Ramstein or something... except that I don't think the Marines *used* any German bases for deployment or for retrieval stations during Vietnam. And I've tried searching USMC history (as well as Vietnam history) online and I'm not able to find something with that level of detail.

So, O flist (some of whom remember Vietnam a lot better than I do!), is that a reasonable place for John to have ever been? Would he have *ever* gone through a German base at any point either on his way to or back from, Southeast Asia? Somehow I think they had staging points in Guam and elsewhere in the Pacific, and of course Da Nang. But Germany?

Seems pretty far afield.

???

Comments

[pinkphoenix1985.livejournal.com]

I dunno...it could be a long shot, but maybe they did have allied bases in West Germeny that took care of wounded US soldiers or so...

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Well, they do, but the question is whether they used them for Nam. Ramstein, for example, is where the soldiers are evac'd from Iraq.

[pinkphoenix1985.livejournal.com]

I really dunno...I mean I dont know 'nam history and I wasn't even born then lol

sorry if I wasnt much help

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Since the fic is not in a fandom I follow I have zero advice about character. But my father was stationed in Germany during Vietnam. He was sent there because he did codes and his security clearance was too high for Vietnam. He was near Ulm for four years.

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Good to know... the character was a Marine Corps corporal (and it's not exactly canon that he was even in Vietnam, but it's possible), and in a rifle corps, so unlikely that he'd have been stationed in Germany. More likely is that he might have been injured and in a military hospital, or simply passed through coming or going with his unit.


But thanks for the input!

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Oh, my dad was in the army. My other dad was in the air force but he spent his time in Japan during Vietnam.