Stuck: A Cold War Diary: The rumpled memoir of Jay Fields

by Jay Fields, Hamilton White

The diary of an effervescent time, wedged between the sixties and the end of the Vietnam War, the story of an army journalist and his wife stuck in Cold War Germany traveling about in a third-hand VW named Velma. A reflection on coming of age, friendships under duress, service to country, race relations, the '72 Games, the life of gypsies, small theatre, missiles, escape routes to Spain, jazz and joy in the middle of pulling guard duty and painting tires.

118 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 19, 2023

Reviews

[Jay Fields · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Since I'm the author, you should take this review with a grain of salt or two large steins of beer at the Hofbrauhaus.)

"Stuck" records the disillusionments, frustrations, discoveries, adventures, ironies and joys of an army journalist and his wife living out a two-year tour of duty in Germany in the early seventies. I wrote the main part of the book as a string of short chapters, eclectic experiences and reflections, with my friend and Pershing Missile colleague Ham White filling in details involving gypsies, freezing nights at Grafenwoehr, the Baader-Meinhof Gang, terrorists at the '72 Games, drugs in the barracks and other stories. Underneath it all, underneath the "stuckness," we made a lot of friends, took advantage of every weekend pass we could get, and became different people. Most of us wouldn't have been there if it weren't for the draft. But once there, we fell into one adventure after another, stultifying, rambunctious, impromptu and nerve-racking.

I hope you will enjoy the remembrance as much as Ham and I enjoyed getting it down.

[Judith Bromley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting account of how things were in Germany in the 1970’s.