November 1989. Something was happening in Berlin. It had been building up for weeks. Little snippets on the TV. Here and there short reports on the radio and in the papers. Now, it was finally happening. The Wall was being breached. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I surfed back and forth between the TV channels; BBC to CBS, back to BBC, then to ABC and NBC. All the major stations had reports and current video of people surging towards the Wall, climbing it, hitting it with sledge hammers. I continued flipping between channels, staring in amazement at the wondrous sights I was seeing.

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(© Peter W. Liander, German Embassy)

I strained my memory back more than two decades to when I had lived in Berlin on the “Uncle Sam Plan.” I had seen the Wall up close and personal many times and had gone through it on pass to the Russian sector and as part of military convoys to the “Zone” for maneuvers

I thought, “what the Berliners are doing now would have gotten them shot when I was there.” Even soldiers wearing the uniform of the occupying powers kept their distance from the VoPos on the other side.

While driving to the firehouse a feeling of elation came over me. I was so happy for the Berliners, East and West. Now they would be whole again. I couldn’t help but thinking, “is this the end of MAD?”

At the firehouse that night I kept changing the TV channel to a news station, any news station. I tried to explain to my brother firefighters what it was like to live in a city that was divided. How that if you took the wrong subway you could set off an international incident. How serious everyone was at the checkpoints. I gave up trying and took my turn at watch. Waiting for the fire dispatcher to call us. It gave me time to remember how much Berlin was like the East side of Manhattan that I grew up in and how being stationed in Berlin was like being stationed in New York City. There was the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn, buses and taxicabs. Similar to home, easy to for a city boy like me to figure out. There was nightlife and parades and even pizza.

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(© Peter W. Liander, German Embassy)

After my watch was over I returned to the kitchen. I had the TV to myself now. The reports about Berlin were fewer and the pictures were starting to repeat. I didn’t recognize any of the scenes in the videos, just shots of the wall, taken mostly from the West. I wished there was someone to share this momentous occasion with, but I had lost contact with the guys I had served with and had long since stopped writing to the few civilians I had made friends with. It would have been nice to have had a currywurst behind McNair and then go to the Kudamm and lift a glass of Berliner Weisse to celebrate.

The falling of the Berlin Wall was part of the ending of the Cold War and with it came major changes in the relationship between the United States and Europe. In 1989 I was on the final leg of my career as a US Army Reservist. The reserves dovetailed nicely with my full time job as a New York City fireman. I helped to plan REFORGER missions, and our goal was ten divisions in ten days.

Needless to say, with the reunification of Germany there was no longer any need. Shortly after the Wall fell I got caught up in the RIF, missed out on a promotion, had to retire a little earlier than I would have liked. That being said, I wouldn’t have had the Cold War be extended one more day. We are so lucky it never went hot.