Aschaffenburg, Germany—When I was required to serve in the
U.S. Army I had the good fortune of serving as a medical corpsman in this
lovely town some 30 kilometers South of Frankfurt.
I landed here in December of 1968 somehow escaping a combat assignment
in Viet Nam. I arrived in Germany just
24 years after World War II ended.
Technically I was still part of an occupation army. Thankfully the deep wounds of war here
healing and a real friendship was developing between Germans and
Americans.
This was amazing since Aschaffenburg was the scene of the
most aggressive and deadly resistance once the war ended. Thankfully my predecessors were mush better
behaved than the Russian military swine that raped the women and children of Berlin while looting their last few possessions.
The German people showed me kindness as they welcomed me
into their nation, homes and hearts.
Learning about the customs, food and rich culture was a real treat for
me. Learning the language seemed
incredibly easy for me but my motivation for that was more about my overactive
libido. There were exceptionally
beautiful young women everywhere and fluency in conversation was a big plus in
that regard.
The 18 months I spent in Germany were the best of my entire life. I only regret returning to Chicago to
live. It would have been better I only visited
the USA as an expatriate from time to time.
I was ignorant of the wonderful educational opportunities that I would
have had in Germany. Back then getting
student or worker status would have been a snap. I did not miss the Army but I really missed
Germany.
My excellent German language proficiency deteriorated
because of lack of conversation and I got on with my life as an American. There were always the doubts that returning the
right thing for my future and me.
Hindsight is always so much better and I now see I made the wrong
choice.
It was not all bad and I’ve been back several times but now
every time I visit I want to stay. I may
yet find a way to visit there more often perhaps working on various film projects
and such.
In more recent years I have met new friends from Germany living, visiting or working in the U.S. Many are in the film industry. I cherish these folks too because the have the same elegance and kindness I remember so well.
To my many wonderful German friends both here in the USA and
Germany, I say thank you. My life is much
richer because of you.
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