Word: bundeswehr
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...German flags and red and gold Soviet banners snapped in the breeze as the guard of honor clicked to attention, steel-tipped black boots at the prescribed 45-degree angle. Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev strode down the steps, shook hands with Brandt and stood at attention as a Bundeswehr band played the two nations' anthems...
West Germany's Bundeswehr, descendant of the once mighty Wehrmacht, is filled with slovenly, long-haired draftees on 15-month hitches. As for the U.S. Seventh Army, it has been more conspicuous during the past two years for its racial battles in Frankfurt than its prowess in maneuvers. Britain's volunteer Army of the Rhine, on the other hand, is the best field force in Western Europe. But with only 50,000 men it is too small to defend Germany's vast northern plain...
...remarkable concession to the hirsute habits of West German youth, Defense Minister Helmut Schmidt 15 months ago decided that members of the Bundeswehr could sport beards and long hair, as long as they were clean and well groomed. Another Schmidt decree stipulated that if a soldier's hair was so long that it impaired his "functioning and safety," he had to wear a hair net on duty...
...regulations naturally led to all sorts of unseemly jokes among English-speaking allies in NATO about West Germany's "Hair Force." Within the Bundeswehr, however. Schmidt's decree quickly led to an unhumorous tangle. Closely cropped older soldiers complained that long hair interfered with discipline and troop readiness. They cited the unlikely instance of a ship's having to turn back prematurely because shampooing sailors had depleted its limited fresh-water supply. More plausible was the danger that an aircraft mechanic might have his obligatory hair net sucked into a jet engine. Meanwhile, long-haired soldiers deluged...
...Munich's carnival princes for the past three years, agreed: "Formerly, when we came down the ramp, marching in step, we prided ourselves on being toy soldiers everyone wanted to play with. Now people look at us with the same disdain as they look at the Bundeswehr...