COLD WAR
As this two-war veteran and syndicated columnist sees it, GIs who served in Germany helped transform the world. And that's well worth remembering in stone.
"In the nine months since I returned to
Washington
as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the changes... have been
simply
in- credible," Gen. Colin Powell told a National Press Club audience in
June 1990. "I've lost a lot of old Army buddies that I have
served
with for many years..."
"I've lost the Fulda Gap on the border between
East and West Germany where I began my career as a second lieutenant
during
the height of the Cold War 32 years ago where I returned in 1986 to
command
the US. V Corps against the very best the Soviets had to put on the
other
side of Fulda Gap. Now the standoff at the Fulda Gap, is
gone.
Soon the gap will be no more than a tourist stop in a unified Germany."
Pivotal Fulda
In March 1991, less than a year later, as
I stood in a cold rain next to the U.S. 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment's
old Observation Post Alpha looking across the Fulda Gap and the now
rusting
and dilapidated Iron Curtain, the area had not quite yet become a
tourist
stop. But it well should be.
Somewhere along these marches, once the border
between tyranny and democracy, there should be a monument to those [in
the words of the VFW salute to veterans of the Cold War] "who served
along
the barbed wire borders of East Germany and Czechoslovakia known
as the Iron Curtain, especially veterans of the Armored Cavalry
regiments
and other forward deployed units who held the line at lonely outposts."
For centuries the Fulda Gap had served as
a major invasion route into the heart of Europe, a route blocked since
the beginning of the cold War by soldiers of the American Army. Right
after
World War II there were the troopers of the U.S. Army's Constabulary.
Then
in 1958, with the Korean War buildup in Europe, came the men of the
14th
Armored Cavalry Regiment.
Replaced in 1972 by the 11th Armored Cavalry
Regiment fresh from the jungles of Vietnam, the 14th Cavalry along with
its compatriots in the 2d, 3d, and 6th Armored Cavalry regiments
elsewhere
on the border, had by then spent more than 28 years guarding the
marches
against the Soviet army and its Warsaw Pact allies.
Vigil End
On Nov. 9, 1989, seven years after
the 14th Cavalry Regiment departed, the vigil came dramatically to an
end.
Instead of Soviet tank and motorized rifle divisions attacking down the
"ghost autobahns" from East Germany as feared, there was a 20 kilometer
traffic jam of civilian cars, motor bikes and bicycles as the borders
were
opened and East Germans flocked to the West.
Within a year, on Oct. 3, 1990, Germany was
once again unified. The Cold War was at an end. Sadly, today, that
victory,
and the sacrifices that made that victory possible, are being denied.
Now that they no longer have to cower under
their desks in terror for fear of a Soviet nuclear attack, revisionist
"experts" like Time Magazine's Strobe Talbot claim that "Western policy
was based on grotesque exaggeration of what the U.S.S.R. could do , if
it wanted" and that fears of a Soviet invasion of western Europe were a
"paranoid fantasy." Easy to say, in the wake of the Soviet Union's
disintegration.
Making It All Happen
But that disintegration did not just
happen. George Kennan was right in 1947 when he prophesied that
Soviet
power "bears with it the seeds of its own decay." And he was also
right [although he would now deny it] that the way to ensure that that
decay took hold was to militarily contain Soviet expansion. For one way
to forestall trouble at home has always been to divert public attention
by fostering adventures abroad.
Yet in Europe that option was canceled out
by U.S. forward military deployments which effectively deterred Soviet
expansion. As Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Hill Norton once said,
deterrence
is all about creating the fearful doubt in the minds of a potential
aggressor
that any likely gain is not worth the inevitable risk.
As the late strategist Herman Kahn once
observed,
there are many doors in this world that are not being opened because
someone
is leaning against them. And leaning against the doors in Europe,
especially the Fulda Gap "door," were the troopers of
the U.S. Armored Cavalry regiments.
Victory of Values
"The changes we have seen," said Gen.
