Nineteen years ago (i.e., about a month after the Bitburg fiasco) at a party in Germany, a classmate tried that "elite soldier" line about his father, a member of the Waffen-SS. I immediately nailed him on the Battle of the Bulge. I didn't (and still don't) know the German phrase for "Battle of the Bulge," but I knew the German for, "The Waffen-SS murdered hundreds of our POWs in the Ardennes."
I have to add, that I've always believed that Reagan would never have screwed up like that, had he been a real soldier, like Jimmy Stewart or Glenn Ford or Ted Williams, instead of a member of the propaganda film unit.