An officer and a gentleman
I was an officer in the federal armed forces of Germany for eight and a half years. Maybe that could have been a confession, too.
It's surprising to me, that many people don't know that. If I tell them they are surprised, because they cannot imagine me being a soldier. Maybe that's a compliment.
It wasn't that dangerous in those years, because the German army wasn't involved in international affairs at all. We celebrated the cold war, which led to armament on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The enemy was specified, but after 1990 it became vague and indistinct. The name turned to "redland", but nobody could tell who this should be.
I then decided to leave the army and to become a civilian at heart.
Surprisingly I have never heard of the army again. It sometimes feels like I've never been there. I sometimes have dreams about this time in my life, but that's all. I'm still first lieutenant of the reserve. But the only tangible remains is my education I got there, while studying business administration at the university of the federal armed forces in Munich. A great time with lots of fun and high academic standard. And also my first time in the states, because I took summer courses in marketing at Arizona State University in Phoenix/Arizona. It was in summer 1992 and boy, this ranks among the best times in my life. I had a t-shirt: ASU - bored of education - where 20.000 students pay to play. And I took the heat, it was sometimes unbearably hot. But it's a dry heat, they say.
It's surprising to me, that many people don't know that. If I tell them they are surprised, because they cannot imagine me being a soldier. Maybe that's a compliment.
It wasn't that dangerous in those years, because the German army wasn't involved in international affairs at all. We celebrated the cold war, which led to armament on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The enemy was specified, but after 1990 it became vague and indistinct. The name turned to "redland", but nobody could tell who this should be.
I then decided to leave the army and to become a civilian at heart.
Surprisingly I have never heard of the army again. It sometimes feels like I've never been there. I sometimes have dreams about this time in my life, but that's all. I'm still first lieutenant of the reserve. But the only tangible remains is my education I got there, while studying business administration at the university of the federal armed forces in Munich. A great time with lots of fun and high academic standard. And also my first time in the states, because I took summer courses in marketing at Arizona State University in Phoenix/Arizona. It was in summer 1992 and boy, this ranks among the best times in my life. I had a t-shirt: ASU - bored of education - where 20.000 students pay to play. And I took the heat, it was sometimes unbearably hot. But it's a dry heat, they say.
posted by Konrad at 1:15 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Konrad. Thanks for the visit. I really will try to write in English..though what I usually write about is just what's happening to me, you know, usual everyday stuff! BUT. I saw the Easter postcard you put on and it is NOT Romanian, but Hungarian. It says "Husveti nyul" which means, "Easter Bunny". These things about you and girls..wow. I can imagine that Arizona was dry hot. Here in Washington it's humid hot, which I think is worse. But soon I'd be leaving for Europe!
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