Karmėlava North

The bunkers for the sites with missile hangers are not as impressive as the missile bunkers at Tauragė of course. What kept going through my mind was that according to https://wikitravel.org/en/Lithuania#Cold_war these R-12 (SS-4) sites were later upgraded to SS-20s. Just thinking „SS-20“ brings the 80s back in a rush of images of Ronald Reagan, Gorbachev, Oliver North, Pershing IIs, Pershing Summer. I think both of Petra H. telling me that of course she remembered that year and taking part in the human chain of people across Germany, and of the young Germans I spoke to a year ago who misheard my „Pershing Sommer“ as „Persian Sommer“ and started talking about what they’d read of Pahlavi’s visit and Ohnesorg. When you are born after 1995 the summer of 1983 is indistinguishable from that of 1967. The thing is, I remember both those years. So, SS-20s. They were right here. The concrete has largely given way to sand, grass, moss.

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