Powell in his address to the National Press Club, "represent the
success
of the steadfast commitment of the American people to their allies and
to their friends. They represent the victory of values that we
hold
dear. They represent 40 years of American policy, 40 years of
American
purpose, 40 years of American power."
Speaking not only for himself, but for the
thousands of American veterans of the Cold War as well, he emphasized
that,
"We can be proud of the role we have played in bringing about the
transformation
that we see taking place before our eyes."
Col. Harry Summers, author and
lecturer on strategic issues and combat infantry veteran, won the 1991
VFW News Media Award.
Cold
War on the Iron Curtain:
Eye of the Storm
Defining the Cold War is sometimes
difficult. Perhaps Charles O. Lerche, Jr. set its parameters best in
his book, The Cold War and After: "The struggle along the line
of the Iron Curtain in Europe was always the key element in the element
in the Cold War...The Cold War was very much a European phenomenon. And
"the first battleground of the Cold War was Europe, especially the
prostrate remains of Hitler's Germany."
Early events in post-war East Europe presaged
the
opening salvo of this monumental struggle. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin
systematically crushed all vestiges of democratic government in eastern
Europe. This prompted British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to cable
President Harry Truman on May 12, 1945: "An iron curtain is drawn down
upon their front."
That was soon evident to war-weary GI's.
Gerald Adamietz, then a member of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 1945,
"While stationed in a small village on what became the East German
border, it seemed too often we had fire fights with the Russians over
minor things. We learned early on they were not our friends."
Before long, Stalin was warning Russians they
would have to "defend" themselves against the capitalist nations.
The U.S. took steps to contend with the unchecked spread of communism.
The Truman Doctrine of containment, announced in March 1947, was the
unofficial declaration of hostilities against Soviet expansion.
Next came the Marshall Plan, an all out
declaration
of ideological war. Nineteen forty eight was a pivotal year. The
Czechoslovakian coup, staged by the Russians, brought the communist
peril to public light. It was quickly followed by the Soviet blockade
of Berlin. Gen. Lucius Clay, then U.S. military governor of Germany,
warned Washington: "if we mean to hold Europe against communism, we
must not budge."
America did not budge. In April 1949, the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] was formed as a bulwark in
the path of Stalin's juggernaut. For the next four decades, the nation
engaged in, not campaigns and combats, but crises and confrontations in
the Cold War's primary battleground: Germany.
"A Dueling Scar Across the Face"
Though the former West Germany was about the
size of Oregon with a population density of Connecticut, it had only
two border features that preoccupied GIs on the ground. The fabled
Fulda Gap, the point where East butted furthest into West Germany, was
an ancient invasion corridor that served as a strategic east-west
military passage for six centuries.
A series of river valleys running north and south,
with distinct hill masses, the "gap" winds like an anaconda,
twisting to avoid rivers and forests. A 10 mile long valley north of
Rasdorf dominates the hills - know as the "Three Sisters" -
creating a natural line of defense. Fortunately, NATO's "tripwire" was
never triggered.
The other feature forming the Cold War's
frontline was "the most daunting Man-made obstacle since the
Great Wall of China." The barrier fence - called "The Scar" by those
who patrolled it - stretched 858 miles from the Baltic to Austria.
Roadwise, it was the distance between New York and Chicago.
The barrier's three-mile zone constituted a
no-man's land of 45 square miles equivalent in size to Rhode Island. It
was a wasteland in every sense of the word. "It's hard to imagine
the dreadfulness of this until you see it," said one awe-struck
American soldier.
The actual border separating the West from the East
was marked only with red-tipped [blue-tipped in Bavaria] white poles
and old stones. Some five kilometers east of the border was a belt of
manned checkpoints. About 500 meters from the border was the signal
fence. During the modernization in the 1970s, the wire was armed with
60,000 self-starting scatter guns. Until 1985, the area between the
grid fence also was armed with SM-70 anti-personnel mines.
