Some of my buddies here on Steemit, know that I've done a lot of things (work-wise) in life, including stints with the Military, U.S. Government, State & City Governments, along with private business of which I was mostly self-employed.
Here's an old photo of me that I recently stumbled across from about 1968 posing pretty-boy style atop a mountain in the beautiful European Alps (Dolomite's) pretending not to be military...
Yeah, yeah...I know...it kind of looks fake, like a studio shot of me posing for some magazine product ad , but it's real, and that's really me :>) thousands of meters above sea level.
What was I doing roaming around "dem dere hills over yonder" in civvies rather than a U.S. Military uniform? Well...I'll tell ya...
It was 'against the rules' to don military attire outside the "secret" walled-off area of our compound. Notice that I have 'secret' placed in quotation marks...??? That's because our location was considered secret by the Government...but, all the locals seemed to know about us being there; just not what we were doing.
At least we managed to keep our function a secret from prying eyes and inquisitive minds of every description; some of which were actually real foreign agents, working for other governments.
Every now and then, we'd get some dude lurking around where one of us might go and hang out at a local establishment, to try and gather information. Most of the time they were English speaking (to a degree) but always had a deep foreign accent, which usually sounded like Eastern Block nationals.
"Sooooo...my friend...Vhat ist it dat you do in dat place vhen vorkin? You ahr Americun...yes...???"
Of course they would first approach you with friendly small talk and insist upon buying you a few drinks, before they started with the probing questions; hoping the alcohol loosened your tongue a little.
Since I had a Top Secret Cryptographic clearance, my 'briefing' clearly gave warning of prison time, and possible $$fines$$ should I ever divulge information about our mission (Intentionally or Unintentionally) meaning...
"If you ever get drunk and fuck up...your ass is grass !!!"
The threat of Ten to Twenty Years behind bars, and/or a Ten to Twenty Thousand dollar Fine made it quite easy for me to keep sober and keep my mouth shut.
After all...my name ain't Hillary Clinton, and back in those days...I think ole Hillary too, would have been peering out from behind thick, cold, steel bars for being as sloppy and stupid as she was with "Mishandling of sensitive information" (Intentionally or not)
Do ya hear THAT Comey-Baloney???
Anyway...
Even after these MANY years later, I still wouldn't divulge specifically what we were doing in conjunction with NATO as Allied Forces, nor exactly where we were doing it...though I do believe it has all been declassified by now (Fifty years later)
From what I understood, Top Secret information generally became 'Secret' after ten or twenty years, and 'Secret' stuff, became downgraded to Classified after another ten to twenty years...??? But, I'm not taking any chances...
What I 'can' tell you, is that my designation at the time was Special Weapons Specialist which was (for some strange reason) openly stated on non-classified Military Orders for anyone to see, without a "Need-to-Know" designation...???
So, to me that meant my own government didn't have concern enough to protect my status, leaving me more vulnerable to having my ass grabbed off the street by some huge and ugly Foreign Agents, taken to a dirty old, slimy and empty warehouse in the middle of nowhere, where they would clip electrical wires to my scrotum; in an effort to extract information from me...
In that case...I probably would have told them anything they wanted to know...plus a whole lot of stuff they didn't want to know as well...(like the time I took a dump on the floor at three years of age, because someone was in the bathroom and I couldn't hold it any longer)
To tell you the truth...I did think about that once in a while at the time, and that's why I lead this post with "Young and Dumb", because I should have been a little smarter and volunteered for Combat Duty instead...you know...gone somewhere safer...???
JUST JOKING my fellow Vets...Don't get all wild hog and snorting...I actually DID volunteer for combat duty, but that's another story...for the future...maybe...
Oh...I almost forgot...You guys are probably still wondering exactly where we where operating from in the beautiful Dolomite Mountain area of the European Alps?
Well...I ain't sayin'...but, the place has been evacuated, and no longer exists as it was. The small Allied Forces installation abutting the compound (as cover I guess?) no longer is military either; I know because I've been back there (Thanks to Google Earth)
It took me awhile to find, and one area is partially blurred out, labeled as an "ex-military base"...the second small location is still walled off, and being used for some kind of private commercial enterprise.
I should probably end the reminiscence here; it's turned out to be a lot longer than anticipated, and this old guy is getting a little sleepy at 4:00 o'clock in the morning...
Hope you all enjoyed reading a little bit more about me and my past. It seems like such a long time ago...and, I guess it was...???
Ciao, my friends.