Jeff Jr. served in the US Navy for 24 years and received 2 Meritorious Service Medals, 5 Navy Commendation Medals, 2 Presidential Unit Citations, and 2 Meritorious Unit Citations. The rest of his medals are classified.

It was the winter of 1977 when Jeff Jr. was born. His father, Jeff, was serving in the U.S. Army and had been deployed to Germany as part of REFORGER 77. Meanwhile, back in Fort Riley, Kansas, Jeff's mother, Cheryl, eagerly awaited their first child's arrival.

REFORGER 77 Carbon Edge was conducted as a free-running corps-level FTX. It involved 51,800 troops with 4,000 tracked vehicles, 7,500 wheeled vehicles, 500 helicopters, and 90 combat aircraft. Carbon Edge aimed to test the capability of NATO to slow down, intercept, and stop a significant conventional attack of the Warsaw Pact to gain enough time to assemble sufficient forces for a counteroffensive and, by so doing, regain the initiative on the battlefield.

It was one of the best experiences of my life!

Nothing compared to our Boys, but they are better than me. Isn't that the point: to be a good person, work hard, and help your children surpass you? Nailed it!

After Reforger, My Buddies and I took a train from Stuttgart to the concentration camp; It was a life-changing experience.

Dachau Concentration Camp 1933-1945

After Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor on January 30, 1933, the National Socialists used an array of terror measures to establish a dictatorship in the German Reich. The persecution and elimination of all political opposition play a pivotal role. Concentration camps are opened across the Reich to facilitate the mass imprisonment of political opponents. The Dachau concentration camp is one of these early sites. On March 22, 1933, the first prisoner transports arrived at the camp set up on the grounds of a disused gunpowder and munitions factory.

The camp commandant, Theodor Eicke, introduced a system in October 1933 that included brutal punishment rules for the prisoners and duty orders for the camp SS. The regulations institutionalized SS rule over the prisoners, which is characterized by tyranny and terror.

We spent the entire day at the camp, which still smells like GAS, and then took a train from Dachau to Munich to participate in the Oktoberfest. It was late that night when got to Munich so we ended up sleeping in the train station.

Oktoberfest Munich Germany

Oktoberfest is the world's largest Volksfest, featuring a beer festival and a traveling carnival, and is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, from mid- or late-September to the first Sunday in October, with more than six million international and national visitors attending the event.

I took the train back to Stuttgart, then went to Mannheim, Germany, to return some equipment before flying back to Fort Riley, Kansas. This was shortly before my son Jeff Jr. was born. About three months later, I was stationed in Mannheim, Germany. It took a few weeks to bring my wife, Cheryl, and Jeff Jr. to Mannheim. We lived in Viernheim, Germany, for the rest of my service term.

While in Germany, we enjoyed touring the country, hiking in the Black Forest, and cruizing the Rhine River while visiting the castles.

One of our favorite places was Hitler's tea house and The Berchtesgaden salt mine, Germany's oldest active salt mine. Embark on an exciting journey into the depths of the Alps.

Another favorite destination was Neuschwanstein Castle, a 19th-century historicist palace on a rugged hill of the foothills of the Alps in the very south of Germany.

It appeared in the Walt Disney Pictures logos from 1985 to 2006 before being merged with Cinderella Castle, both familiar symbols of The Walt Disney Company.

We had a great time in Germany and often dreamed of going back.