Search where?

This Portfolio (sgcardin)

All of Writing.Com

◄ November ►
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30
Archive				RSS

Member Blogs

· From the Depths of the Ocean

· The Crazy Things I get Myself Into

· Love, Joy, Peace, & Wierdness

· Make a Wish Maybe...

· From my Mind to...

· Scribbles from Mars

· Compass & Quill

· Kare Enga's blog

· Days with Debi

Offsite Blogs

· Romance Under the Moonlight

· Miss Snark (up, but not active)

· Jennifer Jackson, Literary Agent

Writing Links

· Writer's Digest Online

Personal Links

· Steph Burkhart's Website

· Steph Burkhart on Facebook

· Steph Burkhart on You Tube

· Steph Burkhart on GoodReads

Create New Item

Read & Review

Community

Browse By Type

Browse By Genre

Writing Resources

Tue, Nov 11, 2025

4:54pm EST

Members: 795

Guests: 8,239

Total Online: 9,034

Gemini Rising

by StephBee

Rated: 18+ · Book · Personal · #1051691

Life, Adventure, Family, Writing what else is there? Random thoughts.

WELCOME TO:

GEMINI RISING

UPDATED INTRO 30 JUNE 2025:

Just a little about me. I've been married for 33 years this past NOV and currently live in Southern California, but I grew up in New Hampshire.

I've got 2 boys who are young adults.

I work as a 911 dispatcher for LAPD. I enjoy my job a lot. Still. If you can believe that.

I love to write. Thankfully both of my boys achieved Eagle Scout. My Scouting days are over and I'm back to focusing on my writing.

I like to get out in nature, drink coffee and watch football.

Here's a little bio about my zodiac.

GEMINI: Gemini, the sign of the Twins, is dual-natured, elusive, complex and contradictory. On the one hand it produces the virtue of versatility, and on the other the vices of two-facedness and flightiness. The sign is linked with Mercury, the planet of childhood and youth, and its subjects tend to have the graces and faults of the young. When they are good, they are very attractive; when they are bad they are more the worse for being the charmers they are. Like children they are lively, and happy, if circumstances are right for them, or egocentric, imaginative and restless.

Their good qualities are attractive and come easily to them. They are affectionate, courteous, kind, generous, and thoughtful towards the poor and suffering - provided none of the activities resulting from expressing these traits interferes too greatly with their own lives and comforts.

Geminians can be successful in many walks of life though their general characteristics tend to make them unreliable. They are often skilled manipulators of language, in speech and writing, and may be: debaters, diplomats (though in politics they are more interested in theory than practice), orators, preachers (brilliant rather than profound), teachers, authors, poets, journalists, or lawyers.

BLOG ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

SEPTEMBER 2025:

FORUM

It's WDC- 25th Birthday

(E)
7 day Challenge to celebrate 25 years of this successful writer's haven.
#2343390 by Witchy Woman

SEPTEMBER 2025:

FORUM

Earn the Badge - CLOSED

(E)
You want it? Earn it. How? Complete these simple tasks and the badge is yours!
#2133333 by Purple writing writing writing

Merit Badges collected and earned from "Earn the Badge 2025"

SUMMER 2025:

FORUM

BCoF 's Virtual 50 State Bucket List

(18+)
We're going to explore one unique place in each of the 50 states in alphabetical order.
#2342653 by Witchy Woman

Merit Badges Collected from Virtual Blogging &Virtual Blogging Friends:

SEPTEMBER 2024:

I participated in the

FORUM

Blog Week Birthday Bastion 2025

(E)
Blogging event from September 1-7, 2025. CLOSED
#2277665 by WakeUpAndLive~NOV Word Monger

which was a big challenge for me due to my schedule, but I hunkered down and got it done. There's some great entries for the contest and the blog earned the following:

Merit Badge in Nonfiction
[Click For More Info]

Congrats on your Honorable Mention in Blog Week Birthday Bastion 2024

Big thanks to WakeUpAndLive~NOV Word Monger

for hosting the contest!

OCTOBER 2024 & 2025 :

I participated in the

FORUM

13 Poetic Days of Halloween Contest 2025

(E)
Let your spooky poetry shine. Oct. 13th 12:01 am WDC time. - closes 11:59 pm WDC Oct 25th
#2328177 by Witchy Woman

in 2024 which honestly was a big challenge for me considering my schedule, and again I hunkered down and did it! Update October 2025: I had so much participating in the challenge last year, I did it again for 2025 and successfully completed it. There's some great spooky poetry to be found in October and the blog earned the following merit badges:

Big Thanks to Witchy Woman

for hosting the contest!

