Moscow Olympics Spotting Scope

[Gaijin]

I n late 1980 I was working as Military Police Officer in the Military Police Investigations section (plainclothes criminal investigations) at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio , Texas.

Coincidentally at Ft. Sam Houston was also at the time the headquarters for the U.S.A. Olympic Modern Pentathalon team. The Modern Pentathalon is an Olympic event consisting of swimming, running, equestrian events and shooting/marksmenship.

They had a big event there for the Modern Pentathalon and members of the Chechoslovakian team were going to be present for the competition. Myself and my partner were assigned to follow them around and provide them with protection if needed but also we were given instructions on what do if any of them wished to defect.

When they got used to having us around for the week, two of them approached my partner and I. They asked if they could sell us items to get money to buy a few things in America. They were flat broke. I really did not want to buy anything from them, but I was pretty sympathetic to them needing money. I offered to just give one of them a few bucks but he would not hear of it. So one of them sold a complete set thier Olympic sweat suits to my partner and the other guy offered to sell me the item below.

It is a spotting scope to be used when shooting to check your targets downrange. It has the emblem from the Moscow Olympics on it and the guy told me he used it in Moscow at the Olympics. On the other side was the emblem for the Chech Democratic Republic (or whatever it was called during the Cold War.)

As most Western countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics I know that I am probably the only if not one of the few Westerners to have one of these scopes. For those of you in the know who do some shooting, is this worth anything? I'd like to sell it. Is there a market for something like this?

Thanks for any help. Pics below.