Well, ALMOST! I had already passed muster under West Germany's conscription (Wehrpflicht) and was deemed fit to march - all the way to Stalingrad, if told! - and given a "Wehrpaß" to stop me from changing my mind.
But change my mind I did and instead of signing up for eighteen months of marching and shooting straight as "Gefreiter Görmann" (conscripted Private) in the German "Bundeswehr" I signed up for two years as bank clerk with the Australia & New Zealand Bank in Canberra in Australia.
And instead of pledging in 1965 to serve the Federal Republic of Germany loyally and to defend the right and the freedom of the German people bravely -- "Ich gelobe, der Bundesrepublik Deutschland treu zu dienen und das Recht und die Freiheit des deutschen Volkes tapfer zu verteidigen" -- I gave my Oath of Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second in Arawa in Papua New Guinea in December 1971.
Even though I never took a single goose-step "im gleichen Schritt und Tritt", the old German "Marschmusik" still gets me in as it will you, too.
Just turn up the volume!
P.S. They must've heard that I had retired at "Riverbend" because after 55 years the "Bundeswehr" abolished all military conscription in 2011.
