I remember crying with my fellow NCOs at the MCAS Beaufort enlisted club.
We'd all had friends die in aircraft crashes, accidental shootings, and falling overboard from the ship...
And we were seeing the victory played out before us.
It was the longest war...and the most important.
I still remember watching Reagan's Berlin speech in 1987.
"Mister Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!"
With those few words, the world changed. I remember shivering. It's not often that you get see a moment where the world changes for the better.
Consider this: President Reagan won the Cold War. The man he defeated, Jimmy Carter, successfully ended the scheduling problems at the White House tennis court..
Perhaps, but the day he WON the war was when he stood firm at the Iceland summit. He did NOT give up SDI, and that was the day we won.
Although an equally compelling case is that his first GREAT decision was his choice of Bill Casey as CIA Director. Casey was the best we ever had at Langley - we sure could use someone like him now.
I remember crying with my fellow NCOs at the MCAS Beaufort enlisted club.
I was on duty in a quonset hut at Camp Tamez, Cubi Pt, Phillipines, watching the historic event on AFRTS, (Armed Forces Radio/Television Service). Coincidentally, I was on WESTPAC there with a squadron from MCAS Beaufort.
I felt an enormous sense of pride in our nation that day, but being a Marine, I'll never admit to crying. ;^)