The "Inner German Border [IGB]," known to the
West as the Iron Curtain and the East as an "anti-fascist protective
barrier," was erected beginning in May 1952. Five years later, the East
German regime made it a criminal offense to flee its tyranny, naming
the "crime" Republikflucht.
The penalty for attempting to escape communism was a 10 year mandatory
sentence.
GIs referred to the IGB as "the trace."
As author Michael Skinner wrote: "It was one of those rare, perfectly
suited military terms, evoking as it does, images of range wars,
cavalry sorties from frontier outposts, and long riders, lonely, cold
and ever watchful, checking stretches of wire in a dulling and
dangerous routine." that aptly described duty on the border during the
Cold War.
Manning the Ramparts
Holding the line in Germany called for
a large-scale U.S. presence. Two generations of American centurions
served on freedom's frontier. These foreign legionnaires included
regulars, draftees and volunteers. Peak strength was reached in 1962
with 278,000 troops. In all, five million GIs were stationed there from
the Cold War's beginning to its end.
Once demobilization was complete in 1946, only
the 1st Infantry Division and the U.S. Constabulary remained fro
five years to face the Russian bear. The Constabulary was one of the
more unique U.S. unites. It was designated a light mechanized cavalry
division with three brigades of nine regiments. Each regiment had one
horse platoon of 30 horses.
At its zenith, the "Circle C Cowboys" counted
33,224 men. Part of the blitz
polizei's ["lightning police"] mission was covering the
then-imaginary line separating Russian and Allied forces. It maintained
126 border posts; those in the east were manned by half sections [6 or
7 men] and others by only two troopers. Foot as well as horse patrols
linked the posts.
"Border patrols in our sector consisted of two
troopers with only six rounds of ammo - three for a .45 pistol
and three for a Thompson submachine gun," recalled George N. Walls, a
veteran of the 27th Squadron, 14th Constabulary Regiment in 1946-49.
"We walked six-hour patrols on an unmarked border near Konigshofen.
Most of our trouble was with displaced persons or gangs or robbers."
Eventually, post were abandoned in favor of
roving checkpoints and vehicular patrols. The Constabulary spent 10
months on the frontier until the West German police assumed its duties
in March 1947. In little more than a year, the regiments reverted to
combat armored cavalry and resumed border duty. The last Constabulary
unit was disbanded in December 1952.
"In 1950, the Constabulary had come under 7th
Army control," says U.S. Constabulary Association historian Andrew F.
King. "But the distinctive 'Circle C' shoulder patch and
designation were kept until the last two unites were absorbed in 1952."
Activated in Stuttgart on Nov. 24, 1950, the
7th Army came to symbolize U.S. will to resist Russian aggression.
Touted as "the greatest peacetime striking force o fits kind in the
world," the 7th was "the backbone of NATO's forward shield." At the end
of 1966, the 7th was merged with U.S. Army, Europe.
The 7th's two corps - V and VII - were formed
in Germany in the summer and fall of 1951, respectively. Over the next
40 years, 15 divisions -1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 24th, 28th
and 43rd Infantry; 11th Airborne; and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
Armored - served as their covering forces. Later on, four separate
infantry brigades were there. And of curse, the five armored cavalry
regiments [2nd, 3rd, 6th, 11th and 14th] rotated duty on the trace.
Units and operatives of a more specialized
nature also saw service "up front.: They ranged from the Army Security
Agency to the Central Intelligence Agency. Covert and paramilitary
operations could be particularly risky. As Harry Rositzke put it in his
history of the CIA: "The Cold War was a hot war fro the operators: our
agents' lives were at stake."
Almost as secretive was the 10th Special
Forces Group. some 782 of its men were deployed to Bad Tolz, Bavaria in
September 1952, where the unit has remained ever since. Detachment A-1
is still there today. The 10th's intended mission was to infiltrate the
East Bloc and assist partisan campaigns behind communist lines.
