The news this week has not been promising...Russia invades Georgia, the U.S. rattles sabers at Russia by signing a deal to put missles in Poland...The U.S. starts humanitarian flights to Georgia, Russia says the flights may include more than humanitarian aid...
I am having visions of the propoganda film I watched in Basic Training called "The Red Menance"...where we young idealistic soldiers were taught about the dangers of Communism and the evils of the Soviet military...
I really do not want another cold war...one was enough...I am posting this with photos of the border, so that we never forget what a divided Europe was like...
I was eighteen years old when I first saw the East/West German Border...
The sign says "Stop, Border Here"
Jump with me below the fold for my cold war story (with photos)...
November 9, 1989...A newly minted Veteran, I was home for the first time in over four years...I had spent portions of two years of my life patrolling the East/West German border while in support of the 1/11 ACR, when not on the border my time was spent either drinking, or training for the Soviet advance through the Fulda Gap...the second two years of my time in the Army were spent with the fabled 101st Airborne Division...where I spent my time partying, fishing, and training for war with the Soviets...
I was terrified...it was 1986, and I was fresh out of Basic training...I had no idea what to expect, or what I would see...We would train for blowing up roads and bridges, we trained to create tank obstacles...we spent months out in the field training...Critical roads and bridges were built with demolition in mind, if you have ever been to (West) Germany and seen three manhole covers in a row...you have seen a road that has been prepped for destruction...cross a bridge in (West) Germany, it is a good bet that the bridge is hollow and on the inside of the bridge, all the the critical fail points have been marked...so as not to waste time trying to figure out where to put the explosives...
I saw houses that were split in two by the border...the side that was painted white in East Germany, while the side that was painted gray was in West Germany.
I saw guard towers, fences and barbed wire everywhere, with the feeling that a rifle was pointed at me as I took my photos of the tower on the other side of the border...
I learned to drive an Armored Personnel carrier...which was so slow it was nothing more than a bullet magnet...but is was fun to drive in the mud...
Did I mention we trained...all the time for the ballon to go up...and I hated cleaning the .50 cal
I do not ever in my lifetime see a country divided in the way Germany was...Back to November 9th, 1989...I sat in my parents living room watching the news...the wall had fallen...a wall I had seen, a wall I had run along in the Berlin Marathon...a wall I hated...it was a sign of oppression...a sign of failed ideals...I still remember being at OP Alpha...and seeing how on the west side of the border, life went on as normal, however, on the East side, the only life you saw was the East German and Soviet military, patrolling, planting mines and watching us, watch them, watch us...what a waste of time, money and manpower...I cried when the wall came down...
To the leaders of the United States and Russia...let us not return to the days of walls, minefields and razor wire fences...it is not worth it...remember that brief period of relative peace we had after the wall came down...how the world had a sense of hope...let cooler heads prevail...give us hope again.
That and I think I look much better with some weight on me a Goatee, and camouflage makes my butt look big...
I also feel that I make a much better football coach than I do a soldier...
I do not ever want to see any of the boys in the above photo, to ever serve in the military during a war, Hot, or Cold. Especially the redhead...he is my boy. You know what, the hell with the Russian and American leadership...I call on the people of the world to stop this madness. As a species we have great potential...yet that potential gets wasted by men with big egos...and those big egos do nothing more than send young men to die...those that live, they do not come home the same...they are broken, yet, they try to hide it as best they can...while the great leaders proclaim they are heros...and nothing is learned, nothing is gained...and the next generation of young men is groomed to to go to war for men with big egos...sigh...there has to be a better way.