Tabloid & Testimony: 02-12-2011 Point Alpha-Hot Spot of History

This morning we started out on our Senior outing at 9:30 AM with Elder & Sister Hermann. They are the couple who we play Phase 10 with at least once a week. We caught up with the other couples at Check Point Alpha. On the way we ran into snow, as you can see from the pictures. It is a little bit North of Frankfurt. I don't know how much history of America during the Cold War you have read about, or have personal knowledge of, but you are about to find out. Brother Walters was put in charge of this blog as there were too many facts for me to keep straight and he is the history buff in the family.

POINT ALPHA
On Saturday the 12th of February 2011 The senior missionaries went to see Point Alpha near Fulda, Germany. Fulda is about 90 miles northeast of Frankfurt. Point Alpha is another 20 miles northeast of Fulda. There the U.S. Army set up an observation tower to watch the East German/Russian Armies. Germany's geography is shaped like a lady's figure. The thinnest part or waist is at Fulda, meaning, East Germany pokes into West Germany at its narrowest point. Fulda is also the center of Germany. It is because of these facts that the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that an attack on West Germany would most likely come from that section of the country and allow the enemy to cut the country in half and be in Frankfurt in only a few days.

Point Alpha therefore was set up at that place because it over looked two valleys in the eastern sector of East Germany. Their conclusions proved correct. The East moved hundreds of tanks into that sector several times to see what the West would do. Naturally, we moved even more tanks to counter any surprise like what happened in Pearl Harbor, However, we luckily didn't have to go to war at all during the Cold War period.

Some interesting things you may not be aware of though, is that East Germans cut a wide path through the dorfs (small villages) and forrests soon after WWII. The local farmers with land that fell on both sides of the imaginary lines (patrolled by both east and west Germans) crossed to work or buy food and seed or to see a doctor. The East German guard would say Guten Tage to the west German farmer when he came from the west to work his farm. The west German guard did the same to the east Germans who needed supplies from the west, because the east was pillaged by Russia on Stalins orders. It was difficult to survive in east Germany, but this wonderful relationship lasted until the early sixties. Then the Berlin Wall went up and East Germany built fences through towns and farms. But that only increased the flow of immigrants from the East to the west. Barbed wire electrified fences and land mines stopped many but creative and innovative ways permitted many to escape their prison.

We work with two brothers from east Germany and their testimonies always bring me to tears. Their life was extremely difficult. We have pictures of east Germans watching us thru binoculars as we are watching and photographing them. We toured one museum that had West German history and then drove six hundred yards over to the old East German side and toured their museum, very interesting and educational. The most impressive thing there, was a picture of Helmut Kohl the Prime Minister of Germany, President George Bush senior. and Gorbachov of Russia in 2005, honoring the taking down of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It was truly a historical moment.