Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelBlue
Kind of funny, anyone who grew up in the 80's or earlier immediately feels a "how could you possibly do that?" response from their gut. After a couple of seconds I realized what a non-issue it really is but I guess old prejudices die hard.
I was trying to explain to my son that Russia was once as hated as Bin Laden but much more feared because they were just as powerful militarily as we were. He just couldn't grasp that Russia could every have been scary.
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When I was in Bosnia in a decade ago my unit had to do a patrol with the Ruskies. I was hoping for the Rhythmic dancing team, but alas some drunken, unshaven, unkempt sloppy soldiers driving nearly broken down BTR-60's showed up. My two senior NCO's were full of angst for this assignment as both had grown up in the Cavalry in the mid-late 80's doing the old Border Tours in West Germany along the Iron Curtain. The first one looked at the broken Ruskie unit and just told them "I can't believe I was ever scared of you broken down mutherf*&^ers." We went on the patrol and I learned that the A-10 Warthog has a tighter turning radius than the BTR-60. We took one curve and the Ruskie vehicle picked up some Yak's Yugo and dragged about a quarter of a mile before I got a US hummer in front of him and got him stopped. The poor Yak was still in the drivers seat.
Later we busted that same Russian unit when they, along with the Russian commanding General in Bosnia, were smuggling cognac and cigarettes into the country to sell on the black market.
It is too bad we didn't just bust through and kick their ass in the 80's. MAD be damned we were better and could have proven it!
WOLVERINES!