Olivia's perspective
Yes, it can be difficult being in the barracks. Fellow Berlin Brigade soldier, Corporal Felder, who seems angry with the whole world, bumps hard into me whenever we pass, usually in the mess hall. I think he would kill me if he could.
I had been to the hot war, but nothing prepares you for hatred from within.
Corporals Bernie Jones of Iowa and Mike Moore of New York are sort of my friends, and we watch out for each other. At least they accept me more than most. When Anja and I cannot be together, Bernie and Mike and I hang around talking, going for biers, riding the bus downtown. They are both very straight—no drugs. Mike loves pop singer Neil Diamond, and he keeps us in stitches doing pantomime with a long rectangular Lorna Doone cookies box affixed to a broom simulating a singer's stage mike singing Sweet Caroline! Bernie is temperamental and can get mad at me for no apparent reason and not speak to me for days! Once we took bus #84 together by coincidence, heading to Potsdamer Platz, a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, and Bernie did not make eye contact with or speak to me during the entire length of the ride!
Private First Class Bill White rooms with me, is gay (back then called "queer"), and of course he wants to be around me all the time, but he does not truly understand me: I do not have any desire for men, and in those days there was little understanding about someone like me. Our other roomie, Sergeant Jerry Hughes, is straight as a rifle shot, but I do not believe he ever notices the true me, in spite of all the evidence there right in front of his blind-to-the-obvious eyes!
One day Jerry says, "Oh! Reary! That cologne you are wearing... Mmmm! It reminds me of the perfume my wife wears back home." This gives me a scare!... would he ever actually try to kiss me? No, no way! Nevertheless, I decide not to wear that scent, which was undoubtedly also his wife's perfume of choice, around him ever again! Shortly after this experience, she moves to Germany and they find married-housing off our compound. I breathe a sigh of relief that Sergeant Jerry is gone!
At work, when my Commanding Officer passes me, he always orders, "Get a haircut!" I salute him and reply, "Yes, sir!" But I rarely do get a haircut. The Army 'tolerates' some individuality on my part because: I do my job very well; plus I had served in the hot war—a badge of courage in the minds of most military people. And many Berlin Brigaders spend their entire Army service never leaving Berlin.
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The Wall Crossers
Non-FictionStep into the captivating world of "The Wall Crossers," a spellbinding tale set against the backdrop of Cold War-era West Berlin in 1971 and 1972 to the latter half of the 21st century, from Berlin to Bhutan. This narrative weaves together the lives...
