When I was stationed at Werl, near Dortmund in 1982, our base was guarding Lance missiles and inside our base, there was a US base with 50 US soldiers stationed there.
One day, a US soldier came to our compound to get something (I don't recall) and I served as an interpreter. I also asked him (he seemed more cultivated than the average soldier) why he chose to join the army (I was drafted, he wasn't). He said the great thing about being in the army is that you get to travel a lot, see many things, meet many people from various cultures. He'd travel around Europe with his VW whenever possible.
I don't ever recall having been harrassed by pacifists at the time. They were loud but that's because they were a minority. Certainly, the officials' views were always in favor of NATO.

Raoul