'abend Genossen,
I know I have repeated myself time and again on this subject (much to the annoyance of my esteemed friends from the former DDR), but I can never look upon a photo of NVA or any body of communist troops 'messing around' without thoughts of stunned amazement.
Growing up in the U.S.A. in the 1960s with the Cuban Missile Crisis still fresh in the heads of my elders and with the war against communist North Vietnam in full swing (fought by the other NVA), I was told time and again that communists troops were highly indoctrinated automatons bereft of any feeling and certainly not prone to playing 'grab ass' in the field or anywhere else.
If you told me in 1987 when I was a NATO soldier in "West" Germany that the "East" German soldiers across the Inner German Border had access to personal cameras and hammed it up when there was no adult supervision around, I never would have believed it. If I had seen pictures like these back in those days, I would have been sure that they were fakes. After all, communists didn't have fun and communists didn't smile, especially communist soldiers.
In any event, I hope you enjoy these next few photos, which continue to blow my mind even today.
Thanks for your continued patience and yes, my friends from the NVA and other WARPAC armies have always known that they were "normal" and can't believe that I would have thought otherwise....
All the best,
TJ
I know I have repeated myself time and again on this subject (much to the annoyance of my esteemed friends from the former DDR), but I can never look upon a photo of NVA or any body of communist troops 'messing around' without thoughts of stunned amazement.
Growing up in the U.S.A. in the 1960s with the Cuban Missile Crisis still fresh in the heads of my elders and with the war against communist North Vietnam in full swing (fought by the other NVA), I was told time and again that communists troops were highly indoctrinated automatons bereft of any feeling and certainly not prone to playing 'grab ass' in the field or anywhere else.
If you told me in 1987 when I was a NATO soldier in "West" Germany that the "East" German soldiers across the Inner German Border had access to personal cameras and hammed it up when there was no adult supervision around, I never would have believed it. If I had seen pictures like these back in those days, I would have been sure that they were fakes. After all, communists didn't have fun and communists didn't smile, especially communist soldiers.
In any event, I hope you enjoy these next few photos, which continue to blow my mind even today.
Thanks for your continued patience and yes, my friends from the NVA and other WARPAC armies have always known that they were "normal" and can't believe that I would have thought otherwise....
All the best,
TJ
GAZ-63A in the background 
The B&W footage turns grainy, much grainier than it has any reason to be, because better quality footage must have been easily obtainable, and then all manners of military brutality against civilians are shown, probably drawn from Latin America or God only knows where, as long as the helmets and the kit look American enough...
. This is the biggest so far 
It was certainly taken at W&P 2014. Regrettably going to that show is not worth the bother any more 
took me about 20 years and many visits to the US to completely change my mind about Americans compared to what it was from when I was growing up in the DDR. Cheers, Torsten.
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