THE WALL CAME TUMBLING DOWN !!!

Commemorating the

Fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago today

Honoring those valiant individuals who lost their lives trying to escape to freedom, the courageous ones who realized freedom after successful escapes & the stalwart individuals who defended the isle freedom, Berlin, so deep beyond the Iron Curtain.

I resided in Berlin, West Germany, from Aug 1981-Aug 1985 & then in Stuttgart, West Germany, from Aug 1985-Jun 1988. This experience in West Germany for much of my youth & during such a critical time in history had a lasting impact on me over my lifetime. It was very evident that there was a daily struggle for freedom by individuals in neighboring East Germany that unfolded right before our eyes. In fact the gravity of this struggle for freedom helped forge the individual who I am today. In fact, it's the reason why I chose the current career path that I'm on all these decades later.

A section of No Man's Land I photographed between Checkpoint Charlie & the Reichstag Building in May 1990.

(straddling remnants of the Berlin Wall in May 1990)

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The evening the Wall 'broke open':

I still get goosebumps thinking about this momentous occasion when The Wall came down! I was at West Point walking from my barracks building to the library to conduct some research for a paper I was writing when I heard a rumor that The Wall had come down. I could NOT believe it! I ran to the library in hopes to learn more about the situation and caught a glimpse of CNN where I could see video images of folks dancing around Brandenburg Gate and atop The Wall. What really grabbed my attention was seeing teenagers dancing on The Wall wearing high school letterjackets from the two high schools I attended when I lived in Berlin (John F. Kennedy Schule & Berlin American High School). That was absolutely SURREAL seeing these kids dancing in what had been considered No Man's Land when we resided there.

A view of No Man's Land (the gap of land between the Berlin Wall that separated West Berlin from East Germany as seen from the French Sector of Berlin in May 1990 when I visited the area on a study program as a cadet.

Me doing my part to help 'tear down this Wall!" ;) (May 1990)

The following May (1990), I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in an overseas language training program which allowed me to spend 6 weeks in Berlin. It was absolutely

amazing to be back there, so soon after The Wall had opened. It was unbelievably cool to be able to head freely between West & East Berlin without having to flash identification, to be able to ride the S (Strassen)-Bahn (the street car that would cross between West & East Berlin) that had been forbidden for us when we resided there in the 80s. It was wild to be able to visit a disco in downtown East Berlin. That was absolutely unheard of when The Wall was still standing!

I took this photo of an East German vehicle freely passing through Checkpoint Charlie in May 1990. This would have been absolutely IMPOSSIBLE when The Wall was still up.

Finally, I recall seeing posters advertising the German-American Rodeo & German-American Volksfest plastered all around Aleksander Platz (the big city square in downtown East Berlin). Seeing those posters was when it really sank in that The Wall had fallen for good! ;)

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The Berlin Wall--hoping that it serves as a constant reminder how precious & fragile individual freedom is!