Cold War
Cold War
7
7
0
More from: "My Time in Service." I was stationed in Germany and in the early seventies, well, even tho the war had been over for almost 25 years...there was still a lot of work going on. And all the young people (like me) were either born during the War, or shortly after. If you took the Night Train to Berlin and went to Checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate...well you could pass War Damaged buildings. And the Gate (which was in East Germany) was all blasted and marked with burn, bullet holes and artillery blasts.
But when I got leave, and you could earn leave ...Admin Leave, by winning: Gunnery Championships, or PT Tests, or from outperforming other Platoons, or Squads on exercises. And I tried to win as many of those "Leaves" as possible. From three to ten days. And off I went. I was not a Barracks Rat.
Europe isn't like the USA, one train ride, and a few hours later you are in a country with different money, different languages, and every single border had Posts set up. But being Military...just my ID, and I was allowed in.
So my daughter asked me what was different when I went back 35 years later. And I showed her these two pictures I posted. And then a picture of Brandenburg Gate. And believe me, East Germany looked like the War ended a just a few weeks ago.
So first, Paris. I am nineteen in that picture by the Eiffel Tower. And, as you can see, there is nobody around me. In fact, I spent about a half hour before I could find someone who a) Spoke English, and b) could operate my polaroid. There were maybe twenty folks wandering around that entire long grassy mall to the tower. There were no tourists. Parisians don't go there....so it was almost all to myself. (On Week days...it did get a bit more crowded on the weekend. )
The second picture is me and my Kathy kissing in front of the Eiffel Tower...in 2005. And man, what changes.
First, in the early seventies, nobody spoke English. Everyone I saw was White, except for the Algerians. They were the biggest minority group back then. In the 2000's? Every flipping nationality, ethnic background, or race. China, Japan, Philippines, you name it...and English was everywhere. As were the crowds.
Where we parked our bus, there were sixty full time busses filled with tourists, and as one left, another one pulled in and dropped you off to walk over to the Tower. I would guess at any particular hour, there were several thousand folks wandering around. And all kinds of street vendors, marketers, scammers, and pick pockets. You might hand someone your camera for a picture, and they just take off with it. LOL
So English, Diversity, and the number of people were massive changes I noticed.
I think that is a testimony to just how wealthy the world has become- that ordinary folks go to foreign countries for a visit.
And the last picture is of Brandenburg Gate in the early seventies. And it was not restored at all. Just draped with big Hammer and Sickle flags. East Germany was dull and gray looking. And that was before the massive Soviet Union Apartment Blocks were built.
It wasn't just the Baby Boomers in America. The whole of Europe had "Boomers" of their own. Five guys from my Platoon married German girls. I stayed faithful to my girl back home. If you made German friends, it was just like back home. All the Dad's and Uncles fought in the war. And all the kids were the children of Veterans. With one huge difference. Almost every Mom, or Girl over 16, worked every day in the Rubble. Brick by brick, those women dug through bombed out structures to get the good bricks out. There kids played in the rubble on the side of the street. They built monuments to those women...as well they should have. We were spared that in the USA.
And Germany was still trying to figure out what kind of Government it was going to have. Lots of anarchists and gangs in the sixties and seventies. Again, echoing the things going on in the USA at that time too.
Some things change...some things just start up over again.
But when I got leave, and you could earn leave ...Admin Leave, by winning: Gunnery Championships, or PT Tests, or from outperforming other Platoons, or Squads on exercises. And I tried to win as many of those "Leaves" as possible. From three to ten days. And off I went. I was not a Barracks Rat.
Europe isn't like the USA, one train ride, and a few hours later you are in a country with different money, different languages, and every single border had Posts set up. But being Military...just my ID, and I was allowed in.
So my daughter asked me what was different when I went back 35 years later. And I showed her these two pictures I posted. And then a picture of Brandenburg Gate. And believe me, East Germany looked like the War ended a just a few weeks ago.
So first, Paris. I am nineteen in that picture by the Eiffel Tower. And, as you can see, there is nobody around me. In fact, I spent about a half hour before I could find someone who a) Spoke English, and b) could operate my polaroid. There were maybe twenty folks wandering around that entire long grassy mall to the tower. There were no tourists. Parisians don't go there....so it was almost all to myself. (On Week days...it did get a bit more crowded on the weekend. )
The second picture is me and my Kathy kissing in front of the Eiffel Tower...in 2005. And man, what changes.
