Berlin Brigade Soldiers

From the Soldier side:

So, due to demand, I figured out how to scan in some of my old 110 film photos from my Berlin days.

After I arrived in Berlin, I was assigned to C-2-6. (It's funny, but years later I found this unit had been sent to Bosnia after they got moved out of Berlin) In the early months of 1975, there wasn't much going on. We were doing what they called "fighting the cold war"...which I can tell you after a tour in Iraq in 04-05, the cold war wasn't nothing.

Just as I was figuring my way around the Army and living inside the only free city inside a communist country, I thought I knew it all. I was just 18 years old.

At the end of April 1975, we were watching the news on AFN (Armed Forces Network). We saw that Saigon was getting overrun by the North.

Now, keep in mind, most of our NCOs had been to Nam at least once during this time. As they watched the news on TV, some of them got pretty upset...a few got so upset, that they had another beer or 2.

I had no real world fighting experience at this point....I didn't know sh--. I just watched the news.

Then...the next morning we got woke up at 0300 hours (3am) and told to pack all our gear and field uniforms. We were always on some kind of alert in Berlin...but this was my first time. I loaded all 3 uniforms and wore one. I packed all my socks etc, packed my ruck sack and ran out of the barracks and loaded on a Gamma Goat. We loaded our mortars, machine guns, etc and headed to Tempelhof AFB. We were there before 0900 hours. (thus the old add on TV: "US Army, we can do more before 9 than most people do in a whole day!")

The old timers (I mean anyone over 21 years old) were saying that we were headed for "Nam" to take back Saigon. We were going to war, they were telling us.

I was worried.

Then at noon, they brought out C-Rations. Fed us lunch. We took a nap. Then they woke us up, loaded back onto our Gamma Goats....drove back to the barracks...and that was the last we heard about Nam.