Rubble

In the news today, an unexploded WWII bomb was found near the Berlin train station. Reminds me of being in Frankfurt in 1960, a young soldier, and seeing corners still filled with the rubble of bombed out buildings. And later, in the bars, meeting Germans who were unreformed Nazis. One compared world wars to our American World Series: yes. we'd won the first 2 but it was best of 7, and his grin sent chills down my naive American spine.

A linguist in our outfit had put several Hitler speeches to memory in German. Reciting them was always good for free beer for the lot of us from the local farmers. M.A.S.H. and Catch-22, and my own Baumholder 1961 for that matter, barely touch the dark absurd surface of military life.