[dp0622]

Wow. I didn’t know Americans were allowed into East Berlin

[Mark17]

Wow. I didn’t know Americans were allowed into East Berlin

Yes we were. It was part of SOFA, though we had to be in uniform. I proudly wore my US Air Force dress blues in East Berlin. The Russians were allowed to come west too, in uniform. Once I was in the Army PX in Frankfurt. From a distance, I saw two guys in red trimmed uniforms. I asked the employees, who said they were Russian soldiers, who were allowed in our PX. As they got closer, I was hit with an invisible wall of utter stench. These Russians had the worst BO I ever had the misfortune of smelling. It was utterly awful. 👎 They were smiling at everyone, like, yeah, we are in your PX, and there ain’t nothing you can do about it.

[Mark17]

If we drove to Berlin, we had to go through checkpoint Alpha, at Helmstedt. It was there that the Russian soldiers tried to sell us their stuff. The most popular stuff was the Soviet Army fur hats, and Soviet Army belt buckles. What a bunch of capitalists. 😁 Then, we drove 110 miles across a barren, desolate landscape, more commonly called East Germany, to Checkpoint Bravo. The US Army guys at Checkpoint Bravo, asked us if the Russians tried to sell us anything, and didn’t believe us when we said no. 😁 Then, we went through Checkpoint Charlie, into East Berlin. The East German customs guards were not allowed to check us out, and if they got a little too big for their britches, we would tell them we wanted to see a Soviet official immediately. They didn’t want any Russian officers being called. The East Germans really liked seeing American women in Air Force uniforms too.