30 years ago

German Erkennungsmarke (dog tag), issued January 1989. The new ones have the country code of DEU instead of GE.

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When I checked the calendar for something unrelated earlier this week, I realized that I turned in my gear and became a civilian again exactly 30 years ago this month, after serving 4 years and 2 months in the German Army. I was only 21 when I got out because I was barely 17 when I enlisted almost straight out of high school.

The Erkennungsmarke isn’t something you usually get to keep. At the end of active service, it gets turned in with most of the other issued gear, to be put into the personnel file for reissue if there’s a reservist call-up or general mobilization. I have this one because I reported mine lost and they struck a replacement, only for me to find the original later, so I kept the duplicate.

I picked a wild time to serve in the military. When I joined up, the Cold War was still going on, although nobody in January of 1989 anticipated that eleven months later, the Berlin Wall would come down, and that all the communist satellite states of the Soviet Union would fall like dominoes within a few months, choosing democracy, Levi’s jeans and McDonald’s over socialism, Bulgarian shoes, and khlav kalash. By the time I got out, the Cold War was won, the Soviet Union didn’t exist anymore, the Baltic countries were independent, and Germany was reunited.

It doesn’t really feel like it was three decades ago. But I guess it’s correct because I got an email from my high school class reunion committee a few weeks ago, inviting me to our 35th anniversary high school reunion. Unfortunately, the math seems to check out…