I was on holiday in 1985 in the USSR and two humourous incidents come to
mind, one is the driver stopping our coach to help another coach packed
with tourists, and one very loud gentleman from the other coach asking
the russian tour guide "Goddamit is there a Mc'donalds around here any
place" - if only he had sat around and waited for 20 years :-).
The second was sending postcards back to the uk with things like not
bumped into Kate from Great Britain today.
I did manage to spend an evening with a russian girl who couldn't speak
english, we communicated with the aid of a pen and empty cigarete box,
amazing what a few vodkas can do.
It was also amusing dancing to "two tribes go to war" in the moscow
disco and even funnier watching one of the guys trying to get his music
cassettes back that he had had to lend the nightclub as they didn't have
anything much good, I guess there are only so many times you can listen
to the national anthem, even with the aid of the vodka dispensing
machines on the street.
Oh and for on topic stuff - I did take some photos - all with om10 and
50 1.8
Bruce Nolting wrote:
> Fast forward to 1989 - I was a German linguist for the US Army stationed
> at Field Station Augsburg, a fairly good sized strategic intelligence
> gathering facility in Augsburg, Germany. The staff there was made up of
> Army, Navy and Air Force personnel. And the same stuff Chuck tells
> about was still going on. Some of the Czech and Russian linguists I had
> working for me had almost the exact same incident at Oktoberfest in
> Munich - the guy was dressed as a beer truck driver. It's nice to know
> that at least they were consistent. :-)
>
> Bruce
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx
>>[mailto:olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chuck Norcutt
>>Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 4:58 AM
>>To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
>>Subject: [OM] Re: OT OT Sekret stuff
>>
>>
>>Brian Swale wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Hi all
>>>Chuck wrote
>>>
>>>
>>>>The KGB knew exactly who I was and what I did as
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>they let me know unmistakeably one day in Paris while I
>>
>>was on leave
>>
>>>>>from Germany. What they didn't know was how well I did it.
>>>
>>>
>>>Now that sounds like a story worth telling !
>>>
>>>Will you risk the wrath of List-mum by going OT and telling us?
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------
>>
>>OK, I forgot that Piers also asked the same. I'll tell a
>>brief version.
>>
>>The time is 1963, near the peak of the cold war. Germany is a
>>monitoring station for all sorts of soviet bloc radio
>>traffic. The US
>>Air Force monitors military air traffic and trains linguists
>>in all the
>>various languages used in the Soviet Union. I had been sent
>>to Syracuse
>>University for a year to be taught Polish.
>>
>>During the summer of '63 I took a short leave to Paris with a
>>group of
>>my co-workers. We went by train. There were three Russian
>>linguists, a
>>Czech linguist and me with Polish. For all of this supposed
>>linguistic
>>ability, however, not one of us spoke a word of French.
>>
>>On the return trip, we were standing in the middle of a Paris train
>>station surrounded by great throngs of people. We were
>>confused about
>>which train to catch and were all standing in a group trying
>>to decipher
>>the signs. I'm sure we looked obviously befuddled.
>>
>>Seemingly out of nowhere suddenly appeared before us a short
>>and rotund
>>guy dressed in what I took to be a French train mechanic's
>>work uniform.
>> He looked at each of us in turn and said to each of us in our
>>respective languages (Polish, Russian, Czech); "Your train is
>>on track
>>17" and then disappeared into the crowd as quickly as he had
>>appeared.
>>We stood there for several minutes absolutely dumbfounded not quite
>>believing what we had just heard.
>>
>>When we returned we reported the incident and were told not to worry
>>about it since "It happens all the time". When it comes to the
>>importance of intelligence gathering agents I was probably
>>the lowest of
>>the low. It has always astounded me that the KGB spent
>>enough on their
>>own intelligence work to be able to keep track of little ol'
>>me and my
>>whereabouts. No doubt that's part of the reason the USSR is
>>no more. I
>>think they spent themselves into the ground.
>>
>>OK, back to regular OT subjects.
>>
>>Chuck Norcutt
>>
>>
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