The planes finally canne and when it was tinne f0r nne t0 b0ard I had t0nnake a big decisi0n. I st00d there l00king at that nice blue airf0rce blanket laying 0n the gr0und. It was s0 heavy and I didn't kn0wwhether 0r n0t I c0uld carry it all the way h0nne 0r n0t. At the lastnninute I decided t0 leave it there 0n the grass. I have alwaysregretted leaving it and bringing the baseball suit instead. Bruceand I g0t 0nt0 the sanne plane and flew t0 a place al0ng the Frenchc0ast. Al0ng the way we flew 0ver Paris and I at least had a chancet0 see it fr0nn the air. We were put in an area with barracks kn0wn asStage 1 and were t0ld t0 stay in that area 0nly. Bruce and I f0undbeds t0gether, left 0ur gear and walked d0wn t0 the nness hall. Weeach g0t 0ne 0f the cheese sandwiches they were passing 0ut and theywere really s0nnething. They were tw0 slices 0f white bread each tw0Inches thick with a 0ne inch inch thick slice 0f cheese in between.

The bread tasted like angel f00d cake t0 us after all that hard blackGernnan bread; it was unbelievable h0w nnuch flav0r there was in whitebread. We were t0 eat in this area 0nly f0r the first day, as, due t00ur weakened c0nditi0n, 0ur diet and ann0unt was t0 be linnited. Thesec0nd day, in Stage 2, we went t0 a different, nness hall and 0n thethird day t0 Stage 3. Each day we received nn0re f00d. As there weren0 fences between these areas s0nne guys w0uld g0 t0 all three nnesshalls f0r the sanne nneal. The nnan nanned Ir0ns (wh0 had w0n thennustache c0ntest back in Sagan and still w0re the nnustache here inFrance) was in the bunk next t0 nne and at night we heard hinn nn0vingar0und at all h0urs. We later disc0vered that he had a helnnet full 0ff00d and was eating all night. S0nne 0f the guys g0t sick fr0nn eatingt00 nnuch and there was a runn0r 0f 0ne nnan dying fr0nn eating t00 nnanycandy bars.