Wather torcher insturmentBeing back in camp is not all that fun. All you have to do is sit around and smoke or sleep. Seems like some of the guys, especially the career regular types always have something to do but I can never really figure out what it is.
One thing I forgot to mention about this weekend. We met a spy, or perhaps an official spy. It seems like there is some sort of program or agreement between the east and west that the other side can follow troop movements around. Meaning we can send people over to watch them and they (Russians) send people over to watch us. They are supposed to be in uniform and can even use our PX.
Thomas was our intelligence officer and took his job seriously. He was always looking for spooks, cautioning us on what we said and when we said it. He noticed in the guesthouse Saturday that there was this one guy who kept circling around trying to talk to a lot of our group. He mentioned this to Ollie and Rolf. Ollie and Rolf went over and talked to the guy, didn't particularly like what they heard I guess and took him out side never to be heard of or mentioned again, at least by us. Probably the guy was just interested in what we Americans thought of being stationed in Germany etc. Sort of like I might want to do if I found myself surrounded by a bunch of Russian soldiers. I'd ask a lot of questions also, still would, but I would keep a closer look out for the KGB I guess.
Ollie is a tall slender guy who has an extra long fingernail on his little finger, wears an earring while off duty, has a faint blond beard, and light red hair. He speaks excellent English. His two grandfathers were reported missing on the Eastern Front during WWII fighting the Russians. He says "they were lost on the field of honor."
Rolf is about 5'10" and heavy set. He drinks beer for breakfast. He is a little older than Ollie, about 27, seems to have an eye for the black women soldiers, and looks the very part of a Gestapo Agent. He looks at his assignment as a vacation. His English is not real good but better than my German. We communicate with sign and symbols. His Grandfathers fought against the Americans, one of the view Germans who didn't fight the Russians if you would believe what the locals tell you. One lived to a ripe old age and was in the regular German Army Rolf says and his other Grandfather was a pilot and shot down over France and died.
Sort of strange now I guess. We are all friends. With just the spans of a few years we could have been trying to kill each other right now. I am not the first one to see the ironic situation. Rolf did communicate to me one time though, that he thought his country was getting a little too leftest leaning and with the people like the Red Brigade running around that perhaps "we need (then he would hold up his thumb and index finger and shape like a C) just a little bit of Hitler." He is probably not alone in his thinking, there or in the US.
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