I was in the U. S. Army and worked as a clerk in an Army school in the beautiful village of Zell am See, Austria. In the summer it was a summer resort, then when the winter came, it became a ski resort. I soon loved the village and the people that lived there. I knew that if the word got out that I was gay, I could have problems, so I had to be careful. So I became a regular soldier, went to the beer halls with buddies, took girls to bed when I had a chance, went skiing with the gang, went dancing in the local clubs and lived the life of a straight soldier. The local people in the village were great and seemed to accept me and the other soldiers stationed there. I felt at home. The year was l948 and I was 20 years old.

All of that was fun, but I wanted to have sex with a male. When I could afford it, I would take off and visit different places on the weekend. One place I loved to visit on the weekend was Salzburg. It was a wonderful city and I could always find someone to have sex with. I would go to the army hotel and get a room for Saturday night. Then I could cruise the city and hunt for sex and then have a room to take a guy when I found him.

In Salzburg there was a service men's club for the military men to hang out in. It was a place where we could go to relax, read, write a letter, or go to the snack bar. It had been a casino and was in a very elegant building. I would always drop by this building when I was in Salzburg. I found that a lot of gay guys would visit that place. So it was a good place to meet gay guys.

One afternoon I was walking toward the building for lunch at the snack bar. As I was walking down the street, a young boy, maybe l2 years old, asked if he could speak English with me. This would happen often since all of the school children were trying to learn English and this gave them a chance to speak in English. I could tell by the way he was dressed that he was a poor boy, just like I was when I was his age.

We walked and spoke in English and I was enjoying it. When I got to the service men's club, I invited him into the building. We went to the big lounge that overlooked a beautiful park in the back, and found seats for us. We continued our conversation and I asked him if he wanted to join me for lunch. Of course he did! We went to the snack bar and I explained what was available for lunch. It was all new to this fine young man. I had to explain what a "hamburger and fries" were. He broke into a big smile when we got our hamburgers, fries and a Coke. He was so polite and thankful. Then I got him a piece of apple pie with a dipper of ice cream on top. This was heaven to him. To this day, I know that he remembers his lunch with the American soldier. We had our lunch and some other soldiers joined us at our table and he was the star of the crowd. I think he was ready to enlist