Share Your Cold War Memories

[CoastRange57]

I think yours is a very accurate assessment of the current situation. The West is really ignorant of life in Russia, and they likewise have very little knowledge of our society. All this bulls*it bluster that the media puts out has no basis in fact at all. Neither country has the ability economically or socially to fight a war with another super power.

Putin is merely amused with Obongo and probably laughs as he sees the path this country has taken over the last 8 years. Probably just keeps his resolve to keep sh*t on the right path in his country. Hitlery will be a mere pawn that will continue to weaken this country is her quest for social utopia, and when she checks out on the floor of the Oval office with a "stroke", then you will see the world tension ratchet up quite a bit.

 

[CoastRange57]

Parallel courses, my Dad worked for Convair in San Diego then Acustica in Los Angles, we lived in Hawthorne not very far from the airport. We went to the '64 Worlds Fair in my Dad's '59 Volvo. My folks fell in love with the PNW and so we moved to Beaverton in '65 because ,you guessed it, my dad went to work for Tektronics as a component evaluation engineer Blg 48 if I recall.

My Dad did time both at Lockheed, Norhtrup and McDonald Douglas. 1965 was when we came to Beaverton, Dad was a wind tunnel engineer and was a mandrill technition at Tek, worked in Building 13 where the big kilns were. That was when the old Bernard Airpark was where Beaverton Mall is now. Small word.

I guess we get a pass as the invading scumbag Californinas as we were dragged as kids, interesting to see how the in migration has worked over the years.

 

[oremike]

Friar Tucks Chicken was across Cedar Hills blvd from the air park.

 

[wired]

I married a nice, pretty Ukrainian doctor after I retired, and we went to visit her family in the Odessa district of Ukraine. Her Father is a retired officer from the celebrated Black Sea Fleet, and the Stories we shared were memorable! One of his comments really struck me then, as now. They were so afraid of the U.S. because even with all the bluster from Moscow, they all knew they stood little chance against us in a prolonged fight! We visited many historical sites, including a few Sub bases, and the Grand Navy yard, and I can tell you, they were not as good as we all thought they were! Most people I met during our visits were very nice and modest folk, almost simple, with little idea of what's going on in the western world, and the "Ideas" they do have of us, are very P.C. Disney of the 1950's and 60's!!! I would venture that besides a very small % or Officers and other high ranking party members in the Russian Federation, Most do not relish or look forward to a conflict with the west, and most expressed to me that they never did!!! With OUR situation presently, Putin is in a hard position, he needs to contain things within, and be prepared for the political situation here, to run it's coarse, while being ready for any thing possible!

Yeah I spent about 9 months in St Petersburg in the mid 90's . It was like living in 1930's Chicago in so many ways. Got me one of them there smokey hot Leningrad ladies. 20 years later she still cant get rid of me. Still smokey hot.

2 things....

1. Russia and Russians were nothing at all like I thought it/they would be . MUCH more conservative than the rest of Europe .
2, Don't talk smack about Russia unless I want to spend a week in the dog house.

 

[Brutus57]

Anybody remember Cpl. Clayton Lonetree, USMC? I do. I actually know more about that little willy and a couple of other effed up Uncle Sam's Misguided children than I want to know. We wanted to fry him and a couple of more....however, ahem. The BS the State Dept. allowed in Moscow during that time. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for Marines, there were just a couple or 3 that deserved severe punishment.

At least I still got my NIS coffee cup!!!! Although they spelled my first name wrong on it.
Brutus Out

 

[wired]

Anybody remember Cpl. Clayton Lonetree, USMC? I do. I actually know more about that little willy and a couple of other effed up Uncle Sam's Misguided children than I want to know. We wanted to fry him and a couple of more....however, ahem. The BS the State Dept. allowed in Moscow during that time. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for Marines, there were just a couple or 3 that deserved severe punishment.

At least I still got my NIS coffee cup!!!! Although they spelled my first name wrong on it.
Brutus Out

Wade Roberts was the last American to defect to the Soviet Union. He was in the barracks next to mine in Darmstadt. Took an early 386 laptop full of junk and surrendered himself to the East German border guards in early 87 so he could be with his East German girlfriend. The East Germans handed the idiot over to the Soviets who gave him a job in Turkmenistan catching poisonous snakes. He had about a year of life in the workers paradise and then came back. They gave him a year in Mannheim or something like that but I heard he got out with a bad conduct after a couple of months once they figured out he was just a dumbass. When Roberts defected they pulled the passes of anyone going on leave to any East Block country. I had tickets to go to Moscow that May and I was going to stay there for a Victory Day parade. Cost me over $2000 non refundable dollars . One of these days I'm going to find that guy and kick his bubblegum.
Sometimes I think I live in entire different world than the one i lived when I was in the Army.

 

[WAYNO]

If somebody mentioned it, I missed it.

Remember the plethora of Army surplus stores in the area?

G.I. Joes, for starters, in their quonset-hut building at Delta Park, Andy and Bax, and Allied Sav-Mor? They had absolutely everything to equip any neighborhood army. And in those days, G.I surplus was really cheap!

In Southeast Portland, there were thousands of acres of vacant land. We could practice fighting the commies every day of the week. But in those days, we could have still been fighting the Japs and Krauts.

WAYNO.

 

[tac]

...and was a mandrill technition at Tek,

Tell me you don't really mean that?



A well-adjusted Mandrill.

tac

 

[rurallife]

I remember Duck and Cover turning into ...
Hurry Out To The Hall and Sit Injun Style Against The Wall.

 

[rurallife]

GI Joes North Portland had a "Bomb Fence" around the parking lot.

 

[wired]

I was on my honeymoon in Bavaria when the East Block started to open up. People were pouring across the border. We went driving around on the Czech border and cars were lined up for miles and miles to get across the border into Germany. The Czechs would still be Communists for many more months. I thought to myself Ive got to see this before its gone forever. I tried to get across the border but that wasnt going to happen with just an American ID. So we went driving around at night and found a border crossing they were building. It looked deserted. So my (now ex ) wife and I went walking across the border just to look around. We got maybe 1/4 mile into Czechoslovakia and made it to a little monument to the first Czech killed by the Germans in WW2 and thats when I heard the HALT. 75 yards away maybe and it was dark. I looked over and my ex wife deserter of the IDF ( 'cause thats how I roll ) took off. I mean bat out of hell. I tried to catch up with her and then a guard I suppose opened up on us 30 rounds full auto. bullets zinging all over . We jumped that gate like hurdlers and hopped in her VW Golf and got the hell out of there. Never told anyone I was stationed with not that that bunch of drunks would have cared.

And lets not fool ourselves. If you were stationed in the US Army in Germany during the cold war you were either a drunk or you were stationed with a bunch of drunks.

I must admit my deepest Respect for our men and women serving in actual wartime. Its still going on.

 

[PaulB47]

Most do not relish or look forward to a conflict with the west

Naturally so. They lost a bubblegumload of people in both WWI and WWII, vastly more than America did (never mind the 30 million or so killed by Stalin in between). In any war with Russia now, we wouldn't be getting off so easily.

Check out the casualty figures:
World War I casualties - Wikipedia
World War II casualties - Wikipedia