Mind Crossing. As you stand here in this peaceful countryside, well except for the car traffic, let your mind cross back over the years.... Imagine that you are a new soldier at Camp Adair during WWII and you are here on a training exercise. You are on the opposite side of the road south of the creek. Your officers and NCO’s have briefed you on the assault you are about to make. Maybe this one is a full out frontal charge, your lungs burning as you scream your battle cries, and your legs pump as you run as fast as you can! Or perhaps it is a stealthy approach using camouflage and what cover there is to hide your movements.
Either way the objective is the same. You must cross the creek and take out the enemy pillbox on the other side. The cold, wet Oregon weather has you chilled already, but you need to slide down that wet, muddy creek bank and cross the frigid water. Then slip and slide up the other side as so many others before you have done. And all this time all you can hear is the staccato hammering of the machine gun in the pillbox. You are so pumped up on adrenalin you won’t freeze until later. You know that this machine gun is firing blanks but the ones you will soon be facing won’t.
Now, back to the present. Look to the northeast in the yard across the road. See the two trees and the pile of vines in between them? That is the pillbox. A silent, almost forgotten reminder of the past. A past when thousands of soldiers trained here to fight for freedom in Europe and the South Pacific. Many thousands of them are still there. But perhaps, just perhaps, a few are back here, still training to protect us still. Thank you to all the Veterans that served in WWII, and since. Valsetzpegleg