May of its seven-men teams were recruited from
among East European refugees and men with close family connections to
countries behind the Iron Curtain. The Russians branded the 10th SFG a
"combine of murderers." One observer labeled it "the nearest thing to a
kamikaze outfit in the history of the U.S. Army."
Russkie Hordes Across the Wire
If WWIII
had erupted in Germany, all U.S. forces there may have had to been
afflicted with the kamikaze mentality. AS it turned out, only a
relatively small number of GIs directly faced off against a not much
larger Communist force. Though Soviet troop strength in East Europe
peaked at 600,000 in 1956, it was the satellite border police most
often opposite GIs.
For instance, in East Germany, the Group of
Soviet Forces - Germany [GSFG] placed its 8th Guards Army [65,000
men-strong] behind the Thueringer Wald hills, Likewise in
Czechoslovakia, Moscow's five divisions remained behind the scenes. Few
Russian troops appeared along the inner German border beyond the early
years.
That was left to the Volkpolizei [VOPO], or
People's Police, later renamed the Border Command, which became part of
the National People's Army {NPA] in 1961. During the 1980s, the Border
Command had six regiments positioned in the southern sector of the West
German border. Its elite commandos were known as the "GAK."
According to communist propaganda, "frontier
troops stood guard on the dividing line between socialism and
capitalism" defending against an "enemy who operates just below the
threshold of the hot war." A secret order, Regulation DV-30/9, Para. 4,
required an "ambush sentry" to shoot "frontier violators" if necessary.
Guards who killed or wounded refugees were rewarded with medals and /or
promotions.
So all incidents with escapees would be on
their territory, the eastern wire was well back from the actual
frontier. Only recon troops, usually in pairs, patrolled the geographic
limit. These roving border police patrols continuously monitored the
entire fence system.
Matters along the Czech border were a bit
different depending on the time frame. Mines and electrification were
long absent from the fence there. And tensions were minimal in the
early years, but heightened later on. Czech Pioneer Service [PS]
members patrolled the border backed up by 10 divisions of the People's
Army.
Korean War and NATO Buildup
During the first few years of post-war
duty in Germany, the U.S. Army was essentially one of occupation
concerned with the prospect of a resurgent Nazi movement. But with the
advent of the Berlin Blockade in 1948-49 and the war in Korea
[1950-53], the emphasis shifted to combating the threat posed by Stalin.
Consequently, the reactivated 7th Army and its
two corps redeployed for combat. The lone "Big Red One" and the armored
cav regiments were reinforced by four divisions as part of the U.S.
commitment to NATO. The 2nd Armored, 4th Infantry, 28th [Pa. NG]
division arrived between May and November 1951.
"Our job in Europe was to keep the communists
from committing aggression; making certain our airfields stayed in
friendly hands," wrote C.A. Brown, former master sergeant in Co. I,
172nd Inf. Regt., 43rd Inf. Div.
Christopher T. Bucksath of B Co., 1st Bn., 6th
ACR [1949-52] had his tour extended in Germany for one year because of
the Korean War. "While on patrol duty,
he remembered, "we lived in squad tents equipped with potbellied
stoves and canvas cots. We manned primitive observation posts or
patrolled in jeeps. Winter weather conditions were particularly
unpleasant."
Members of the 1st Infantry Division worked
with the cav on the border. One of the forward-most units was the 26th
Regiment at Bamberg. Two recon battalions patrolled the border 24 hours
a day and manned OPs. "The Big Red One backed up the armored cav
regiments on the border by manning strong points," said Frederic A.
Butterworth, a crewman with the 63rd Tank Bn. [1949-53]. "My unit
rotated one platoon of tanks at one of the positions covering the Fulda
Gap for two weeks every month," he recalls. "On occasion we made a
'show of force' along the border."
Fred Carley, a vet of the division's 1st Recon
Company [1952-54], relieved the cav at Coberg and had an interesting
experience. "Mistakenly passing the barrier one snowy day," he related,
"we looked over and saw East German ski troops bearing down on us.
