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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 my 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
 Dogs
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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