{"id":36451,"date":"2022-06-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=36451"},"modified":"2022-06-06T14:21:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T18:21:48","slug":"matts-mishaps-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/matts-mishaps-23\/","title":{"rendered":"MATT\u2019S MISHAPS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cServing overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Matt <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mind the Mine Field<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you been on a military base before?  When we first moved overseas, security was thankfully not an issue for American bases.  We could drive up to the gate post, let them know we were Americans, and they would let us drive right onto the base.  With terrorism and real threats, getting onto an American base overseas base is no longer quite that easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The foreign military base next to our apartment building is a rundown complex that has seen better days.\u00a0 The military and their facilities don\u2019t get the same respect and resources they do in America.\u00a0 I have never met a foreign soldier who hasn\u2019t told me that he wished he served in the American forces.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My wife spent her first couple years of life near an overseas American Air Force base as her dad served as an elementary teacher to military kids.  Today we live overseas in an apartment complex that borders along a foreign military army base.  Our view out our windows is of the military\u2019s high school playground and a field used for maneuvers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A foreign friend of mine in their air force was organizing a half marathon race for service men and women.  My friend invited me to join in the race, and I encouraged my wife to join along with me.  She was a good sport, traveled with me, and jumped into the race.  The base authorities allowed us in as Americans and special guests.  The race course wound around their base, but didn\u2019t have many of the typical amenities a normal long race would have \u2013 like port-a-pots.  The other runners were familiar with the route that stretched around their workplace (the base) and the race organizers didn\u2019t inform us of the features around the course.  As we were reaching the last miles of the race and had been over-hydrating along the way, my wife needed to find a bathroom, which there was none.  I noticed an out-of-the-way, lightly wooded and vegetated field that would serve as a perfect port-a-pot and I encouraged her to use the facilities.  I didn\u2019t notice that off in the distance was a military police patrol vehicle, who had been following the only clueless people on the course.  I was waiting on the road for my wife when the officers pulled up to me.  They advised me to get my wife quickly back on the course as she was in a mine field.  Needless to say, she finished up quickly, and got back on the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign military bases can be interesting places overseas, but don\u2019t get off the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something similar ever happen to you?   Contact me and let me hear your story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

mattsmishaps@gmail.com    Matt\u2019s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN  46741<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cServing overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,13165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-matts-mishaps"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/matts-mishaps.jpeg?fit=666%2C499&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-9tV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 13:04:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}