I'm sure everyone reading this blog can vividly remember where they were when our nation was attacked on September 11, 2001. I was asleep at home, having worked my usual night shift delivering gasoline for a local oil company where I live. I woke up to the TV blaring from the living room and wondered why my wife had it turned up so loudly while I was trying to sleep. She told me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in NYC. I figured it was a small Cessna or the like, but then almost immediately there were reports of the Pentagon being hit and later, another plane went down in Pennsylvania. It was clear that these were passenger filled jumbo jets, not Cessnas.
I remember picking up my daughter from
pre-school that day, (she's almost 19 now and in college) and watching the kids come out of the door, not having a clue as to what happened and not being able to understand it anyway. I was soon called in to work earlier than normal as the terrorist attacks had caused panic all across the country with everyone making runs on gas stations. The supply chain couldn't handle that and gas stations started to run out of fuel, therefore causing the situation to spiral downward, causing even more panic.
My life was directly affected from that event. Less than a year after 9-11, my National Guard unit was activated for federal service to secure various strategic locations around the Washington D.C. region for one year. A few years later, I was sent to Iraq as part of the "Surge" which was indirectly related to 9-11. The events on 9-11 caused me to spend two years away from home in service to my nation.
I'll always remember the brave first responders in New York and Virginia who rushed in when everyone rushed out. They are the true heroes of that day and for awhile, our country was able to see who the important people were and how insignificant athletes, TV personalities and movie stars really are.
I feel sorry for children who were born after 9-11 or were very young when it happened as my three children were. They never knew our country as it was before and it was a different place then. It was a better place then...