Find me at:

WEBSITE:
http://www.stephanieburkhart.com

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/StephanieBurkhartAuthor

GOOD READS:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart

YOU TUBE CHANNEL:
http://www.youtube.com/user/botrina?feature=mhee

WARNING

I intend to be open, honest, and forthright. No topic is off limits from religion to you name it, I'm going there. If you think you might be offended...back up now - this blog isn't for you. For those who "dare" check out the "Gemini Rising..."

Another Signature

Show Recent Comments

November 10, 2025 at 10:44pm

#1101351

Researching Reflections - Why Munster was important

After writing some of my reflections on my time in Munster, guarding a munitions depot and being around the British Army (remember there were 10,000 Brits stationed in Munster, only 200 Americans) I decided to research for some photos from the time period because mine aren’t all that and I found out some interesting information that I thought I’d share.

What I do remember is that there a forest around the city. In fact, our munitions depot was about 10-15 mins from the suburb of Telege. In fact, I vaguely remember going to a restaurant near Telege that had a bit of hunter’s theme, authentic German food, deer heads on the walls and long tables for communal eating.

During World War I, Germany built a camp with gas warfare engineers with the intent to make gas munitions just north of Munster. The camp was built in 1916 and by July 1918, there were 3 buildings that made chemical munitions. At “Lostwerk I” they made mustard gas. This area had a power station, camps for 4,500 people, a firing range, and test sites. Regular munitions were made here as well, and they brought captured munitions to this site as well such as Russian chlorine gas.

Believe it or not, there over 47K “long” tons of chemical munitions and 53 “short” tons! (Honestly, I’m not sure what it means but it sounds like a lot of chemical weapons) Shockingly, they destroyed these munitions by sinking them in the Baltic Sea! A train accident on the way north to the Baltic sea, let out a chemical release, threatening the countryside. There were several deaths throughout the following months. By 1925 all the buildings used to create these foul chemicals were destroyed.

Between 1935-1938 the Germans rebuilt the facilities and made them bigger with the intent to create 15% chemical munitions and 85% explosive munitions. Mind you, after World War I, chemical munitions were outlawed in international conflicts.

Some of the chemical munitions built at the new facilities included: arsenic oil, hydrogen cyanide, mustard gas (it’s back!) tabun, sarin, (these 2 are most foul!) cyanogen chloride, phenacyl chloride and more! The new facilities were disguised a simple bunkers.

After 1945, Munster fell into the British zone of occupation and they took over the clean up of chemical munitions. Forces from Operation Market Garden became the British Army of the Rhine (similar to USAREUR) and then smaller units occupied different cities. British infantry, artillery, and calvary units were established in various barracks throughout the city at Oxford, York, Simpson, etc. The British were a big presence in Munster during the Cold War.

Reference:
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/disaster-in-a-bright-blue-sky/

Link to some great World War II pictures in the Rhineland area to include Munster
https://www.littlerock.gov/residents/parks-and-recreation/directory/macarthur-mu...

Summary of the Cold War in British occupied Germany
https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/active-edge-army-germany-during-cold-war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_occupation_zone_in_Germany

https://www.thenmusa.org/articles/the-army-and-the-cold-war/

Muster Raid

Comment • View 1 comment

November 10, 2025 at 8:44am

#1101276

Reflections of my time stationed overseas - Munster

My first duty assignment, fresh after graduating Basic and 95B (military police) training, was the 583rd Ordnance Company. I arrived in Germany in December of 1986, 18 years old and ready to discover the world. I wish I paid more attention.

My fellow MPs landed at the Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt, Germany. While my memory is now fuzzy, I do remember our original set of orders were scrapped and we were given new orders to go to the 583rd Ordnance Company.

The 583rd Ordnance Company was located just outside of the suburb of Handorf and the city of Munster. It was in the British Zone of Occupation. I had some history classes in high school and I was aware that Germany had been divided by the allies, but until I was stationed in the British Zone of occupation, it wasn’t real to me.

The British zone of occupation in Germany was north of Frankfurt up to Bremerhaven. The American zone was south of Frankfurt and the French had a small piece near the German-French border.

Where I was stationed at there were 10,000 British soldiers and 200 American soldiers. Out of the 20 American soldiers maybe 20 were female. What were the odds?

Munster, itself has about 320,000 people. It is in the Nord-Rhine Westphalia section of Germany. I do remember the Cathedral, and the town itself was an interesting mix of gothic and Romanesque architecture. I do remember it there were a lot of gables on the buildings in downtown, and I think there was a heavy Dutch influence in the area. When I had time (and my 1975 Fiat was working, I might go to the downtown area to walk around, eat authentic German food, and take some friends just to get out, though most Americans weren’t as daring to leave our kaserne.)

