Airborne!

This is coolbert:

Every now and then you read some apocrypha [stories of dubious authenticity] that makes you pay notice.

But that is all that it is, apocrypha.

The consequences of these apocrypha could be profound, however, most of the time you have no way of confirming or denying.

During the time the Soviet Union existed, apocrypha stories about the Soviets and their military capabilities used to abound.

Two stories bear that out.

* In the book "Deep Black", the authors claim that scattered throughout the Soviet Union were 250 buildings the size of the Pentagon!!

Found through analysis of photos taken by U.S. recon satellites.

Purpose of these buildings was not resolved.

Believed to be the locations members of the communist party, their families, and other members of the Soviet elite would flee to in case of nuclear war with the U.S.

Now, estimates were made of how much each of one these structures would have cost in U.S. dollar. Mind you that these were buildings made of hardened concrete. It was estimated that just one building would have cost $500 billion dollars to build in U.S. dollars. And that is just one building.

* Another apocrypha from the Soviet Union relates to an incident that supposedly occurred in 1979 or thereabouts. It was alleged that five Soviet airborne divisions departed en masse from the Soviet Union, flew from Soviet air space to Ethiopia, disembarked with their impedimenta, and then returned to their home bases sans impedimenta.

The route they took to reach Ethiopia was down over the Persian Gulf, into the Indian Ocean, and onto Ethiopia, flying heedlessly over the restricted airspace of unnamed nations, who protested to no avail.

And what was the alleged reason for leaving behind all their equipment? To equip a supposed multi-national army-sized unit of Libyans, Ethiopians, and Palestinians that had recently been trained by communist advisors. That army-sized unit numbering 40,000 troops total.

Any truth to this stuff? Who knows?

coolbert.