On this day...

Maj. Kristi Beckman is the Chief of Social Media for European Command Public Affairs

I’m sitting here at work in Stuttgart, Germany, looking out at the snow. Well, I guess I’m not looking at it now as I’m typing, but you get the picture. It’s not sticking yet, but I think it just might. It was just a few months ago that I was running along the water in Tampa, Florida, and it was 80 degrees. It is interesting adjusting to the cold so quickly here! Brrrr!

That being said, I am loving it here in Germany. To this day, I’m in awe that I get the privilege to work and live here as a U.S. military member with my family at U.S. European Command. It’s amazing to think about where our world was just 20 years ago.

If you don’t know, then you are hiding under a rock somewhere, but today marks the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Just turn on any news channel and you will see the stories. I was in high school in Virginia when the wall fell and while I watched it on the news and understood it was a big deal, I didn’t really understand the impact it had. That one event marked the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and forever changed our world.

To think about how this wall went up in the first place is unbelievable as tens of thousands of people in East Germany were instantly cut off from their jobs in West Germany and countless families were separated. Can you imagine the fear and desperation?

When the wall finally fell on Nov. 9, 1989, there were many U.S. servicemembers serving in West Germany who witnessed that event and got to see the East Germans reuniting with family and friends in West Germany. It must have been an overwhelming experience to be there. Even today, I can’t help but get chills as I watch the newscasts replay this history and hear the accounts from the people who were there.

If you were there or have a good story to tell about the fall of the Berlin Wall and what this meant to you, please share!