November 9th, 1989 - a day that changed not only Germany but the world. It was the day the Berlin Wall finally came down.
"It was a really emotional, truly historical moment that my generation was able to witness," said Volker Samanns, a colonel in the German Air Force out of Fort Bliss.
Growing up in Koln, West Germany, he never imagined the free society he grew up with and the oppressive state to the east coming together...until one day.
"My family called me and said there are great things going on in Germany," said Samanns. "The wall is going down. I said, well, this is a joke."
Stationed in El Paso, Samanns took a flight for East Germany the very next day. And even though the signs, the language, and the people were all German, Samanns says it was a totally different place.
"I recall going into a shop and trying to buy some coffee and the people looked at me like I was a man from the moon or something like that."
Dirk Wolfram's experience was a little different. A captain in the German Air Force, he was raised in Leipzig, East Germany. Wolfram says not having basic human rights made life behind the iron curtain miserable.
"Most of the people are under oppression, couldn't believe that they are unfree and couldn't travel around the world," said Wolfram.
Then as he was watching tv one day, a government leader made the announcement that all border crossings would be open. "We went on the train and traveled to Berlin and crossed the border. And there was a big party."
For Wolfram, the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the end of a dark period and the start of a new era...not only in Germany, but in Europe and all over the world.