The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: txradioguy on June 13, 2012, 12:47:47 AM
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[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWDrTXMgF8[/youtube]
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent-- and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens. To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion. So we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides.
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On that day I was at Tempelhof Air Base in West Berlin after having played his arrival ceremony earlier that morning. Had to contend with the Secret Service and the bomb-sniffing dogs around our equipment and instrument cases. (None of 'em peed on my leg.) Had to wait around to play him back out again.
Reagan made his speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which was actually behind the Berlin Wall. This was the one of the premier spots to see the evils of communism, the other being at Checkpoint Charlie. There was no band support at the speech location -- only at Tempelhof for his arrival and departure ceremonies.
I had front rank privileges while he inspected the troops. Reagan was a tall guy - taller than the Commander of Troops, who was the Berlin Brigade Commander, a brigadier general.
Kinda cool to be a part of all that.
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Wow Euph. That is a great story. I remember that day vividly. My brother went to Wurzburg for a summer college course, and brought me back a part of that wall. I love that.
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Wow Euph. That is a great story. I remember that day vividly. My brother went to Wurzburg for a summer college course, and brought me back a part of that wall. I love that.
I oughta tell you the story of the ceremony in which we gave away Checkpoint Charlie (which was not much more than a small travel trailer set down in the middle of Friedrichstrasse -- in order to go to East Berlin, you had to process through the MPs in the trailer) to the Berliners.
Playing the National March (Stars and Stripes Forever), minding my own business pretty much off in La-La land (it's a head tune), and some guy comes over and sticks a video camera in my face -- literally 2 inches away from my nose.
It was a little unsettling, but I just continued playing and did my best to ignore it.
A few years later, I was in a different assignment taking a college class (in German) when the professor looked at me kinda funny and said, "Ich habe Dich zu Hause" (I've got you at home.) WTF?
It turned out he had a copy of the video in which my mug was presented for a full minute right at the opening credits. It was a German documentary of Reunification and the prof had bought a copy of the tape for his own collection.
Needless to say, I got an "A" in the class. :-)
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I oughta tell you the story of the ceremony in which we gave away Checkpoint Charlie (which was not much more than a small travel trailer set down in the middle of Friedrichstrasse -- in order to go to East Berlin, you had to process through the MPs in the trailer) to the Berliners.
Playing the National March (Stars and Stripes Forever), minding my own business pretty much off in La-La land (it's a head tune), and some guy comes over and sticks a video camera in my face -- literally 2 inches away from my nose.
It was a little unsettling, but I just continued playing and did my best to ignore it.
A few years later, I was in a different assignment taking a college class (in German) when the professor looked at me kinda funny and said, "Ich habe Dich zu Hause" (I've got you at home.) WTF?
It turned out he had a copy of the video in which my mug was presented for a full minute right at the opening credits. It was a German documentary of Reunification and the prof had bought a copy of the tape for his own collection.
Needless to say, I got an "A" in the class. :-)
Love it! I have a picture of my Mom and Aunt in front of that gate, Mom was pregnant with me at the time. Born in Bitburg, I was.
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Love it! I have a picture of my Mom and Aunt in front of that gate, Mom was pregnant with me at the time. Born in Bitburg, I was.
Ah, way out west. Bitburger Pils wasn't my fave, though. Those guys out west oughta just stick with making wine. They can't make beer worth a damn.
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I wasn't allowed in Berlin, but I did see Reagan once when AF1 made an unscheduled stop at Ramstein Air Base. My courier orders got me past the AP.s but I knew better to try it with the Secret service. :p
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797 Years Ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta)