The Cold War

Shortly after world war two Berlin was divided into three parts. The Russian side, the British side and the American side. Germany was divided East and west Germany. I served during the cold war from December 1978 to June 1983. West Germany was the free side and East Germany was the communist side ruled by Russia, behind what we called the "Iron Curtain." Overnight a wall went up in Berlin. Russia built it. It was designed to keep the citizens in East Germany. Russia also had barbed wire across across the border with a mine field included. There was an incident in which an East German citizen was injured by a bomb trying to escape from East Germany. The American's weren't allowed to go inside and the Russians weren't aware of the injured person. That person unfortunately succumbed to their injuries and the citizens were pissed at both sides. At that point the Americans and Russians agreed that if the Americans saw anyone injured in the mine field we were to call the other side and inform them of the injured citizen and that we were going to get them. We also were to inform the Russians we would return that person after their wounds were treated.

The cold war was a time period of 1945 to 1991. Those of us who served in the military during that time period trained for one thing only and that was a Russian invasion into west Germany. The threat was real, just as real as the threat of Russia invading the Ukraine today or Crimea twelve years ago.

I remember as a child having to underground to the fallout shelters as a drill because we had been attacked by Russia with nuclear war heads. We also had to practice getting under our desk in case a bomb came through the roof of the school. The American children were depicted in Russian propaganda videos as being trained in weapons handling, cleaning, disassembling and live firing.

When I was stationed in Germany, I had to keep a constant awareness for two things; terrorists and Russian spies. The Russian spies would hang around American military bases or follow our convoys. We were told to contact military intelligence or the military police. Terrorists were everywhere and an ever constant danger to military personnel stationed in Germany. I was almost a victim. In Munich during Octoberfest of 1980, I was sitting at a table with some friends. We were drinking a beer, unwinding after being in the field for sixty days. We left and ten minutes after we left, the table we were sitting at blew up. It was a terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the attack. We were glad we left, but we also spent hours answering questions of the German police.

During the last election it was being painted as one that could affect our freedoms. But the most staggering statistic of all is that thirty-three percent of all under forty's in our country prefers communism to capitalism. Let's think about that statistic for one minute here. If they are voting then they have no issues for voting for those who will tear down the country.

My is against anyone having the right to ever carry a firearm for personal protection and that we should remove anything offensive to minorities, including confederate statues. He is for a mandatory fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage. He is for the constitution along with the flag being burned and destroyed. At age thirty-three where did he get these liberal ideas? It has been reported there is only one place and that would be the indoctrination centers called our schools.

Those of us who lived and survived the cold war period don't want to return to that period.