First, in the early seventies, nobody spoke English. Everyone I saw was White, except for the Algerians. They were the biggest minority group back then. In the 2000's? Every flipping nationality, ethnic background, or race. China, Japan, Philippines, you name it...and English was everywhere. As were the crowds.
Where we parked our bus, there were sixty full time busses filled with tourists, and as one left, another one pulled in and dropped you off to walk over to the Tower. I would guess at any particular hour, there were several thousand folks wandering around. And all kinds of street vendors, marketers, scammers, and pick pockets. You might hand someone your camera for a picture, and they just take off with it. LOL
So English, Diversity, and the number of people were massive changes I noticed.
I think that is a testimony to just how wealthy the world has become- that ordinary folks go to foreign countries for a visit.
And the last picture is of Brandenburg Gate in the early seventies. And it was not restored at all. Just draped with big Hammer and Sickle flags. East Germany was dull and gray looking. And that was before the massive Soviet Union Apartment Blocks were built.
It wasn't just the Baby Boomers in America. The whole of Europe had "Boomers" of their own. Five guys from my Platoon married German girls. I stayed faithful to my girl back home. If you made German friends, it was just like back home. All the Dad's and Uncles fought in the war. And all the kids were the children of Veterans. With one huge difference. Almost every Mom, or Girl over 16, worked every day in the Rubble. Brick by brick, those women dug through bombed out structures to get the good bricks out. There kids played in the rubble on the side of the street. They built monuments to those women...as well they should have. We were spared that in the USA.
And Germany was still trying to figure out what kind of Government it was going to have. Lots of anarchists and gangs in the sixties and seventies. Again, echoing the things going on in the USA at that time too.
Some things change...some things just start up over again.
American History
World History
Germany
Cold War
Soldier
Edited 1 d ago
Posted 1 d ago
Responses: 4
3
3
0
2
2
0
@kevin hughes isn't it interesting how at home we do not get excited over our treasures and then to find it is the same in other countries. Another man's home appears to be everything we want, until we move in and have to follow the house rules.
(2)
(0)
1
1
0
I rode a bus through East Germany to visit West Berlin only a few years before the wall fell. You're right, all of East Germany looked like the war had ended the week before. The Soviets appropriated all of the industrial equipment and hauled it to Russia, and just left the country to rot. Now, they were still Germans, so they rebuilt their industrial capability somewhat. But nobody bothered repairing bullet holes or anything.
I spent 12 of my first 17 years in West Germany. It breaks my heart to go back there now. As a kid, I was insulated from the standard of living of everyday Germans. Now I'm fully aware. Tiny apartments with no air conditioning or clothes dryers. Exorbitant gas prices (that, I was aware of before). Insane prices for groceries. Ridiculous taxation.
Not to mention the invasion from adjacent continents. This school year (I know it's not in Germany), the cohort of first graders in Vienna was majority Muslim for the first time. Charles Martel, Don Juan de Austria, and Jan Sobieski are spinning in their graves.
And very limited civil rights. It's a felony to criticize an elected official, for example. The police don't serve the public in terms of individual citizens, they serve public order. They don't arrest the burglar because he violated your property rights, they arrest him because deterring burglary serves domestic tranquility. Most of the time, the law enforcement outcome is the same, but because the police philosophy is different, you can't count on that.
I spent 12 of my first 17 years in West Germany. It breaks my heart to go back there now. As a kid, I was insulated from the standard of living of everyday Germans. Now I'm fully aware. Tiny apartments with no air conditioning or clothes dryers. Exorbitant gas prices (that, I was aware of before). Insane prices for groceries. Ridiculous taxation.
Not to mention the invasion from adjacent continents. This school year (I know it's not in Germany), the cohort of first graders in Vienna was majority Muslim for the first time. Charles Martel, Don Juan de Austria, and Jan Sobieski are spinning in their graves.
And very limited civil rights. It's a felony to criticize an elected official, for example. The police don't serve the public in terms of individual citizens, they serve public order. They don't arrest the burglar because he violated your property rights, they arrest him because deterring burglary serves domestic tranquility. Most of the time, the law enforcement outcome is the same, but because the police philosophy is different, you can't count on that.
(1)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google