Greater resonance to you

[bayonetbrant]

Inspired by a discussion at CSW, I'm curious which of these "people always say they remember where they were when _____ happened" events means the most to you personally, and why.

For instance, my parents were still in junior high school when JFK was shot, and I was a few weeks from being born when the Watergate break-in happened.

I remember where I was for the Challenger - eating dinner at a friend's house in Heidelberg on my way to a Motley Crue concert. 
I remember 9-11 very well, too: I was watching on TV at home b/c I was working 2d shift at the time and didn't go in until 2pm. We had *just* come back from Germany that weekend before on a vacation trip, and the only reason we came back when we did was b/c of a Nat'l Guard drill weekend 7-9 SEP. Otherwise, I had enough vacation hours to stay in Germany until 15 SEP or so. Of course, we would've been there 'til October

But the one that resonates most with me is the Berlin Wall. 
I was 16 at the time and back in the states watching on TV at grandparents' house in Louisiana and pleading with my dad to buy me a plane ticket to get over there pronto before I missed all the fun. It was my Jr year of high school and we still had friends all over Berlin I could've stayed with; I speak German and would have had no problem getting around

I had lived in Germany from 83-88, had friends in Berlin, knew German families that were split when the wall went up, learned about the German POV when I was enrolled in their schools for 2 years, had actually pissed on the wall in the Spring of '86 (we were there for a Boy Scout campout), really knew what it all stood for after being immersed in it on the front lines for all those years.

My dad was a dual East- and West-European FAO who worked in the nukes business and later in arms control. I was a fluent German speaking American whose father was a G5 with 56th FA Cmd. I knew if the balloon went up there was no way in hell I was ever getting on a NEO flight and would instead end up working for him in the G5 shop and putting all my local knowledge to use rather than figuring out what to do back in the US.  And the symbol of that conflict was the Berlin Wall.

More than almost any other event in recent world history, that's the one that resonated the most with me, because it was so much a part of the fiber of my being for all those years living in and growing up in the Cold War in Germany, and living it from both the US and German perspectives.

Honestly, it was a bigger deal to me than 9-11, in large part b/c I was paying attention to things like Nairobi, Khobar Towers, the first WTC attack, and the USS Cole. The fact that the Islamonutjobs finally landed a blow on US soil was disheartening, but hardly surprising to me.





I've tried to get some non-US-centric events in here, too, but I know those aren't all 'singular moments' - especially Yugoslavia.  I'm cognizant of the fact that we have a significant Limey contingent that reads our site, but can't help that I'm an American at heart and know those events best.  If you've got an "other" then please explain it for us below.

[Windigo]

9-11, saw it all go down live on TV.... got to work late that day....

[Keunert]

Berlin Wall by far. it signaled a change in the way the world worked since ww2. it was enormous pusher of hopes and dreams. i remember how we all were profoundly moved and cried. it was so incredibly positive, it united eastern europe and western europe again.

[republic]

Mine was the 1991 televised bombing of Baghdad.  The idea that this was a live invasion being broadcast directly to me...seemed creepy and Orwellian.

The air raid sirens and that early night vision footage of the tracers firing wildly into the air still stick with me.

[bob48]

For me, as a Brit, the Falklands War had a big impact and we followed the events almost as they happend.

After that, I guess it was 9-11. It was such a horrific event and I can clearly remember the wife and I watching the news footage and us both being in tears.

After that, the wall coming down was pretty astounding and offered such hope for the future.

All the other events have memories. Saigon because I had followed the war on TV, but maybe the footage of the Tet Offensive, and the battle for Hue had a bigger impact on me than the fall of Saigon.

[LongBlade]

Tiananmen Square.

I was in school over the summer and attended a rally organized by several Chinese exchange students. They were horrified that the budding democratic movement that had swept the rest of the world was being crushed in Beijing. I can remember guys who were members of the Communist Party resigning over it.

I also remember chatting with an acquaintance about it, and he (somewhat conspiratorially) confided he didn't think it was a good idea to resign your membership even if you didn't like what was happening.

Turns out, he was probably right, considering the ruthlessness used to crush the movement and the endurance of the regime. Such a great opportunity lost. What a shame.

[LongBlade]

Berlin Wall by far. it signaled a change in the way the world worked since ww2. it was enormous pusher of hopes and dreams. i remember how we all were profoundly moved and cried. it was so incredibly positive, it united eastern europe and western europe again.

The night the wall came down I was in a bar. Tons of drunk, noisy kids in there and *none* of them gave a rip.

I couldn't figure out why, except that youth, alcohol, and hormones will trump international politics pretty much any day of the week.

[besilarius]

For me it was the Kennedy assassination.  My school was seven blocks from the White House in downtown DC.  Next door was a building with a bomb shelter for 800 people.  Kept expecting to hear the sirens to go into the bomb shelter.  Knew that the Sovs kept one missile sub in the central Atlantic, and that bombers could come over the Pole and from Cuba.
We all practiced some duck and cover.

[Steelgrave]

9\11

Like most of us, I remember that morning in great detail. We were stationed in Alaska, up and getting ready for work when the first airliner hit. We were stunned, watching the news, then the second tower was hit. It was probably one of the most emotional days of our lives, aside from deaths in the family, and I remember how stunned we felt the rest of the day, in between bouts of sorrow and anger.

[Staggerwing]

I'd have to say 9/11 because I also watched it on TV as it was happening. I had a day off and my (not-yet)exwife called me from work and asked what was going on so I turned on the TV just in time to watch the second plane hit the WTC. I thought I was watching a replay of the crash but couldn't understand why there was already so much smoke coming from the other tower. Then I realized that I was watching a live broadcast.

Later on, when I saw the reports about the third plane hitting the Pentagon I knew that things would never be the same again.



Berlin Wall would be a close second since I grew up in an East-West Paradigm.

[TheCommandTent]

9-11 for me.  Was sitting in Economics/Politics class in highschool when another teacher ran in and told us to turn the news on.  Saw the second plane hit and the towers come down live.  I had always enjoyed history and learning about the world but that event really reinforced the my desire to learn about why they world is the way it is and what has gone on before us that impacts us now and in the future.

[LongBlade]

Could be I've erased some of 9/11's trauma from memory. I do recall we were all pretty freaked for a while, too.

[Gusington]

9-11 for me because I was in Manhattan about 1/2 a mile from the World Trade Center. Those of you who know me know I don't need to get into it any further than that.

[Staggerwing]

^ You, of all of us, must have the deepest memory etchings. I wish you didn't.

[Gusington]

Me too.