Fun-O-Meter Pegger
- Thread starter DRYHEAT
- Start date
OP
DRYHEAT
Well-known member
Thanks UF. That is the glass top lid to the desktop display case from Hobby Lobby. It just has a thin mat over the glass for this photo.
Here's the bottom section with the glass top off:
Here's the bottom section with the glass top off:
UltraFudd
Well-known member
I like your GSG9 patch. Had some of those guys onboard the 2nd Fleet Flagship in ‘83 for the “German-American Tricentennial. Our Admiral brought a det from Team 6 including the famous Commander. I was the Fleet / ship’s Navigator, and all their guys and ours ate in the wardroom. My German made me somewhat of a hit.
Was on the quarterdeck by the ship’s brow where visitors came and went and one of the GSG guys was just standing there. I asked him what he was doing and he said “I’m looking for terrorists” to which I asked, “How do you know what a terrorist looks like?”.
With a sideways glance and a note of superiority, he said deadpan; “I’ve memorized all zer faces.”
Those guys were something else. It was a great trip, listening to a concert on an organ played by Bach sometime in the old days.
Our 3-star Admiral had a 200 person reception under canvas on the flight deck. He knew I spoke good conversational German so I was assigned as the host escort for the Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg. He was the senior surviving officer of Bismarck, and a wonderful old gentleman. I have his book and wouldn’t trade it. Great night, lots of good champagne, and a few sea stories. We were both Navy Lieutenants and that’s a bind that transcends nationality.
Was on the quarterdeck by the ship’s brow where visitors came and went and one of the GSG guys was just standing there. I asked him what he was doing and he said “I’m looking for terrorists” to which I asked, “How do you know what a terrorist looks like?”.
With a sideways glance and a note of superiority, he said deadpan; “I’ve memorized all zer faces.”
Those guys were something else. It was a great trip, listening to a concert on an organ played by Bach sometime in the old days.
Our 3-star Admiral had a 200 person reception under canvas on the flight deck. He knew I spoke good conversational German so I was assigned as the host escort for the Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg. He was the senior surviving officer of Bismarck, and a wonderful old gentleman. I have his book and wouldn’t trade it. Great night, lots of good champagne, and a few sea stories. We were both Navy Lieutenants and that’s a bind that transcends nationality.
OP
DRYHEAT
Well-known member
This is a larger version of the GSG9 patch in the original photo.
I found out in my 60s that both of my birth parents were born in Germany, father in Hamburg and mother in Berlin. I sadly don't speak any German!
I found out in my 60s that both of my birth parents were born in Germany, father in Hamburg and mother in Berlin. I sadly don't speak any German!
UltraFudd
Well-known member
Been to both places. I prefer Hamburg for the culture, Berlin for the night life. Finally got to Berlin in ‘89 a couple of weeks before the wall came down. Very happy to have helped (we were working with the Berlin Senat (city hall). Came back home to London and two weeks later saw the guy with the sledge hammer, and it wasn’t an Apple ad.
My family is from Stadt Brandenburg about 62km northeast of Berlin. I’m 5th generation American. great-great grandad retired from the Prussian Army and brought his wife, son, a gold watch and what he had saved and moved to Wisconsin. They bought 80 acres here, and another 40 as recorded in the 1850 and 1860 census. The family farmed it until 1958 and the family that bought it has a son I know from the American Legion. 2 families - over 165 years!
Would have liked to go and visit, but it used to be in the Eastern zone and I was denied permission to go due to some TS/SCI programs I was in until 1989 when I flew into Berlin. Now I’m too gimpy to travel, but am saving all my research for my son.
Ask Lamont about Germany, I believe he spent some time there.
My family is from Stadt Brandenburg about 62km northeast of Berlin. I’m 5th generation American. great-great grandad retired from the Prussian Army and brought his wife, son, a gold watch and what he had saved and moved to Wisconsin. They bought 80 acres here, and another 40 as recorded in the 1850 and 1860 census. The family farmed it until 1958 and the family that bought it has a son I know from the American Legion. 2 families - over 165 years!
Would have liked to go and visit, but it used to be in the Eastern zone and I was denied permission to go due to some TS/SCI programs I was in until 1989 when I flew into Berlin. Now I’m too gimpy to travel, but am saving all my research for my son.
Ask Lamont about Germany, I believe he spent some time there.
OP
DRYHEAT
Well-known member
I only visited Germany once during the summer of '69. A friend from high school and I had a rental car and drove through an area of the DDR to get to West Berlin (long before I knew my birth mother was born there) to visit our other good friend who was a Green Beret based there. What a great city that was and such a contrast to the area we drove through to get there. We took the bus tour of East Berlin and went through Checkpoint Charlie, where the West German tour guide had to get off so the East German guide could get on. A lady on our bus had her camera taken out of her hands and the film pulled out of it before it was handed back. She had taken photos of East German soldiers when warned not to. Lucky I didn't even have a camera that day. lol
Turns out our Army friend was in on a long secret mission that was only revealed in "Special Forces Berlin - Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956-1990" by James Stejskal in 2017. Our friend's picture and name is in the book.
I would now love to go back, especially to visit Hamburg.
Turns out our Army friend was in on a long secret mission that was only revealed in "Special Forces Berlin - Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956-1990" by James Stejskal in 2017. Our friend's picture and name is in the book.
I would now love to go back, especially to visit Hamburg.