During my stay at EUCOM, I had the opportunity to have some very interesting people in the back seat of my sedan. One of my favorites was General Poe. He had been the commander of USAFE in Ramstein and went back to the States to be the Commander of the Air Force Logistics Command. He came to EUCOM often. He was a friendly, talkative man who treated enlisted with respect. I liked him. And I liked the stories he shared with me on several occasions.
He was the CINC USAFE (Commander in Chief U S Air Force Europe) during a time of civil unrest in Germany. There were many incidents of violence and rioting in protest of American policy in Vietnam and other places.
One time he was invited to attend a speech being given by Henry Kissinger to the Bundestag in Bonn. He was concerned about the political atmosphere and decided to take a pistol with him. He traveled by sedan, about an hour's drive. When they arrived, they parked in front of the steps to the building in an area that had been cordoned off for that purpose. Before he got out of the car he began to have second thoughts about trying to carry a gun past all the security and police and soldiers so he slid the pistol under the seat.
During the speech and other activities inside, they could hear the protesting crowd getting louder outside. When it was over, they went out onto the steps and saw that the police cordon had been pushed back and now General Poe's sedan was surrounded by protesters. As he stood there trying to figure out a way of solving this, General Schultz, the commander of the German Army walked up and surveyed the situation. It was cold and both generals wore heavy overcoats, the German had his gloved hands stuffed into his coat pockets. They watched the protest for a little while then Gen Schultz asked Poe, "You haf der veapon?". Poe sighed and nodded toward the car, "In the car." Schultz pulled both his hands half way out of his pockets, just enough to display the butt of a Walther in each hand, and said, "Der veapon in der car ist shtupid".
Fortunately, the crowd was cleared away without incident and Gen Poe was able to get to his sedan and have a safe ride home. He did tell me that he decided he was not going to be "shtupid" again.