What are your best Cold War stories?

2016-05-09T10:53:27-04:00

Of my 20 year career in the USAF, I spent 12.5 years in Europe helping to keep the Commie Horde on their side of the Fulda Gap. I saw and participated in a lot of strange 'activities' both on and off duty. Let's hear your tales from the dark side...what did you do in the Cold War?

Response by SGT John " Mac " McConnell made May 9 at 2016 11:05 AM

2016-05-09T11:05:43-04:00

Stationed in Germany was fun duty. many times we setup in the Fulda gap area. The times I remember was on patrol near the Gap. Thus our patrol was to report vehicles going in and out. But, That got Boring so we went for a closer look. Ended up humping a bunch of Beer back to our platoon area.. Fun times !

Response by MSgt John Taylor made May 9 at 2016 11:17 AM

2016-05-09T11:17:55-04:00

Touring the JSA in the Korean DMZ back in the 80's

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made May 9 at 2016 11:50 AM

2016-05-09T11:50:49-04:00

It wasn't my experience, but that of my boss who had gone to West Berlin on business during the cold war. He said that an East German civilian had driven his truck through the fence and escaped to the West.

The East Germans sent a crew to repair the fence, but they too escaped to the West. The East Germans then sent another crew to repair the fence, but this time they sent several guards to accompany them. The workmen and the guards all escaped to the West.

Finally, the East Germans sent another crew and a large detachment of soldiers with orders to shoot to kill if anyone tried to escape. That crew fixed the fence.

Response by SGT Kyle Johnson made May 9 at 2016 1:01 PM

2016-05-09T13:01:24-04:00

Going into east Berlin in full class A uniform. We would ride a bus and on every corner they would have someone, sweeping or repairing a light, but counting the number of us on the bus. So we would have one or two get down low on a turn. Was funny to see the next guy counting frantically so they knew we were all there. They would finally stop the bus and come on to tell us something and you could see the guy counting again. We would do this all day at every stop for something they had us tour. They just seemed to be panicked if the count was wrong.
Not so fun was the duty train, they would stop it over and over during the night and check all our paperwork and get a head count.
So many cool and interesting things happened.. Did everything from running the Fulda Gap as a Combat engineer to then going MI and being in Berlin till the fall of the wall.

Response by SGT Kyle Johnson made May 9 at 2016 10:11 PM

2016-05-09T22:11:29-04:00

Here is an interesting article on Cold War SMs. Thought it was pretty good. Written back in 2012

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB [login to see] [login to see] [login to see] [login to see]

A Cold Shoulder for Cold-War Vets

For survivors of the anticommunist effort, little remembrance on Veterans Day.

Response by MSgt Richard Rountree made May 10 at 2016 1:49 AM

2016-05-10T01:49:20-04:00

How to get away with speeding in East Germany.

In the mid-1980s, the Porsche Club of America (Germany Region), aka PCA-GR, held a series of runs known as "The Commie Convoy" from West Germany to West Berlin via the 'corridor' in East Germany. The first time we did this we were very careful to obey all the speed signs while we were driving in East Germany. Upon arriving in West Berlin, we told our West Berlin coordinator, a USAF Lt Col stationed at Templehof Airport about our trip. He told about a procedure that could be followed to get away with speeding in East Germany. We listened and followed his advice the following year. Here's how it worked:

1. First, learn the rules:

a) The East German (DDR) government essentially did not exist in the eyes of the USA. Therefore, their police, Volkspolizei, did not have jurisdiction over allied military personnel transiting East Germany on 'official' business.

b) The 'Allies' from WWII (USA, UK, France, Soviet Union) made the rules for governing travel to Berlin.

c) The Russians occupied East Germany. It was Russian officers and US MPs that had jurisdiction over our military personnel transiting East Germany en route to Berlin...not the DDR Volkspolizei. .

