Does anyone study the Cold War?

I myself am an avid historian of the period, particularly East Germany.

Kinda funny Cold War true story.

In 1955, I was RIC of communications aboard the USS Apache and we were on a Far East rotation working out of Sasebo, Japan. A watermelon and beer bust was planned ashore for the weekend, but.....................

We were told by some locals who were invited to attend that we would not be there. Being in communications and privy to movement info, I blew it off and continued to look forward to a weekend of FUN. My bad.................

Mid-day Friday, we received a flashing light message to get underway & standby for more info. Zap a "secret mission".

We hooked up with two other ATFs and a DE and were given our destination; a small Sea of Japan port. Seems that the Prez had gotten pissed at the Russians about something and demanded that they start returning WWII Lend Lease ships. Our group would meet a Russian group and take posession of some vessels that were being returned. This was to be done quietly as the government would release any info concerning the operation.

We arrived and anchored awaiting the "Reds". Liberty was granted and our crew went ashore in the small port city that only had a couple of bars. Much to our surprise the bars had really nice welcoming banners with our ships names on them ! We were impressed with the quickness that the bars had thrown out the welcome matt, until we found out that the banners had been up for nearly TWO WEEKS. So much for our quiet mission to meet the Russians and get some ships back. Apparently everyone in Japan knew what was going on except fot the Navy personnel involved !

The Russians arrived and we took posession of a group of LCIs (Landing craft infantry) and towed them to Yokosuka where they were junked. We later met them again and got back a group of PT boats. The PTs were anchored atop small flat barges that held four boats each.

Here's a photo that I took from the bridge of the LCIs that we had in tow from the operation.

hey that's a cool story MG61, thanks for sharing!

My dad worked for the USAF as a civi for 23 years starting in 1956. He was under an organization called GEEIA. Basically, they went around installing/fixing/whatever to radar/missile sites. He's been all over North America and a few places in SE Asia.

Lots of stories (mainly revolving around him hating Unions and everything they stand for), but one in particular was about a time he was at a radar site in Greenland.

Back in those days, people with thick glasses sat around staring at radar screens all day waiting to see if anything was coming over the North Pole. One day, an alert went off while he was there and people assumed it was just another "hot-test". There were a few stages of alert and I forget the exact descriptions, but basically 1 was standby and 5 was "bombs have been dropped", 4 was "bombs are en route to the United States". Essentially, the alert stages climbed all the way up to 4 and the B-52's we had circling (they were always in the air 24/7 around this time) turned towards Russia and began the final protocol to drop.

A phone call came in just before the 52's would get in radar range of Russia and told our radar station to stand down and that the issue had been "resolved".

He never knew if it was a false positive, test, or what, but thinks we came closer to nuclear war that day than we did during the missile crisis.

I figure I'll add a "$%# unions" story too.

One day my dad was at a missile site in North Dakota. They had to get the computers up and online in a week and had a ton of work to do.

The US Govt. had contracted union workers to do the labor with GEEIA heading it up. This was also July 4th week and the workers wouldn't work for half of the week, "union rules" gave them half the week off for holiday.

He went to the base commander and after some words, the commander, exasperated, showed up at the site and told the union workers to get off their @$$ or find another job.

My dad was not popular amongst the union crowd but he got the job done. He was very gung-ho during these days and believed that if we didn't stay ahead of the game, then the commies would make a move. Dunno, maybe he was right.

Kinda interesting "Hot War" story.

In 1952 a Navy F4U photo plane was shot down. The pilot rode it into the sea near Navy ships off the coast of Korea & escaped with minor injuries. The plane sank and became entangled in minesweeper nets. Apache divers freed the plane and it was hoisted aboard the fantail. The planes camera and film was recovered in good condition. The plane was then taken farther out to sea and given a proper burial at sea for a fallen warrior. Here are some photos that might be of interest.

Hoisting the F4U aboard


Retrieving the film


The F4U on the way to it's final resting place

Cold War Certificate Of Recognition

I'm assuming that these were sent to all who served in the military during the Cold War time period.

Certificate Of Recognition

Name

In recognition of your service during the period of the Cold War (2 September 1945 - 26 December 1991) in promoting peace and stability for this Nation. The people of this Nation are forever grateful.

Signed

William S. Cohen
Secretary Of Defense

Gotta love this guy.






on a side note: it's a crying shame that so many of our young people can't find the humor in these jokes because they have no idea what Reagan is talking about.