Brazil

I Decided To Write This Book Because I Enjoyed My Time In Brazil So Much That I Wanted To Share It With Others. When I Finished My Tour In The Office Of The Chief Of Naval Personnel I Wanted To Get Out Of The Rat Race In Dc. I Requested An Assignment As A Defense Attaché. My Detailer Gave Me Three Choices For An Attaché Assignment. They Were Yugoslavia Chile Or Rio De Janeiro Brazil. I Was Not Interested In Yugoslavia But Chile Interested Me Until I Found Out Two American Teenagers Had Been Doused With Gasoline And Set On Fire In Chile During A Demonstration. I Chose Rio As My First Choice. Prior To Going To Brazil I Received A Year Of Brazilian Language Class In Washington Dc. My Family Was Living In A Home Next To My Wife’S Mother’S Home In Battle Lake Minnesota Which Is A Small Town In Northern Minnesota. I Lived In Bachelor Officers’ Quarters (Boq) In Us Naval Activity Anacostia Virginia A Suburb Of Washington Dc. The Boq Was On The Columbia River So I Decided To Try My Hand At Fishing For Catfish. When I Caught My First Catfish I Filled It And Fried It. I Tasted Awful So I Stopped Fishing For Catfish. The Officer’S Club Next To The Boq Had A Band Every Wednesday Night That Imitated The Blues Brothers. I Had To Go Early To Get A Seat At The Bar To Watch The Show. The Club Was Always Full For The Show. A Great Time Was Had By All. One Of My Teachers Named Marissa At The Portuguese Language School Had Red Hair And Did Not Look Like A Brazilian Like The Other Teachers. I Asked Her About It And She Told Me She Was From A Small Town In Southern Brazil That Was Settled In By Germans After The Second World War. The Language Instruction Included A One-On-One Session Every Day. I Was Able To Request Marissa. She Was Very Patient With Me And I Learned To Speak Portuguese Fairly Well. Once A Week The Students And Teachers Would Bring A Dish From Their Native Country. I Decided To Make Bruschetta A Dish Of Toast With Tomatoes And Olive Oil Which I Had Learned To Make When We Were Living In Italy. When I Made The Toast In The Boq I Made Some Smoke Which Set Off The Fire Alarm. We Had To Evacuate The Building Until The Firemen Had Arrived By A Fire Truck To Check Out The Cause Of The Alarm Going Off. I Did Not Tell Anyone That I Caused It Making Toast. One The Weekends I Worked For A Local Company That Took Children And Teenagers Skiing. We Rode From Washington Dc To A Variety Of Mountains In West Virginia. I Enjoyed Skiing With Older Better Skiers As They Did Not Need A Lot Of Instruction. I Also Skied A Lot With A Cia Agent Who Had Taught The Greek Army To Ski. He Skied On Long Skis In The Austrian Style. I Bought Some Long Skis Like His And To This Day They Are The Only Skis I Am Comfortable With. Skiing Every Weekend Got Me In Great Shape. I Lost A Lot Of Weight Getting Down To 180 Pounds Which Is What I Weighed When I Graduated From High School. In Order To Get Around Dc I Bought A 1963 Fiat Convertible Which Was Literally Falling Apart. I Used The Garage On The Us Naval Activity Anacostia To Repair The Various Wrong Things With The Car. I Welded A Sheet Of Aluminum To The Floor Of The Car Which Had A Large Hole In It. I Also Had To Repair Both Front And Back Bumpers. The Fiat Did Not Have A Heater So One Snowy Winter Day I Tried To Drive It Back To Anacostia From Language School. I Got So Cold That I Finally Drove Off The Main Road In Alexandria Virginia Toward The Metro Station. I Drove As Far As I Could And Parked The Car Alongside The Street In A Snowbank. I Walked To The Metro And Took It Back To Anacostia. After Language School I Attended An Attaché Training At The Defense Intelligence Institute On The Us Air Force Base Next To The Naval Activity. After I Completed Language Training I Attended Defense Attaché At The Defense Intelligence Agency (Dia). The Dia Is The Central Producer And Manager Of Foreign Military Intelligence For The United States. As One