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Pink Floyd, The Wall, Berlin and a "Poetic Ending"  by Scott Bruno

Yes, I too welcome the tunes of Pink Floyd when ever they present themselves and when a Pink Floyd fan wisps by my way I welcome them in and ask, have you ever seen Pink Floyd Live? Here's a little story that's quite poetic I begin....

I was a Warrior in the 1st Armored Division NATO W. Germany, serving in the U.S. Army as a Specialist back in 1988-1989 when red alerts in my specialized unit began to come on like wild fire. Nothing like waking up fast at 3am, dressing in "Winter Forest Green Cammo", heading to the Arms room to pick up your selection of goodies for the mission and heading off into the unknown.

I actually began to fall in love with the Arms Room. It was like my large toy box where I could read the "Mission Objectives, Maps and Requirements", grab myPink Floyd, the Wall, Berlin wonderful M-16 A2 with M-203 Grenade Launcher and "Trusty .45 Pistol". The menu of different grenades for my M-203 that I could select from was incredible. Everything from a very large shot gun like blast which carried pachinko game ball sized balls of steal, to HE or High Explosive rounds, to various smoke grenades used for LZ extractions or other messaging and movements with the air support groups and the such. Flare grenades, Phosphorous grenades, blinders, flash bangs and just about every type of grenade conceivable was on that menu for me to choose from. Combine this with my M-60 gunner and his goods, our small arms, a .50 cal, our favorite "Pink Floyd Tapes and Items" and we were ready for action.

We, NATO the U.S.A. and its Allies had spent the good part of 50+ years I think playing war games on this border and reports showed a potential for serious trouble at "The Wall" this time. Though we had alerted to various positions many times before and spent endless days and nights in the bush listening to Pink Floyd waiting for the Wall to come down, and for our mission to become obsolete, for some reason this mission was different. The War the Berlin Wall and Pink FloydDogs and myself hammered down a "Last Call" and headed out!

As usual, a few nights into the mission and we were listening to Pink Floyd, the Wall as we waited for the shit to hit the fan. Then things happened and to this day I cannot really describe in much detail what happened other than to say that it occurred rather quickly and non of us were jeopardized during our missions.

We got word that the people of East Berlin and West Berlin to include the federal folks, employees and soldiers alike began to come together to essentially rip down the wall with their bare hands. There was no more divide between these people as they feverishly tore apart the wall hand in hand as if to show that the power of togetherness was stronger than any wall of divide. Especially a wall that had created so many issues, so much negativity, troubles and death. The news got even better then. Even though we were getting early reports on our next missions which were going to be executed in an entirely different hemisphere, the unbelievable occurred - Saturday, July 21, 1990 is a day I will never forget. Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters & special guests were to perform a charity concert of the classic Live Floyd rock opera, "The Wall," at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany, to celebrate the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

And here is where the poetry began to flow. Our command did NOT want any of us traveling throughout Europe during the time of the concert as threats from various factions against us were running high. To boot, I had fallen in love with a former communist woman from the former Yugoslavia whom fiercely despised communism and embraced the western world and wanted nothing more than to spread Freedom and Democracy. I took my M-60 Gunner Borto, sufficient back up anywhere as he was at 6'4" 190 lbs and in his warrior prime. Borto, Sylvia, my future wife to be and myself headed for Berlin on the day of the concert. We got there plenty early as to #1 visit a portion of the wall that wasn't torn down yet so we could hammer on it and get chunks off and #2 perform our on security scope of the concert grounds. But before our preliminary checks on things it was time to let out some frustration. To this day I have never, EVER, seen Sylvia show so much anger and aggression towards something like she did as she, knowing the dark side of communism perhaps too personally, hammered the wall to hell. Borto and I took our turns hammering and in the end we took home a good 30 lbs of the wall to share with friends and fellow warriors.

It was now time to perform some personal security checks of our own due to the alerts we had been issued and the fact that we had seen skin heads, Eastern Block soldiers and then dodging quickly out of there way to get a cunning yet secure picture with them not even knowing, we caught 5 Soviet Officers passing by us rather closely. I mean come on, what would this trip be without a picture of us with the very soldiers we had trained to kill for so many years huh? You will note that the tall gent in the background is Borto, and no worries, he didn't have any heat in that bag his hand is inside of, really. I am to the right in the background discreetly sharing a peace sign over the unknowing Soviet Officers head. "LOOK MOM!" I've penetrated the Wall with my Peace sign and I'm back in the USSR!

And the poetry flowed on......

The night got darker as the tunes played on and then the poetic Grand Finale' for me occurred. Are you familiar with the Floyd song where the lyrics go... "Ewwwwww I need a Dirty woman.... EEEWwww I need a Dirty Girl!" ??? Well as this song was being played I indeed danced with a dirty woman. An eastern block woman to be exact. She was likely in her mid to late 80's, tired and showed many years of travels and pain in her face tell tale by the looks of her hardened skin and wrinkles. We didn't speak a word, we simply slow danced nice and methodically holding one another, together, to "eeeeeeeew I need a dirty woooman"... and it got darker until finally the song came to an end and I found myself embracing whole heartedly this elderly eastern woman whilst standing on top of the rubble of the wall. The music grew more silent, we looked at each other, shed a few hard held back tears as we gazed hard into each others eyes and walked our separate ways. It was as if all the fighting and planning and hustling and training to fight with these people all came to a HUGE climaxed ending right there however unlike a bloody violent and often like communist climax to the end this ending was gentle, healing and soft spoken.

I hope you liked this story and that it wasn't too too long for you. Perhaps you have to be a true Pink Floyd fan to realize how wonderful a trip this all was. Mission accomplished, freedom reigns true, democracy begins, the west wins.

I can only hope that we can do similar things in the Gaza strip and their "new" fence... and how about the not so "Great Wall" of China? Come on folks, lets place our differences aside, minimize the fighting, and come together for universal peace, love and equality. After all, are you trying to lock yourselves in or lock others out? I don't get it anymore.

To read more about my travels, traverses, photography, musical compilations and art work please visit my website http://www.scottbruno.com.

Much Peace & Love,

A Gentle Warrior

 


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