"All white sodas, like Sprite and Mountain Dew. Then you add a whole lot of white liquors, like gin and vodka. Just mix it all up and you got Tiger P**s." Corporal Sidney Will manned the weapons room. He was from Sacremento, California and had a ready smile. And he knew how to mix drinks.

"Sounds good. I'll have me some." As I sipped my first glass, I looked at the inside of the World War II bunkers we were partying in. It was rumored that none other than Adolph Hitler hid in these rooms at the end of the big war.

The entrance to the bunkers was a solid metal door in the side of a hill. If the door had been round, it would have reminded me of a hobbit's home. But it was typically rectangular.

The floors, walls, and ceilings were bare, cold, grey cement, each room joined by a doorless entrance. The bare rooms measured roughly 7 meters by 10 meters. Each room was crowded with partying soldiers this night, ready to kick back and celebrate good  times after a week of field duty.

I was stationed in southern Bavaria, a few kilometers from Landstuhl, where Hitler was imprisoned during the 1920's. Augsberg was a few kilometers the other direction. Our company was situated out in the middle of nowhere. So we created our own entertainment.

I was in the service during the calm before the storm. The eight-year war between Iran and Iraq had just ended. The U.S. ousting of Manuel Noriega, strongman of Panama, had not yet happened. The 1990 Gulf War was a couple of years away.

I drank so much Tiger P**s that I blanked out. I was still conscious though. Later on, several of us drove to a nearby pub and mixed with the locals. I was drunk enough to irk some of the German girls on the dance floor. To this day, I cannot remember what I did to tick them off that night.

The following year would see the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East and West Germany. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was just a hope and a dream that drunken night in Bavaria.

More than one soldier overdid it and threw up after the party. By mid-1990, everyone stationed there was sent to the Middle East to kick Saddam Hussein, our former 'ally,' out of Kuwait. Some of my friends and companions helped make history during the first Gulf War.

Soldiers are neither saints nor sinners. They are souls trying to find their path through this trip we call 'life.' Thank God for soldiers and vets who give their lives to safeguard our borders.