In December 1985, I was a very young 18 years old when I arrived at the Wildflecken Training Area, aka "The Rock," in what was then known as the Federal Republic of Germany. That was 30 years ago, and yet today I remember it as if it were yesterday: Arriving in Frankfurt after a long trans-Atlantic charter flight that took me from O'Hare Airport to Rhein-Main airbase. It was only my third commercial flight. I was leaving behind my home, my family, and my high school sweetheart. I had no idea of what was before me.
After arriving at Rhein-Main I spent the better part of the day waiting for my orders at the 21st Replacement Battalion. Then it was on to a bus that took me from Frankfurt to the border between the states of Hesse and Bavaria, to my home for the next two years—Company D, 54th Engineer Battalion (Mechanized), 130th Engineer Brigade.
We trained in the German countryside, practicing our real jobs for what was then thought to be inevitable: The Soviet invasion of Western Europe. I was the driver of an M113A2 Armored Personnel Carrier, which is how I saw most of Germany—from the driver's hatch of that thirteen-ton tracked vehicle.
I had a love/hate relationship with Wildflecken. It was on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere with weather that was unbelievably bad. A two-day stretch of pleasant weather was extremely rare. My memories are of a place shrouded in fog with a cold drizzle falling most of the time. During winter, which lasted from October to May, it was cold, and I experienced the most snow I have ever seen in my life. But on those rare pleasant days, it was beautiful. The two years I was there did afford me some time to travel, but for the most part my duties kept me busy.
My unit provided engineering support to the 1/11 Armored Calvary and as such we were in the rotation for a tour of duty at Observation Post Alpha (OP Alpha) in the Fulda Gap. I did two tours at OP Alpha, each being the longest four weeks you can imagine—30 days in a small compound where we were literally toe-to-toe with Soviet and East German troops. It sounds cliche to say this but that four weeks was 99.9 percent sheer boredom. Of course, that .1 percent was enough to turn your hair gray.
When I left Wildflecken in December 1987, I never thought I would return. I didn’t think I would go back to Europe because in my mind, the son of a truck driver could never afford such an extravagant vacation—only the rich traveled overseas. However, having a child changes the way you perceive the world.
I have watched my son grow into an intelligent young man, one who has a better sense of right and wrong than people three times his age do. He has a natural curiosity about the world around him. He is always asking questions—and is baffled by the what he sees and hears from America’s right wing. When he started studying the Cold War in history class even more questions came. Just as I learned World War II history firsthand from men who fought in the war (my dad, and uncles), my son was learning about the Cold War from me. I would pull out photos from years ago and share them with him. As I looked upon my past I felt a longing—a longing to go back and see Germany without the walls, without the towers, without the death strips.
Over the last year I have pinched pennies, gone into debt, and done everything I could do to be able to take my son to Germany: To share my history, and to teach him more than he could learn in any classroom. So the kid who never thought he would return to Germany is going back as a grown man, with a teenaged son in tow.
Most of the trip will consist of seeing many of the sights I was unable to see when I was there 30 years ago. But for two days we will visit Wildflecken and OP Alpha, which is now known as Point Alpha Stiftung, a museum. I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea that a place I once lived at is now a museum.
We will be taking this trip after school is out in June. My hope is that each week I can write about our experiences retracing my Cold War history, and publish it here (and I’m hoping for a good internet connection at our hotels). There are three things I am looking forward to doing on this trip. First, I am going to walk across the death strip at OP Alpha and put my hand on the East German tower. Second, I want to walk through Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin into the former East Berlin. And lastly, I’d like to visit Dresden—a city I could have never visited 30 years ago as it was behind the Iron Curtain, and therefore off limits to me.
My hope is that you will enjoy this journey as much as my son and I do.