Genealogy side note – 30 year later, when I submitted a sample to 23 and me, I learned that about 5 % of my ancestry is from Nord-Rhine Westphalia. I have a 2nd or 3rd great grandparent likely born between 1760 and 1850 from Nord-Rhine Westphalia. In hindsight, I found it amazing that I would live in this region for 2 years of my life in the military. I suspect this great grandparent came from my paternal side, my father’s mother, as I remember her telling me, she wasn’t sure of her lineage. A couple of months back, my husband got on ancestry.com and was able to trace my grandmother’s mother line back to Germany.

Back to Munster & the 583rd: Most of the company’s immediate support was British. You had your options – British TV or German TV. For immediate health or dental issues you could go to the British hospital or dentist. Most of the time, us Americans went to Bremerhaven for medical/dental issues. Bremerhaven was a 2 hour drive north. That was the closest American base. I remember there were American facilities in Enschede, Netherlands – I got my USAREUR driver’s license there. It only took an hour and half to get there. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember if it was an “American” base. An internet search now reveals it was a jointly used air base between the Americans and the Dutch.

We had to gas up our vehicles on British kasernes in the area. I remember vaguely going to Simpson, York, Portsmouth barracks to fuel up our VW. If anything, I wish I could remember more. I think the Brits called it petrol and us Americans said gas.

Every year the British would have an open house and invite us Americans to put on a display. I want to say the open house rotated every year, but I can’t be sure, however every year I was voluntold to participate in the open house. Being an MP, I had to wear my BDU (battle dress uniform) along with my personal equipment, LBE (load bearing equipment), my kelvar helmet, have my gas mask attached on my hip, and bring along my M16. What made my M16 so special at the time, is that it had an M203 grenade launcher on it. Mind you, a grenade launcher is really cool to fire, but I never shot it once while I was at the 583rd. (I eventually shot it and qualified expert on it when I was assigned to the 127th MP Company in Hanau.) I also had to wear camo on my face. I was full all out decked out for war fighting. I remember our presentation at the open houses were well received and we got a lot of questions – especially me.

At the time, being an MP was probably the closest a woman would come to war fighting. Being an MP was considered combat support. There was combat (infantry for example), combat support, (MP), and combat service support (cooks and clerks). I would get a lot of questions from British soldiers about “what was it like” to be a female in a job like I had. They would explain to me that most of their females were in combat service support jobs like cooks, clerks, nurses, etc. They considered me to be a war fighter. Why would I want to do it? I would explain that (at the time) the American didn’t have females in combat jobs, but we could serve in combat support jobs. I had to have a lot of patience because I got that a lot!

British BDUs were different from ours in that they had different camo patterns on them, but the one thing I admired about their equipment was their MOPP gear (Mission Orientated Protective Posture) MOPP is what you put on to protect yourself in case of an NBC attack (nuclear, biological, chemical). We had 9 seconds to put on our face mask and 9 minutes to put on the suit. In American MOPP suits, you had to tie everything off and tying slowed you down. The British suits had Velcro. Easy Peasy! Not only that they had screw on exterior filters! Convenient! Our filters were interior in the face plastic. They were hard to replace.

Every year us Americans would go on a joint exercise with the Brits called Reforger. For us, it was a “practice.” We would “unload” the munitions site and then travel throughout the countryside guarding our munitions. The British would drive in their deuce and halfs (2 ½ ton trucks) with the “munitions” (they were simulated) and the American would ride shotgun. Usually the exercise lasted about a week or a week and half. We usually got hot meals for dinner and breakfast, but lunch usually consisted of rations. American MREs sucked next to British rations. They actually got stuff in cans that they had to cook!

A “quick” internet search (I’d have to do a bit more research) revealed that during World War II, Munster was a site for chemical weapons research and production for the German military. (I never knew!) Munster had a prominent German military presence in World War II and was a bombing target of the British. (It was 95% destroyed?) (Heck, I remember hearing in the news they had found an unexploded bomb near the cathedral in 1988.) To this day, they are still finding unexploded ordnance in Germany from World War II.

If anything, this is a just a brief collection of my thoughts and memories during my time stationed at the 583rd. I'll probably take some time and flesh it out a bit more going forward.

I'd love to hear more thoughts on the British army, so if anyone has anything share, please do.

Comment • View 4 comments

Printed from https://shop.writing.com/main/profile/blog/sgcardin/day/11-10-2025