Needless to say, we turned tail and crossed back over the border
pronto!"
John Pepitone, vet of the 28th Infantry
Division [1952-54], remembers the border well, too. "We spent 10-day
patrols
along the Czech border," he said. "There were no markings, and piano
wire was sometimes stung across roads. We even captured enemy guards
and they us. On May Day 1951 there was a big push on the border."
Always in the thick of things was the 14th
Armored Cavalry Regiment. It was known to have a tough reputation, and
its members experienced some tense moments.
"When I arrived at my barracks," says William
J. Peterson of F Co., 2nd Bn. [1950-53], "the CO said, 'I want five of
their asses for every one of ours. You are the first troops the enemy
will see, there is no one between the Commies and you; expect to die.'
That was my first exposure to the Cold War."
He added: "During my three years with the 14th
ACR, we were always on alert. In May 1951, we were moved to within 10
miles of the border. Our base camp for patrolling was only two miles
from the frontier."
Ralph McGinnis arrived the following year and
filled a slot in the 1st Bn. He was one of the first blacks to
integrate the 14th ACR. "My colonel told me that if we caught a
communist across the border to strap him to our jeep hood and we would
get a 30-day pass," he says.
Philip S. Krum did a stint with the 14th ACR
from 1954-57. "On May 1, 1951, the alert sounded and we moved out to
the border to confront communist units with tanks already in position,"
he remembers vividly. "It really wakes you up when you are looking down
the tube of a Russian tank with 120mm cannon. And it put a tingling
feeling down your spine when you reached the warning sign, '50 Meters
to Border.'"
Satellites in Revolt
After years of Soviet repression, many
captives behind the Iron Curtain had had enough. But when 300,000 East
Berliners went on strike on June 16-17, 1953, the Kremlin's mailed fist
came down even harder. Two Russian divisions crushed the strike,
killing 600 East Germans and wounding 1,800. Some 19,000 people were
jailed.
Three years later, in October 1956, the
Hungarians revolted. More than 200,000 Russian troops devastated
Budapest, the country's capital. In its wake, the Red army left 5,000
dead and 20,000 wounded Hungarians. But they paid a price: 3,500
Soviets were killed.
When it was all over, 63,000 Hungarians were
exiled to Siberia, 190,000 fled to the West and 280 leaders were hung.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles correctly predicted: "People are
going to accuse us that here is one of history's great moments, with
the Hungarian fellows ready to stand up and die, and we had been caught
napping and doing nothing."
Donald Nipper was in Germany with the 6th
Armored Cavalry Regiment at the time. "We went on full alert for about
a week in October 1956 when the Hungarians made their bid for freedom,"
he recalls. "Escapees arrived daily and we did what we could for them.
It could be dangerous. Shots went over our heads on occasion."
Berlin as Flashpoint
Hungary's uprising resulted in the
greatest loss of life during Europe's Cold War, but the construction of
the Berlin Wall in August 1961 brought the U.S. and USSR closest to
all-out war. "The Soviet threat to vital U.S. interests was in
actuality even more direct and dangerous than anyone in Washington at
the time realized," wrote author Robert Slusser in The Berlin Crisis of 1961.
Not since the NATO buildup of 1951 had
the Pentagon rushed so many troops to Europe. An additional 40,000
ground forces were sent to bolster the 7th Army. They included the 3rd
Armored Cavalry Regiment, which arrived in November 1961, 19,000
individual replacements and 16,000 support troops. By June 1962, U.S.
troop strength had reached a post-war peak of 277,342.
Though media attention focused on the city of
Berlin, activity was equally tense out on the border. Half the 7th Army
was always on alert, required to be ready for combat in 30 minutes. GIs
remained spirited. One said, "Someone has got to be here - and if
the Russkies want to pick a fight, no one on this side is going to roll
over and play dead."
