An 18 year old US Military Policeman in West Berlin

Richard Blevins enlisted aged 18 in the US Army in March of 1987.  He completed  Basic Training  & Military Police School training in July of 1987 and was posted to West Berlin as a United States Military Policeman. He describes his selection for Berlin duty while at Rhine-Main AFB in Frankfurt and his first journey … Read more

The first woman to graduate from French Commando school

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! Maura McCormick was posted to Berlin as a Signals Intelligence voice interceptor (Russian). Her workplace was the Teufelsberg  U.S. listening station,  aka Field Station Berlin. Maura shares her early impressions of Berlin and working at the Tberg. She talks about her impressions of the … Read more

The West Berlin village surrounded by the Berlin Wall

When the Cold War split Berlin in half, between East and West, one neighbourhood was trapped in the middle, and became a symbol of Cold War tensions. For more than twenty years, the hamlet of Steinstuecken was caught in a tug-of-war between the Americans, the Soviets and the East Germans. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on … Read more

Vietnam War draftee to US Army Rangers

Bob Wallace joined the US Army in 1968 as a reluctant conscript.  He describes the draft process, and his attempts to avoid conscription. After basic training, Bob is assigned to a long-range reconnaissance unit and ambush unit in five or six-man teams in the Mekong delta. Bob served with Company E, 75th Rangers from 1968-1970 … Read more

US Army Intelligence gathering in the unified Germany

    We continue the story of Bill, a US Army Intelligence Analyst with Combined Analysis Detachment-Berlin (CAD-B) from episode 127. Germany has now been re-unified and Russian troops have withdrawn from East Germany. Bill tells us of the little known story of continued US Army involvement in intelligence gathering alongside the German security services, … Read more

Just another day in Vietnam

pt> In this episode we talk with Col. Keith Nightingale who served in the US military from 1965 to 1993.  He completed two tours of Vietnam; the first as a Senior Advisor to a Vietnamese Ranger unit and the second as a rifle company commander in the 101st Airborne. Keith used the experience of his … Read more

Don – 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment at the Fulda Gap

In this second episode with Don Snedeker we talk to him about his time after his tour of Vietnam when he served in West Germany. From 1974 to 1986 Don served in a number of roles but most noticeably he was assigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Fulda, one of the locations where … Read more

Don – Vietnam armoured cavalry platoon leader

This is the first of two episodes we have following Don Snedeker’s experiences through the Cold War.  In this episode, we hear about his time in Vietnam and the book he has written entitled “The Blackhorse in Vietnam: The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam and Cambodia, 1966–1972”. Don was born in Brooklyn New York but … Read more

US Army Intelligence Analyst

  Bill was a US Army Intelligence Analyst. In 1986 he was assigned to Order of Battle Branch, Soviet Section where for three years he studied the Warsaw Pact armies working closely with the US Military Liaison Mission in Berlin which led to a transfer there in November 1989 Stationed in Potsdam he became an … Read more