The loud hum of the 60 kw generators drowned out the voice of Sgt. Temple as he yelled for two German civilians to halt near our firing position. I was inside the command post and had just stepped out to smoke a cigarette when I noticed them. The Germans informed Sgt. Temple that they were looking for dead bodies. Of course, Sgt. Temple was a little taken aback by this but he couldn’t understand German well, and of course, the two Germans were equally as inept at speaking English. They did ask to speak to the leader or man in charge. Sgt. Temple and a private began leading them toward the command post where Captain Lamb our commanding officer was.

Our missile battery was performing a training exercise in the field for 5 days. We were on day three when the two German civilians showed up at the main guard post. Sgt. Temple was the sergeant of the guard for the day and stopped the two believing they were anti nuclear weapons protesters that followed us around like prostitutes took to General Hooker during the civil war. They were annoying at best and at worse they could cause a great deal of damage to our equipment by sneaking into our field position and playing around with our trucks, missiles or generators..

I had just been promoted to buck sergeant 3 weeks before the encounter with the two Germans. This was my first field exercise as a sergeant. I was full of spit and vinegar,eager to prove myself as a soldier and an NCO. Last night, I had dealt with everything from sleeping guards to not enough toilet paper in the latrine tent. Wouldn’t you know it, somebody had to tell me that German soldiers dressed in world war two garb had infiltrated our perimeter and then suddenly disappeared. The perimeter guard called out the the reactionary force consisting of ten privates who ended up searching for several hours for what most of us thought was the figment of the perimeter guards imagination.

The two Germans accompanied by Sgt. Temple and a private arrived at the command post.”Hey, go get Captain Lamb so we can find out what these to guys want!” said Sgt. Temple. I ran into the tent and informed the Captain that there were two German civil lain men outside the tent and Sgt. Lamb requested that he come outside to talk to them. Captain Lamb seemed a little punchy but reluctantly said,”Ok, I”m coming.” With that he walked rather slowly to the opening of the tent. Luckily, Captain Lamb spoke German fluently and it seemed had a working knowledge of several others.