For those on the razor's edge, it was for
real. "I was extended seven months during the Berlin Crisis," said L.
W. Newport, Jr., 2nd Medium Tank Bn., 1st Cav, 3rd Armored Division.
"We were on constant alerts. Russian cars continually spied on us when
we were training near the Fulda Gap."
Joseph J. Sidote, HQ Troop, 1st Recon
Squadron, 14th ACR, had an unnerving experience while walking the fence
in 1963. "I confronted two East German border guards and a huge German
shepherd and found myself facing machine pistols," he remembers.
:Instinctively, I pointed my M-14 at them. We exchanged words, and
finally when my partner showed up they left. But not before throwing a
clump of dirt at me. That standoff seemed like an eternity."
Jim Barnes, a scout with 1 Troop, 3rd Bn.,
14th ACR spent the early '60s patrolling the trace. "Things were
definitely eventful along the border during the Berlin Crisis," he
said. :In 1962, my unit actually captured two Soviet personnel. And
tragically, we witnessed the deaths of five East Germans attempting to
escape on different occasions."
Twilight Years
Within five years of the showdown over
Berlin, Moscow was enforcing its control over the destiny of
Czechoslovakia. On Aug. 20, 1968, 500,000 troops from five Warsaw Pact
nations, spearheaded by 7,500 tanks, crushed the uprising in Prague.
Casualties were light in comparison to the Hungarian revolt, but the
Czechs were thereafter saddled with 80,000 occupying Soviet troops.
Five Soviet divisions were deployed three
miles from the West German border to prevent inadvertent spillover
during the invasion. The Russians continued to extinguish all lingering
embers of resistance until March of 1969.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the border,
the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment was on alert. George L. Franczak was a
member of the regiment's 1st Squadron in early 1969. "I was assigned to
a listening post atop a steep hill five meters from the border," says
the vet.
"As part of a three-man team, I
eavesdropped on our 'comrades' for 48 hours at a time. We rotated
shifts in and out of a cabin every four hours in freezing cold. As a
form of harassment, Soviets threw snowballs at our LPs in the middle of
the night. In one instance, we were called to alert, and armored units
from both sides faced off at the border."
Throughout the '70s and '80s, the mission,"
continued unabated. "That mission," wrote Michael Skinner, "was
patrolling the border. Every day, like grizzled horse soldiers,
troopers of the armored cavalry squadrons mounted up and 'paced the
trace.'" Beside driving in jeeps, the cav also rode the line in
helicopters - Mainly OH-58 scout ships and unarmed AH-1 Cobra gunships.
The Iron Curtain was mostly quiet, but there
were tense moments. In September 1975, Vietnam vet and free-lance
chopper pilot Barry Meeker made the headlines when he picked up three
dissidents inside Czechoslovakia in a rented helicopter. He was fired
upon by Czech border guards and injured, but made it safely to West
Germany.
It's to the credit of ordinary GIs that
incidents never escalated. William Hunt, with 2nd ACR's 1st Squadron in
the late '70s, recalled: "There were spots along the border you had to
walk to because the jeeps could not get there. Often we would run into
soldiers from the other side walking their section not 10 feet from us
in some cases."
Even just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall
in November 1989, troopers maintained a fine edge. SSgt. Anthony Sink
of the 2nd ACR, said, "This is dangerous stuff. I don't care how many
times I do it, walking up and down the border at night gives me the
willies."
A fellow unit member, Spec. Daren Flippo,
summed up the mission best" "You never see the Soviets patrolling out
here, so sometimes you wonder what we're doing. But then you see people
who are willing to risk killing themselves to get over the border. Then
you know it's a mission worth doing."
Curtain Comes Down
At the time the infamous Iron Curtain
was razed in November 1989, 425 members of the 11th ACR faced 4,900
East Germans along the border. From that point on, they no longer
carried M-16s; only .45 pistols. Three months later, on March 1, 1990,
and after the last gasp of Stalinism was wiped out in Romania, the Cold
War ended for America's GIs: patrols ceased and border camps became
training facilities. The wire was torn down.
