Members of the Military

[Dave]

Seriously? I find it very strange. The Coast Guard Academy even posts a picture of a cadet with a Soviet beskozirka on this site:

I would venture to bet that the Coast Guard cadet in that photo is a Russian exchange student - a member of the Russian military, and that is probably HIS hat.

Dave

[DougD]

Quite a few of my clients served in the US armed forces, or are serving...including a top US General who is in washington right now (i will not use his name)...

dd

[Sergei]

Now, I do think that the attractive female who dressed up as an Austin Power's fembot got a little more attention than me and my uniform...

I would be extremely worried if it were the other way round

But I also accept Desantnik's point. Even though I never did active service and am now living in the UK, I remember vividly a manual my father (an army officer) showed me once a long time ago, the booklet entitled Strategic Missiles of the Potential Enemy. No wonder all of the rockets in the pictures were 'made in the USA'. In an environment like this, displaying your fascination with the memorabilia of the 'potential enemy' can become kind of unpopular in the barracks. Mind you, Soviet officers did not use to have Halloween parties.
Sergei

[Kirchgoens]

I entered the Army as a 2LT in 1988, and was assigned to the 3d Armored Division in '89 for three years, most of it spent as an Artillery forward observer team leader. In the summer of '89, I did a trip to Berlin by way of the Helmstedt Autobahn. I got to do Checkpoints Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie on flag orders. It was a GREAT experience. I also did unit terrain walks through my battle positions in the Bad Hersfeld area, went through middle-of-the-night alerts, and dreaded the day the "balloon" might go up. I now live as an expat in former Soviet Central Asia, and I find it amazing that I can collect the artifacts of what was THE boogie man of my childhood and early adult years. The Soviet Union fascinates me.

[Jeffrey Meffert]

Before I got into Soviet memorabilia, I collected third Reich. I got tired of explaining that I really, really, really was not a Nazi and ultimately sold out all my SS and NSDAP related items while hanging on to more personal Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe items. That helped a great deal with that. Politically I am a socialist so now I have to explain to friends in the know that I really, really, really am not a communist/stalinist or any such. It's just "spoils of war".
I used to keep stuff (nothing really valuable) in my offices at military hospitals before I retired but no one ever said anything to me negative about them. On the other hand, I was a Colonel, and what could they say?