Copyright (c) 2013 Phyllis Zimbler Miller
All rights reserved.
U.S. student Mark Huessy is sentenced to seven years in prison in East Berlin for making propaganda statements against the East German government. – September 26, 1970
“To begin with, it must be clearly understood that the publication of this information is not based on any evidence that the international situation will require the emergency evacuation of U.S. civilians from Europe tomorrow, the next day, next year, or any other time. On the other hand, if the possibility of conflict in Europe did not exist at all, we would not be here.” Noncombatant Evacuation Order (NEO) issued 14 July 1970, Support District Sud Bayern [South Bavaria]
Once again Mitch and I found ourselves surrounded by drunken Oktoberfest revelers. Men and women of all ages stuffed their faces with bratwurst and swilled down huge steins of local beer.
Only this time the occasion was an official function for the 66th MI Group – the monthly “hail and farewell” event – being held this month on a Friday evening in a huge beer hall tent at Oktoberfest, a 16-day festival held annually in Munich from late September to the first weekend in October.
Besides the normal expectation to attend this event every month, Mitch and I had to specifically attend this “hail and farewell” as we would be “hailed.” (The members of the 18th had to attend all official 66th events.)
It was only 4:15 and yet the only seats available were next to two majors in uniform. Mitch nodded, no need to salute here, and I smiled as we slid into the vacant seats. The colonel who headed the 66th was not expected until 6 we learned.
We ate chicken and drank beer, bored by the raucous gluttony spectacle swirling around us. Waitresses wearing the traditional dirndl dresses of bodice, blouse, full skirt and apron hefted huge platters of food, some sporting the heads of pigs with apples stuck in their mouths. Men in the Bavarian garb of lederhosen sloshed their overflowing beer steins together as they toasted to the gigantic drinking festival.
I realized I had much for which to be thankful. On Monday, the day after we arrived in Munich, our sponsor had taken Mitch and me to see a three-bedroom unit available on the top floor of a housing building with one apartment on either side of a stairwell.
Although without children we were only entitled to a two-bedroom unit, this three-bedroom unit was what was available. While clean, the unit had puke yellow upholstered living room furniture.
“Why are there wooden bars across the windows?” I asked. “To keep kids from falling out,” the sponsor replied.
No elevators of course, so we had to walk up to the third floor. Our sponsor said, “There are no lights kept burning in the stairwells. You just push this knob to temporarily turn on lights. If you hustle you’ll get to the top before the lights go off again.”
Above our apartment were tiny unoccupied rooms that perhaps originally were for servants. In the basement there were no communal washers and dryers; only the washers and dryers owned privately by individuals in the building.
Because Mitch would soon be assigned a new couple that we would sponsor, he brought home memorandum 612-1 detailing what sponsor responsibilities were for incoming personnel. I wish our sponsor had paid attention to this section:
“The sponsor will correspond with the incoming individual and inform him of specifics governing:
1) Living and housing conditions in the general area of assignment.
