1 Heh, yeah, I remember all that too. It was somewhat surreal, being in Germany when all that happened. I'll admit that the fall of the Soviet Union, though, was a bit more interesting from a grunt's point of view. I was hanging out with a friend off post, watching TV, when it all started. Feeling somewhat nervous, and over the objections of his wife, we returned to the barracks, wondering if if there was going to be an alert. There wasn't, probably so we wouldn't make anyone too nervous.

2 I was a little kid during the space race. My mom would keep us home to watch it on TV. I remember sleeping on the floor in my parents' room - where the TV was - the night of the moon landing, so we wouldn't miss out. It was really neat. I was in high school during the late 70's, when Congress sold out Vietnam, and President Malaise sold out the rest of us to totalitarianism. My first Presidential ballot was for Reagan in 1980 (I met GHWB during the primaries at a pancake breakfast in my home town.) I never, ever thought, up until it happened, that the USSR would fall apart so quickly and, mostly, painlessly. Never, ever. God does answer prayer, after all.

3 The big lesson from 89 - the elite was wrong, wrong, wrong. All those brilliant, progressive new age thought leaders were full of shit.

4 I know a lot of people think it's lame, but I was 19 in 1990 when Jesus Jones came out with the the song "Right Here Right Now". It still gives me goosebumps. I'm getting them right now thinking about it. However, the end of Communism was not the end of all global tyrrany. Today is just as imporant a time. Imagine if this really is the point in history when democracy spreads worlwide. This will be the finish of totalitarianism on earth. I hope somebody cool writes a song about it and captures everything correctly. My guess is, they way the left pervades the entertainment world and how they're loathing all these people going free under Republican leadership, we'll have to expect any such song from a country singer.

5 Have Red 6 take you for a drive up to Fulda,then out to the old border OPs. We went on alert when it happened, and I still have my piece of the "single metal grid" fence... Check out the old KP stones (marked the border for the King of Prussia). It was high adventure when the refugees came flooding west, we didn't know if it was the opening moves of WW III or what.... Thank goodness my wife was two weeks late delivering my first born, she was due on the day the border opened.