Quote:
Originally Posted by Randallflagg
Indeed. The Fulda Gap was where (if an attack occurred) the Russians were expected to flood through. If I recall correctly (it's been a lot of years), the average life expectancy for a Tank and its crew (back then, we were using the M60 series) was about 9 seconds.
Most people (who weren't in the military during the Cold War) don't realize that there many "tense" moments back then. They rarely ever got reported back in the states. Espionage was at the highest it has ever been and people like me were kept EXTREMELY busy....
I (sort of) laugh about it now - but My Brother had joined the Marines in 1961 and a year later was the Cuban Missile Crisis. My Father (A Colonel) and my Brother used to laugh about the idea that we were actually about 60 seconds away from a Nuclear confrontation at that point - luckily, cool heads prevailed.
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Yeah, my grandfather was Army Intelligence/CIA back then. Speaks Russian fluently. Some Russians he randomly started talking to told me they were asking him what part of Russia he's from he speaks it so well. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to get many stories from him. Worked some long hours according to my dad and grandmother.
Sounds like a crazy time to be living in Europe. My dad managed to get himself kidnapped by Baader-Meinhof/Red Army Faction when he was about 15.