"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" President Ronald Reagan
It is 1986, and the Soviet Union is five years from collapsing bringing an end to a nearly fifty year standoff with the United States. The differences causing conflict are fundamental. The arms race has ramped up to unbelievable proportions, and both sides are threatening action soon if deeply contentious issues are not resolved. The USSR is also in the midst of a protracted war of conquest in Afghanistan. Leftist groups such as the Red Army Faction (RAF) of West Germany and Action Direct (AD) of France are threatening to attack NATO installations in the Federal Republic of Germany and throughout Europe as they have in the past. Thousands of protestors are surrounding nuclear storage sites and are becoming more aggressive each year. It appears nothing can end this standoff except nuclear annihilation or capitulation by one of the antagonists.
One company of infantry stands between the entire Soviet arsenal and live Pershing II nuclear missiles which are the threat used by President Ronald Reagan as he orders Mr. Gorbachev to "tear down this wall".
In this brutally honest and irreverently funny account, one of the men who stood the perimeter describes what it was like. You will be taken to the field, inside the towers, and out on the town. You will be carried through the two year tour of one very young Infantryman as he arrives in Germany straight out of Infantry School and gradually navigates his way through the mind numbingly tedious and insanely active life of a tower rat. The author pulls no punches; he shares with you his mistakes and his achievements as he earns his way back to "the world". You will live the roller-coaster life that was 2/4 Infantry. You will feel the tremendous toll living in the boiler-pot of the Cold War in Western Europe took on the lives, bodies, hearts, and souls of the young men who volunteered to stand between the Bear and the Eagle. You will also experience the incomparable brotherhood of the Infantry which was only made stronger by the unique conditions in Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment (Pershing). Tower rats were as flawed as they were marvelous. It was a life that, until now, had to be experienced to be fully understood. For possibly the first time, a person who was actually there relates the amazing bond forged in the towers of Waldheide Nuclear Weapons Storage Area. You will see it through his eyes. You will live it.
The Cold War is an often overlooked era of our history. Although it saturated the culture for the second half of the twentieth century, it is often relegated to a footnote at the end of history books. An entire generation of Americans only vaguely remembers hearing something about the Cold War. SAT & BAF: Memories of a Tower Rat is possibly the first attempt to correct that.
