Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Paris
I was assigned to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Photo Division.  This photo was taken when, after having been authorized to handle "Cosmic Top Secret" documents,  I'd read the plans to protect the "Free World" with tactics such as interdicting an anticipated  attack across Northwest Germany by a thousand Soviet tanks by using atomic land mines to create a radioactive death zone from the Baltic to the Alps.  Having been a science-math major at Belmont High and almost majoring in Physics at UCLA (the then-new course in "Astral Navigation" seemed interesting), what little I knew was enough to realize that the "collateral damage" fall-out of such actions would contaminate Germany,  Holland, Belgium, France, et al.  Areas inhabited by some 30 million people would become so radioactive as to be uninhabitable.  To save Europe from Communism we were preparing to destroy it.  In September 1955, after breaking the nose of a drunken sergeant who'd attacked me in the Orderly Room at SHAPE, having demonstrated special ability, I was exiled from France and reassigned to Special Services as an "Entertainment Specialist" at the Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation (BPOE).  There, working nights with the Service Club hostesses, I helped put on dances, invented the "BPOE Theater Society," taught stage design, got the Army to fund my taking soldiers to see cultural masterpieces such as "A Night In Vienna" and "The Merry Widow" at the Bremen State Opera, organized Christmas visits of our soldiers to German homes, and otherwise amused the troops.  In February 1956, accepted as a student for the Doctorate in Social Psychology at the Sorbonne, I was released from active duty 90 days early.  My chief accomplishment during 21 months in the US Army was receiving an honorable discharge despite not having been promoted to even the lowest active duty rank of Private First Class.   I concluded my military career without so much as a single stripe on my shoulder.