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I spent 9 Thanksgivings in the city and don’t remember a single one of them! Uh….alcohol was NOT necessarily a part of that equation! lol
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.Ed/Larry I joined SMPD in June of 1986. Right now my plan is to retire in April next year. I think that will be enough. I am currently the night shift patrol commander. I also supervise our K9 unit, drone team, FTO program and the traffic homicide unit. They all keep me quite busy. A friend and I are leaving on September 24th for two weeks in Europe. We are going to London, Edinburgh, Munich for Octoberfest and then Paris/Normandy. My buddy is a Marine so of course we will have to go to Belleau Woods. Should be a fun time. If anyone happens to be in the area just let me know. Chris
Great to hear about your trip, Chris, and hope you have a wonderful time. I attended the Oktoberfest back in the Eighties and the joint was rockin’. Lots of ways to spend money. Not quite 3 years ago, my wife and I traveled to London then on to Normandy. Bucket List item, and to see all of that was inspiring.
Safe travels!
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.Excellent point. I heard recently that helicopters would land at Andrews, but I had never seen that in my time.
Apparently the road from West Berlin to Stein was built after the 1971 Tripartite agreement was reached that ceded that narrow strip of land to the West. In exchange, 4 million Marks were paid to the East German government and a couple of unoccupied “exclaves” were also given to them.
Seems like a good deal. Those 200 inhabitants of Stein no longer had to process through two VoPo checkpoints just to get a loaf of bread and other groceries.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.Ed, Over the years when I mention that I was in Berlin ,66-69 287th MP, and bring up Steinstucken no one has ever heard of it and I can see why. What a unique place. Hard to explain what Stein was . Was at a social club I belong to last weekend with my BUSMVA shirt on and the Berlin Emblem and one of the guys sitting at the bar came over to our table and said I thought I recognized the emblem on your shirt. Introduced ourselves , his first name is Paul , and he said he was there 87 to 91 in the 42 engineers. Showed him my BUSMVA card and told him about it and how to join.
Great story, Larry!
The 298th Army Band went to Steinstücken only a couple times during my time (83-91), but each time the people living there could not have been more welcoming. We enjoyed playing in that very small community.
I was surprised to learn recently that the short road connecting West Berlin and Steinstücken wasn’t always there, which explains why the Huey helicopter is on display in that community.
Map of Steinstücken attached.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinst%C3%BCcken
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.Thanks, Ed, for the notice. Prayers to the family and for all who knew him. Will pass this on to the new Membership Director, Doug Brockway.
Appreciate your diligence, Ed. Best regards.
Allen Lawless
BUSMVA SecretaryWebmaster
Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.There is some activity on Facebook – we opened a new page. If you search on “BUSMVA” in the FB search field, it’ll pop up.
For many people, FB is a preferred social media platform. It’s a little more user-friendly perhaps, and you can post videos.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.Thank you for catching that. I’ll make the correction.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.That’s outstanding news! Congratulations!
Arkansas has all manner of veteran-type plates. All of the more recent operations, including the Persian Gulf and the earlier conflicts – Vietnam, Korea, WWII, of course. Retiree, Disabled Vet, Veteran, Silver Star (saw one yesterday), Bronze Star, Purple Heart, but zero on the Cold War and certainly not the AOM/Berlin service.
That’s a great achievement!
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.Yes, unfortunately Chris announced his candidacy a day or so after the absentee ballots were mailed out, therefore he was not listed on the absentee ballot. He is a write-in candidate. Those eligible members attending the reunion in May in Columbus, GA may vote on all candidates, including Chris.
As it stands now, Chris is the only viable candidate for the Director of Sales position.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.Just to clarify – the problem with the booking of rooms at the Marriott on Thursday, May 16 applies only to those who have NOT yet made room reservations. The overflow hotel information is above in the event that the hotel is fully booked. BUSMVA members and their guests who have not yet booked and want to stay the night of May 16 at the Marriott MAY have to be put up at the alternate hotel. In that event, transportation has been laid on to help ease the inconvenience.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.This is great news! Good luck in the election, Christopher!
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.For several years now (maybe 10 or more), Lowes has offered a 10% discount. Home Depot did not offer the same until recently. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe HD’s discount policy was a localized one – meaning that the store manager could offer a discount or not. The HD I went to in Columbia, MO at the time did not offer the discount, so I took my business to Lowes.
Lowes started tying in the military angle into their so-called “My Lowes” program, meaning they wanted to see the My Lowes card or keychain scannable tag rather than a military ID card. I think they started that about 2 years ago and they flat-out said they would not honor a military ID card — you had to tie your military status (reserve, retired, active, NG, whatever) into their “My Lowes” program. That was a PITA until I realized that my wife could take advantage of the 10% discount even without me being there (she didn’t have an ID card for many years — long story there).
I don’t believe HD has started that same kind of program quite yet.
In any event, as an Army retiree I have always had to display my ID card to get any kind of discount. Perhaps Lowes will grant the discount if you tie your DD214 into their “My Lowes” program. Not sure if they’ll do that or not.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.I saw that as well and was impressed. I don’t believe Home Depot has caught up with Lowe’s yet on this one.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.Any new system will have issues. That said, yes, it’s true I had some problems trying to get Richard onto the forums, but it did occur and he’s now posting.
Sorry to have to say this in this manner, but we’re not going back to the old system. Yes, it did work but it was archaic, dated, and did not offer nearly as much capability as this newer system offers. I dare offer that those who are lamenting the old system have not yet explored this new system and what it can do.
Please consider this and dive in!
I have kept pretty good tabs on the forums and am prepared to deal with issues, such as what Richard encountered – that was a head-scratcher and the only fix was to use an old AOL email address – but I would say that that (and any other email address) would not not be used very often, if at all, in communicating via this forum. Using an email address is only a criterion for registration, not for communicating.
As always, you gentlemen are free to use this forum – or not. It’s totally up to you.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.There was also Frank’s Pig Pen.
By the time I came along in the early Eighties, all of those places had gone away. In my day, there was Tony’s Imbiss located right at the gate on the sidewalk; the Home Bar (went out of business not long after I arrived in Berlin), a Turkish imbiss that was right on the corner; the Speakeasy, a watering hole owned by a Brit woman named Carolyn who owned a parrot; and the Il Mulino’s restaurant, an Italian joint that offered the usual Italian specialties. Not much else in the area, and certainly nothing up Kadettenweg where Frank’s was. There was another kneipe located down Finkensteinallee going toward Drakestrasse, but it was frequented mostly by local Berliners.
My personal favorite was a joint owned by a woman named Waltraud. We called her “Mom.” She owned the Kastanieneck, which was located just off Ringstrasse and the corner of Finkensteinallee – about a 10 minute walk from Andrews. Good Munich beer. Schultheiss was crap, Berliner Kindl only a little better.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.