Seems like statistics would help figure out if it was coincidence. What are the odds that ~6 months worth of daily crossword answers will contain 6-7 specific commonly used words?
I recall seeing "Charlie Chaplin's wife" ("Oona") almost once a month. Get yourself painted into a corner? Oona.
I'd say it was selection bias.
Wikipedia, and all the journalists recently covering the story, take all his assertions at face value and don't seem to question whether it's a simple spotlight-seeking tall tale.
It seems like he told his story after everyone who could corroborate or disprove it was already dead.
He did say he was wearing a uniform (albeit, I assume, a British one) and most of those soldiers were basically kids anyway, so maybe he really did just walk in there and nobody noticed. Does sound pretty wild, though.
I grew up in a small village just a few kilometers from the Iron Curtain. At one of the heights of the cold war, during the big NATO manoeuvres in the early 80s we had often American camps next to the village. After school or during weekends we kids went to the camp every day. I remember that we secretly brought beer (as a present) to the GIs so that their officers didn't notice and that I played chess with them in their tents.
So the part of the story about kids wandering around military camps sounds pretty convincing to me.
So, now you kids today know another reason why we old timers are like we are.
I didn't do exactly this, but I will admit now, 25 years later that I collected unused cartridges after military exercises and brought loads of them in my bag at the plane :-)
Edit: missed the roman goddess not alaska town bit my fault