An Army of Stories: Tales of a Cold War Veteran

An Army of Stories is a compilation of the crazy, comical and sometimes mysterious things that soldiers do and say, as seen through the eyes of a soldier. It relates stories about happy times in the military, exciting times in and out of uniform, and some of the saddest events imaginable. It also tracks the author’s progression from enlistment in the United States Army as a private during the mid 1970s, through retirement as a master sergeant many years later, and the many adventures experienced along the way. It follows a chronological path of the many units of military assignment, the people, languages, cultures and historical events encountered, and personal travels/visits to various locations on three continents including North America, Asia and Europe. It also chronicles some scary events in world history that sometimes brought us to the brink of Armageddon. Experiences include the proliferation of terrorism in 1970s-era West Germany, terrorist bombings of American targets and the assets of US allies, and the targeting of innocent American service personnel and their families. It includes anti-American and anti-nuke protests in northern West Germany, anti-American marches by angry college students in South Korea, experiencing the horrors of a World War II concentration camp, passing through the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, living in and understanding various foreign cultures, visits to communist countries, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the difficulties of an American trying to survive living and working in foreign regions, including the always not so America-friendly Middle East.