In fact we just had a New Years Zoom meeting - two Germans and two GI's now in our 80's. Here we were in Portugal a few years ago for a reunion.

That sounds awesome 1LT Peter Duston! I was stationed at a combat post very close to the Berlin Wall. We worked 7 days a week, 12 hours a day for months on end. The only time I ever had a chance to see Germany was once a month when I went TDY to the doctor in Frankfurt. On Medical hold for two months, I did have some time to explore Bremerhaven. It was a beautiful country and I hope to go back one day as I have recently learned my grandfather was born in Strasbourg 1LT Peter Duston

Nancy! I was lucky to be in the Army Security Agency because we were hardly in the Army and as I said, we worked 6 on and 3 off. The 3 off, we were supposed to stay within 30 miles but we often didn't. There were times we worked 4 and got 3 off, all shift work intercepting Russian communications and analyzing the content to see if WWIII was imminent. Our regular army officers and NCO's didn't know what to do with us. I was in Berlin TDY and did some stupid stuff.
Like: How I might have started WWIII or young, drunk and dumb!
Berlin – April 1959
By April 1959, I was getting to be a short timer and had developed an attitude about the Army. Although an Eagle Scout and “good kid” from high school, the military makes us grow up in good ways and often in “bad” ways. Thank God, I survived the bad ways to become a responsible adult although it would take years later thanks to my drinking.
An incident set in Berlin still reminds me of how lucky I was on a couple of levels. Having a PePeShe – Russian submachine gun aimed at my belly was not cool! The Soviets had built a large memorial along the Tiergarten in the British Sector shortly after their victory in capturing the city in 1945 and in subsequent years were allowed to send their soldiers across the zone boundaries to do honor guard detail at the memorial not unlike us at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. The Memorial was strictly “Off Limits” to allied troops but that didn’t hold me back from strolling up to the site on a day off in my trench coat playing the arrogant “big shot”. Picture broad steps with huge columns supporting a “gate” overhead, flanked by Soviet T-34 Tanks and beyond a walkway to a massive wall with thousands of names of Soviet soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin. I “strolled” up the steps, under the arch and started down the steps towards the walkway. Right in front of me, a Russian guard with his PePeShe at port arms had just turned and was slowly and ceremoniously walking away towards the wall. I don’t know what possessed me but maybe with noon-time beer courage or maybe arrogance, I snapped out a nice and loud and in Russian: “Hey Comrade! Don’t forget that big brother is watching you!” Oops! He spins and brings his weapon to the ready aimed at my midriff. I froze! “Holy shit,” I thought. I’m dead. I am sure that he was confused. My Russian was good so maybe, just maybe, he thought that I might be a Soviet officer or NCO playing hard ball with him. Whether I squeezed out an apology or what, I don’t remember. I just eased backwards, up the few steps and when I thought that I was out of range, “booked it” breathing hard and shaking like a leaf. There could have been several outcomes to that incident, none of which would have been good. Creating an international incident between two nuclear armed super powers. Well, you get the idea!

Nancy! PS: I returned to Germany with a pregnant wife a couple of years later, joined an active reserve unit in Munich got out during Vietnam and at 47 reenlisted in the reserve serving until 60 and a pension. I shaped up somewhere along the way and as a bugler have been serving with military honor guards here in Maine for the past 20plus years still in uniform. We go back to Germany once or twice a year flying Space-A but not this year with COVID. We still visit my German friends from 60 years ago.

SGT Mark Anderson this photo is breathtaking.

Thanks to my Mum! :)

Why, certainly! My mother was the family photographer...