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I was assigned to accompany two tanks during a Reforger exercise in Germany in 1975.I was in charge of two armored personnel carriers,one with my squad,and one full of German soldiers who spoke no English.I spoke what would be called bar German and needless to say,the other half of our communications consisted of charades.The tankers were not to friendly as the units never got along.Being in charge,it was my duty to change the CEOI at midnight,as no one else could.I was dog tired and gave explicit instructions to be awoke at 11:30 to check on things and make sure I was alert enough to change frequency's.Prior to that,I had posted two German soldiers in a tree stand in the middle of a field for watch,while we parked in the wood line and set up.Well,sure enough,I awake and it is 6:00 in the morning!Everyone is asleep!And the tankers are gone!Since I had been asleep,I had no idea what frequency to be on.I look out in the field,and sure enough,the two German soldiers were still in the deer stand.Only one problem.The enemy is setting up an 8.2 mortar platoon right there.I know right then that I am around 5 miles behind enemy lines and am trying to think what the heck to do.[Besides my court martial].I had no idea where any one from my unit was,as I had no way to know what channel they were on.So,I send a German soldier out to get the men in the deer stand with instructions not to arouse any suspicion.Mean while,all the men are going nuts wondering what to do.I did not have a clue.When the German soldiers came back to the vehicles,[no one notices!]I load everyone up,and come charging out of the wood line,shooting,and hauling butt out of there.We get down the road and pull over as I was trying to get through to someone to no avail.That started a 3 day journey behind enemy lines,and every time we came upon them we just attacked.We must have covered every inch of Germany attempting to find friendly forces.I had been putting fuel in those APCs out of my pocket,and I was writing IOUs to the men when I ran out.Then,driving down the road,out of the brush comes this LTC.wearing a 45.,waving me down.I knew then we had been'killed',as he was on the other side.He asked me,"What the hell are you doing"?I started with the name,rank and serial number stuff,all the while he was shaking his head.He said I had been raising hell with his unit and wanted to know what unit I was from.I told him my Battalion commanders name and he broke out laughing.They were very good friends,so he made me a deal.He said he would not 'kill'me,and he would give me the grids to my Battalion HQ.on one condition.I had to send him a message.I thought that was not a bad deal all things considered.Little did I know,the message would be written on the side of my APC in grease pencil,in large letters!Joulwan says hello!So I head back thinking how much jail time I was gonna get.It was late at night when I finally arrived,and sure enough,the butt chewin started.LTC.O:Shea started to get on to me until I told him about the message.We went outside,and after he read it,he laughed so hard I thought he was going to die!You can not imagine my relief!He gave me the grids to my unit,and I was gone back to finish the rest of the exercise.About 2 weeks after we had returned from the exercise,I was given a commendation that was unbelievable.It went along the lines of singlehandedly destroying 11 tanks,8.2 mortar platoon,and on and on.It was my turn to laugh my ass off!General Joulwan is a great man in my book.I was just glad I didn't get into trouble!