Life Sketches by Terry Berkson

Bring Your Own Bag

I recently read an account of an American couple hitchhiking through France during the sixties. Motorists passed them by, giving them the finger (thumbs down) and calling out things like, “Yankee, go home!” I remember that time well. President Charles de Gaulle was in the process of kicking American troops that had been there since World War II out of France. It appeared to be an ungrateful act, given the help we gave to that country during the war. But at that time I was stationed in Germany and I observed how young American soldiers, lonely from being away from home, and ignorant of the manner and customs of the people whose country they were now occupying, could misbehave, could get into fights, could harass women and own the label of “the ugly American.”

In December of 1965, I and 1,400 other soldiers set sail on the USS Darby, the last troop ship ferrying our soldiers over to Germany. After that, the military used planes and an eight-day voyage was reduced to an eight-hour flight. During the ship crossing, there was little to do and we were shown a lot of frivolous movies. “The Yellow Rolls-Royce” was one of them. Looking back, I see that this would have been an excellent time to educate the new troops about the people whose land we were about to “invade.” There could have been something said, by way of a documentary, about being a representative of your country, to put your best foot forward and thus win the hearts and minds of our hosts. But the opportunity to get this across was lost and, instead, a lot of “bad boys” were unleashed in Germany as well as in France. I don’t mean the majority. It just took a few to spoil it for the rest of us. German nationals called my base in Ludwigsburg, “Gangster Barracks.” I’m sure the same dynamics were afoot in France.