2. The procedure and protocol:

a) Checkpoint Alpha: The PCA-GR 'Commie Convoy' started at Checkpoint Alpha in Helmstedt, West Germany. At this location, the US MPs briefed us on the rules of transiting the corridor to Berlin. The MPs would check our 'flag orders' (official business transit documents) for completeness and correctness prior to sending us on our way to the first Soviet checkpoint. We were told that we had minimum and maximum times to make the trip to Berlin. If you exceeded the maximum time, they would assume you are lost, detained, broken down, etc., and would sent out a search party to find and assist you. If you busted the minimum time , you were flagged as speeding and subject to being banned from traveling to and from Berlin for six months in addition to having your home unit discipline you as well. So, the MPs would time stamp your flag orders and send you on your way to the Soviet checkpoint a kilometer or so away in East Germany. To facilitate getting away with speeding in East Germany, you would then go to the bathroom, get a drink from the soda machine, go outside and gawk at the East German border guards and whatever else you could think of to kill some time. You had to be careful that you didn't do anything to make it appear to the MPs you were dragging your feet getting on the road...if they figured out what you were doing, they'd make you go back inside for a new time stamp.

b) The next stop was the Soviet check point. We drove as slowly as possible from Checkpoint Alpha to the 1st Soviet Checkpoint to kill some more time. When we arrived at the Soviet Checkpoint we were met by a, usually young, Russian soldier. One at a time we dismounted our vehicles, all Porsche, and approached the Russian guard. BTW, we all wore uniforms during the transit for protocol purposes. We would exchange salutes with the guard and hand him our Flag Orders and military ID card. Most of these kids could read English as well as most of us could read Cryrillic...nada. So the guard would compare the individual letters on the Flag Order with the individual letters on the ID card. If there were any discrepancies between the Flag Orders and the ID, the guard would turn you around and send you back to Checkpoint Alpha...a big NYET! These discrepancies could be as minor as capitalization or other typos. If you passed the document inspection, usually the next thing that happened was the guard would lift his tunic and tap on his belt buckle. Yep, these wannabe entrepreneurs were attempting to sell you a Soviet Army belt buckle as a souvenir! The Checkpoint Alpha MPs told us about this and warned us not to buy them...but many did anyway from these future capitalists.

The guard would then motion us to enter a small building on the other side of the road. Again, the Checkpoint Alpha MPs had briefed us to enter the building and slide the Flag Orders and ID into a slot under an opaque window in the room and have a seat. About 20 minutes later, the paper would be slid back out to us with approval stamps on it. We would exit the building and then wait around for everyone else to get their paperwork back.

c) On The Road Again. We rolled out of the Soviet Checkpoint having killed about an hour screwing around at Checkpoint Alpha and with the Russians. The speed limit on the East German Autobahn was only 100 kph (about 62 MPH). We quickly brought the convoy up to over 110 MPH and went blasting through the East German countryside. The Volkspolizei had radar set up along the route...we never slowed down and went right through the DDR speed traps...sometimes waving to them as we went by. I don't think the Volkspolizei's Trabants, Ladas, and Wartburgs could have caught up to us even if they wanted to. We kept going until we reached the only authorized rest stop along the route. The plan was to stop, eat the lunches we brought with us to help kill some time (remember the minimum transit time that we didn't want to break) and then get back on the road. We didn't get to stay there long though. Soon after we sat down for lunch, we spotted some Volkspolizei vehicles headed for the rest area...so we quickly packed up and got back into the cars. At Checkpoint Alpha, the US MPs had given us a book with instructions on what to do if we were stopped by the Volkspolizei. We were told to lock our doors, roll up the windows, look straight head (not acknowledging the DDR Volkspolizei by looking at him), and hold up a page from the book against the car window that directed the Volkspolizei to summon a Russian officer. Luckily, it didn't come to that as we successfully drove away before the oncoming Volkspolizei cars made it up to us. So, it was another high speed sprint to 2nd Soviet checkpoint and then on to Checkpoint Bravo entering West Berlin. Lots of excitement and great fun for us adrenaline junkies with our fast cars! And we didn't bust the minimum time either!

3. West Berlin: The next day we planned to run around West Berlin and had an excursion, in our Porsches, planned for the day after that in East Berlin. To be continued...