Training in the west was a normal occurrence serving in the Brigade. Most times it took place in Wildflecken, West Germany. On one of our semi-annual thirty-day exercises this happened right before my eyes.
We were on a mission the brass called a “movement to contact”, being a newbie, I was just trying to keep up and act like I knew what I was doing. About 5 klicks from our starting point, we were ascending a rather steep incline. Being in third platoon we were next to last in the line of march. All of a sudden, a deer jumped up from a bush and steam-rolled Pvt. Frank Atkinson!
He was practically unconscious and had to be med-evacuated from the mission. I will never forget our RTO trying to explain to the Company Commander what had happened. He kept repeating Pvt. Atkinson was run over by a Delta-Echo-Echo-Romeo! Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured including the deer. Atkinson was known as the “Deer-Hunter” from then on.
To this day I still have trouble believing what I saw that morning thirty-six years ago.
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