This Veterans Day week also marks the celebration of another set of American heroes : The men and women who put their shoulders to the Berlin Wall and pushed - until it finally fell 20 years ago this Monday.
Where did we get these men and women? From all across America and everywhere freedom and human dignity are valued.
For although the revolution in Eastern Europe occurred without a shot being fired, countless Americans - not to mention Britons, Germans, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Hungarians - sacrificed for that day.
Before there was a wall in Berlin , there was the Berlin blockade in 1948, when the Communist regime in Moscow tried to literally starve West Berlin to death. President Harry S. Truman ordered an airlift to feed West Berliners and resist Soviet aggression. Seventy-one American and British servicemen lost their lives.
And before there was a victory for freedom, 20 years ago this week, there were unflinching advocates for freedom in Eastern Europe like Ronald Reagan and John Paul II