What I Did When the Wall Came Down

November, 1989

It was a typical fall day in Bavaria, cloudy and windy. I was flying in an OH-58 Scout Helicopter, and there was also an AH-W Cobra attack helicopter with us. Our mission this day was to fly the Southern sector of the West German border. It was supposed to be a normal day, but this day would be the start of a historical weekend.

We start the patrolling; flying right along the border, 100 meters off for the entire "trace". The job of the patrol is to make sure that there are no troop movements or anything untoward. I had been on a lot of these missions, and enjoyed them immensely. The only problem was that the OH-58 helicopter is a small bird, and in strong winds it can be buffeted around quite a bit. This was one of those days.

The day started out well, and the sector trace was going well. We stopped for lunch and fuel at a small city called Vilshofen, and where we sat on the terrace at the airport cafe, we would watch the Danube River. It was beautiful.

Taking off again, we noticed that clouds were coming from the west. we climbed above them and continued on, not thinking anything of it. A while later, we were still above the clouds, and we were beginning to run low on fuel, and needed to begin heading back.

The problem was that we were till above the clouds, and we could noit find a hold to go through. Once cannot just drop through the clouds; in mountainous terrain, if you go through the cloud bank and hit a mountain, your trip is abruply ended.

So we are flying in a certain part of the Border area, hoping to find a hole to drop through. i am getting nervous, as the pilots (who I had flown with dozens of times before) were starting to get nervous as well. I keep loooking at the Fuel lights, and they are consistently dropping. They are still in the "Green" (green lights), but once they turn yellow I knew we might be in trouble, as that means that there is 30 minutes of fuel remaining on board. Army regulations required that when the 30 minute lights came on, the aircraft was required to land as soon as practical.

With concern but not panic, the pilots are talking amongst themsleves and the other bird. They agree that it is becoming an issue. There is simply no holes to drop through anywhere near. At this point we did not have enough fuel to return to our home airfield. The only option at this point was to land at one of the Border camps, of which there were several all along the East/West German and Czech borders. So it was agreed; we would land at one of the camps and request fuel for the following morning.

So, we fly along and hope to land at Camp Gates, and thankfully they find a hole in the clouds. We fly through the holes and unbelievably, we areonly a few minutes from the border camp. We radio in to the camp and tell them that we are going to need beds for 5 men and fuel for the aircraft in the morning. We also have them call the Regimental HQ and tell them what has happened, so our wives can be told that nothing is wrong.

We go into the camp, and we are fed dinner, and we are watching TV. We knew that there had been demonstrations and calls for the end of Communism. Well, that night it officially ended, and the East Germans were on the wall, tearing it down and celebrating.

As we were still on a mission, we were bound by regulations regarding drinking. However, as this historic moment, the Fall of Communism in Germany, the entire Border Camp partied; to the tune of two beers a piece.

After our beers we were given bunks to sleep in, and I went to sleep rapidly.

The next morning, we all woke up early. We were fed breakfast (the border camps prided themselves on the food; it was pretty damn good (I love Army food anyway, but this was good stuff, and lots of it), then taken to our aircraft. The fuel trucks had driven from our airfield, and given the birds the badly needed fuel.

Finally refueled, we boarded up, and started our flight back to our airfield. But, as the border was finally opened, we went out later to monitor and see all the activity along the border. It was amazing; hundreds and hundreds ofcars just crossing and parking, in fields, so they can visit and experience their first taste of freedom in over 3 decades.

I am extremely proud of my service on the border, and even prouder that I was there when it came down.