In 1977, one of my additional duties as a tank commander in West Germany was CBR NCO. I was the Chemical, Biological, Radiation Weapons Sergeant for our unit. Each month I gave and hour-long class in a different weapon of mass destruction and how to survive if the Soviets attacked using them. Although we tank soldiers had a better chance of surviving than ground troops, everyone knew that in a war with nerve gas and nukes and weaponized bugs, we were going to die.
At the end of each class I would yell, "On your feet!" The room stood up and I presented the doomsday scenario of the month. For instance, what should we do if a nuclear weapon detonates directly over or on our position?
The soldiers answered in unison, "Sergeant Gussman, we will put our heads firmly between our legs and kiss our asses goodbye!"
We walked out laughing, but no one thought these weapons were anything but terrifying. They still are.
If we knew the nuclear bomb or nerve gas was coming, the main defensive action was to move the unit to safety, if a safe place was available.
Forty years later, the rest of the world is waking up to what Cold War soldiers assumed could or would be their future, or the end of their future.
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