The West had clearly won, largely because of
the GIs who held the line in Germany for four decades. Gen.
George A. Joulwan, commander of V Corps in 1989, said it best: "We've
deterred a war here fro 45 years, which is a damn sight better than
fighting in one."
East Europe was fee and the Soviet Union
itself was dissolved. VII Corps, along with the 3rd Armored and 8th
Infantry division, was deactivated. "This clearly marks the end of the
Cold War," said Army Chief of Staff Sullivan.
"We won the Cold War," said Maj. Gary
Cavender, former executive officer of the 5th Bn., 8th Infantry, the
first battalion withdrawn from Germany. "Young soldiers coming into the
Army now will never understand how it was."
And neither will the American public. As the
political parties quibble over "who really won the Cold War," those who
actually did are being lost in the historical shuffle.
Isaac Oaks, a veteran of the U.S. Constabulary
and the 14th ACR, probably speaks for many vets:
"After personally witnessing death along the
Iron Curtain, and spending more than 10 years in Germany during
freezing winters while being scared out of my wits, I would like to say
it was the American GI who won the Cold War, not the politicians."
Paying a Price
American lives were lost in waging the
Cold
War. If those killed in the back alleys of Berlin, those shot along the
Yugoslav border and killed in Greece, those murdered by terrorists in
Germany and those blasted out of the sky are included, America suffered
at least 200 killed in action. Also, some of the 53 stars
chiseled on the CIA memorial in Langley, VA. no doubt represent losses
in East Europe.
And what
about the thousands killed on
maneuvers and in training accidents in Germany -they should be counted,
too. From the last quarter of 1979, when the Defense Department began
keeping such statistics, through Sept. 30, 1991, 1,415 uniformed
Americans died in accidents in Germany. Multiply that figure over four
times for all the uncounted deaths in previous decades and the total is
substantial.
Freedom-seekers also paid a high price. Some
191 known civilians were killed at the Wall and Wire - many shot
by communist border guards. Sadly, GIs watched helplessly in some cases
because they were prohibited from providing assistance to escapees
unless they made it to the West.
No monument
stands to those killed in the
struggle between East and West. Moreover, veterans of the Iron Curtain
have not been accorded the recognition and respect they deserve.
Consequently, some have come to believe they are regarded as second
class veterans.
Nilo
Filidei was a scout with the 10th Recon
Co., 10th Inf. Division as well as the 3rd Recon Squadron, 7th Cav
Regt., in Germany from 1955-58. "I was stationed for 28 months in
Germany - 70% of the time in the field plus as a recon
scout, on Czech border patrol and in some covert operations," writes
Filidei. "We spent more time on 'lock and load' at the height of the
Cold War and Suez Crisis than most troops recently did in Desert Storm.
Yet I am a 'second
class' vet."
Donald
Wechveth was with the 4th Armored
Division as well as a ground surveillance platoon attached to the 2nd
ACR, 1967-68. His experience was typical of many border watcher: "We
spent 30-day tours on the trace," he says. "Of my 18 months in Germany,
nine were spent on the border. Three-man teams did two nights of radar
surveillance and one day of patrolling.
"I carried
a loaded rifle day in and day out.
We were shot at , and had one overflight by a defecting MiG pilot.
Alerts were commonplace. At the time we were sworn to secrecy. But now
I think service in the 5K zone rates a medal."
Others have
proposed an all-encompassing
medal. "Our veterans have earned a Cold War Victory Medal," wrote P.J.
Budahn in the Army Times.
"And their kids need it...Imagine: a kid looks at a parent with a new
awareness and asks, 'What did you do in the Cold War?' At that
moment, a new American is ready to learn about service, patriotism and
sacrifice."
VETERANS OF FOREIGN
WARS
ARMY OF OCCUPATION
1945-55
REBUILDING AND PROTECTING