Stories from the army

My grandfather does not remember much of the times when he was in the army, because when he left the army and was on a train to go home, somebody took his small suitcase and threw it out of the train window. In the suitcase, there where lots of photographs and Diplomas and also a diary which he kept during the army days and letters too. So all he remembers is that because he was a sportsman and belonged to different teams, life was easier than for other soldiers, the food was better and there were more vacations from the army etc. And they could go to foreign countries and stuff. The place where the sportsmen where was called Severamorsk and as I understood it was on quite high altitudes, so it was hard to breathe and it lowered the voices of the men there and thats why they had more healthier food and got to go on vacations, also it was quite in the north. They could also cross the boarder to Norway because nobody guarded them and there where no crossing points too. So it was quite fun, I imagine. He also told me a sad story which was common there: There was a test airport near and he told me that the Russian tested the warplanes that how fast can they go and it was like this: One day you have a sigaret with a testpilot and laugh with him and tomorrow he is dead. Because nobody cared of the people, the planes needed testing. In my opinion it is horrible. But he said that it was common there and it was not hard to get use to it.