The State - News from May 1, 1988

Disneyland was the site of a reunion marking the 43rd anniversary of the wartime meeting of an American and a Soviet commander on the banks of the Elbe River in Germany. Vladimir Kabaidze, 64, now a factory manager, commanded a Soviet unit and Frank Parent, a 78-year-old retired geologist, was a first lieutenant in charge of an American infantry platoon. In April, 1945, in the closing months of World War II, the two commanders met and shared a meal, some vodka and songs. When they parted, they wrote their names and addresses on paper money--the only paper they had. Those bills were exchanged once again while the two visited Disneyland. The reunion was arranged by Barney Oldfield, a Los Angeles businessman, who met Kabaidze at a conference in the Soviet Union. When Oldfield heard that Kabaidze would be visiting Orange County with a delegation of Soviet citizens, he contacted Parent, who lives in Texas.