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Logrollers
Here is a story that probably sound familiar to anyone of you that might have been "over
the pond" in the early to mid fifties. Perhaps most of us thought of ourselves as "swave and deboner" (spelling intentional).
We looked pretty good in our dress blues and if I say so myself, far better than the ground pounders from the army that lived
around us.
It seems back in 59, two buddies from the 601st and an Army buddy were down town at the
Berliner Brigge Gasthous enjoying themselves with a few brews, some brats and some dancing. It looked like it
was going to be another hard night tossing coasters. Things seemed to look even better when a group of Army GIs came
in with some good looking local talent....(fraulines). Now any girl would prefer blue over olive brown uniforms all
being equal. So one of the 601st Bulldogs, Nick's buddy
(Lou Pietoso), decided there was one of those young ladies that he wanted, among other
things, to dance with. After the first dance, Lou knew this was the one and asked for another dance.
Well about that time the rifle jockey she came in with decided he was gonna teach the
Greyhound Bus Driver dancing with his girl, a little lesson about who was the designated driver for the fraulien.
Lou ignored the fellow and stayed with the girl on the dance floor. Soooo, you guessed it...the army started circling
our hot blooded young Romeo with blood in their eye. Now all of this did not escape the sharp eye of Lou's buddy sipping
his HofBrau back at the table.
Lou's buddy decided that maybe the 4 to one odds were a little lopsided for Lou so he
jumped up from the table and stood at Lou's back. A little "schoeplatte" ensued. (Schoeplatte is a dance of the
alps where the dancers slap themselve and their partners silly in time to the music). One of the Army dudes challenged
Lou's friend (Nick) to finsh the job outside. As it turned out, the friend tuned the army boy like a $10.00 Sears fiddle.
A couple of jabs and a left upper cut to the jaw brought stars to an otherwise cloudless night. And that was the time
the APs picked up our boys and brought them back to the squadron while the army fellow checked in the hospital to see
if he had broke anything.
As it turns out, Lou Pietoso never did get to finish the Rumba he had planned for that
night. On the other hand, his buddy had the riot act read to him for fighting and was restricted to base. His
boss was CWO Glenn Ratcliffe. A by the book Airman that expected his word to be law. But our young hero would
not be held back. He went to town again with a few buddies and Ratcliffe found out about it. In one of my previous
tales, I mentioned Col Wolfe saying that I had a horse shoe up my A--. Well mine ain't near as big as the one in our
hero's butt. Col Wolfe had this young man assigned to him for his weekend flight duty. Every weekend they would
fly to Spain, Egypt, France, etc.
But we're not finished yet. The Army boy that lost the battle came calling after
about a month. But not to fight. He found out who did such a job on him and wanted to come and ask our airman
if he would give him boxing lessons. While he was in the hospital, his buddies told him that the airman that beat him
up was the "Welter Weight Champion for the Army/Air Force team out of Rothwesten. He came seeking Nick Mascis to give
him some lessons. Ain't life Grand?......................dick roan
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