Permanent Change of Station

After being assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia for four years, our family has been reassigned to Germany for three years. We are living in the Stuttgart area, and I am serving as a community chaplain at one of its four U.S. Army installations. My two combat tours to Iraq gave me little opportunity to enjoy the Savannah area with my family. We are looking forward to living together and traveling throughout Europe. Some of you may remember that I served a two-year enlistment in Germany 20 years ago. Germany is even more beautiful than I remember.


We prepared to down-size when we learned that living on-post in stairwell units was mandatory. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw the appartments were modern, newly renovated, and quite spacious (even larger than our home in Georgia). We live on the 3rd (top) floor, which is ideal for Dawn's need for sunshine. We have a gym, tennis courts, and running track next door, and the commisary (grocery store), movie theater, gas station, dental and health clinics, arts and crafts shop, thrift shop, and skate park are all within a few blocks. We also have a nice playground in our backyard. The on-post experience is VERY American (we live on Texasstrasse: Texas Street!), so we make it a point to get out as often as possible.


We've decided to continue homeschooling; a very common decision by many parents in the area. Benjamin participated in Vacation Bible School a couple of weeks ago. This week he is taking intermediate swim lessons as one of the village swimbads. (His interest level is boosted by the the big news story of the week: Michael Phelps making Olympic History.) He is also involved in a Cub Scout day camp where he is practicing archery, rifle skills, knot tying, etc. Dawn has him registered to play football (that's soccer to you and me), and she has made plans for piano lessons to continue as well. If it sounds like a lot, it's because it is--but you won't hear Benjamin complaining. These are just a few broad brush strokes that illustrate we're making ourselves at home in Stuttgart.