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This may be my shortest Berlin story but perhaps it will trigger someone else’s recollections.
About a month after arriving in Berlin I was working in the Rail Transportation Office on a pleasant summer day. My German colleagues were going about their work and the only thing unusual was that the combination of absences for leaves, training, Spandau guard duty and so on had resulted in a couple of hours of my being the only GI on duty.
One of the civilians took a phone call. I did not even pay attention to it — I was so new in Berlin that no one was going to be calling me. Then I noticed the woman who had taken the call had become the center of a huddle. Everyone was excited. I was informed that a colonel was on the line and he wanted to speak with the highest ranking American. I could see that the German staff were intrigued by the seeming importance of the call. This was the most dangerous city on earth according to Nikita Khruschev and something was up! In my Army clerk school training I had never expected to work in a place with incendiaries in the back of each file drawer.
I punched the button to pick up the call.
“PFC Rynerson speaking, sir!” Dead silence followed that for a long moment.
“You’re the highest ranking American there?”
“Yes sir, and I’m also the lowest ranking American here.”
“Well, it’s about my household goods…” It seemed that the colonel had what for us was a routine query but he had trouble understanding German-accented English on the phone. The civilian staff of the RTO had the full range of accents, from a Canadian woman whose English was crisp and clear to a guy in the baggage room who had trouble with German, let alone trying English.
I let my colleagues know that they could stand down and get back to the routine. And they helped me answer his question. Welcome to Berlin Brigade!
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P.S. Eventually I made E-5 but never received a phone call sounding so important again.
-- rwr
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