September 11, 2008

This day always come. Every year, ever since that horrific day in 2001 this day comes. It may not be marked on your calendar, sometimes we let it slip up on us, but it always comes. This year marks the seven-year anniversary of that fateful day and for me it still doesn't get any easier. Like a lot of people for some reason I feel compelled to recount what I was doing on that day, so let me get to it.

On Sep 11, 2001 I went to work in my usual cube in the same office building that I been working at for less then a year. Having retired from the Army officially in December 1999 I was still new to this civilian world. I was going about my usual job when a co worker mentioned that a plane had flew into the World Trade Center. The assumption at that time was one of the numerous small planes that fly around New York City had gotten into trouble and flown into a building. Sitting in my cube in Atlanta I really didn't give it much more thought. Shortly thereafter I got a call from my wife, sounding very excited and telling me that a plane had flown into the WTC. I told her I had heard, but I still wasn't that excited, not as excited as the almost panic I detected in her voice. She trying very hard to tell me it wasn't an ordinary plane, rather it was jet. Still my mind just went to it was a Lear type jet instead of a propeller type plane. Suddenly there was a gasp, and a Oh my God another plane just flew into the buildings. It was then that she got me to understand that these were regular passenger jets. 7 frickin 47's.

We did not have radios, tvs, or all inclusive Internet access, which always struck me as odd since I was working for a company that was IT oriented. My wife continued to try and paint the picture for me, but of course my mind couldn't grasp the enormity of it. I tried to reassure her, and I guess she finally decided she wasn't going to get through to me or the images she was seeing on the tv were just more then she could describe. For whatever reason we terminated the phone call while other people scrambled to try and find a radio or figure out a way around our corporate firewall to gain access to the Internet. Somebody did find a radio and we found an AM radio station to listen too. I think none of us in that corner of the building, in our own little world still knew the enormity of what had occurred.
Then the first building fell. The voice coming out of that little plastic audio device went silent. After a brief spell of silence, a very quavering, obviously shaken up voice attempted to describe what was happening, but words were failing him.
We continued to listen the rest of the day and heard when the second building fell also.

I completed my 8 hours at work and headed home. It was now all over the radio and as I set in rush hour traffic on the Atlanta perimeter, wishing traffic would clear so I could get home and see the tv. The first time I saw any images from that day was at almost 7 PM EST, 10 hours after the events of that day had been put into action.
The first thing I saw was a 747 making what seemed to be a slow turn back towards the city and making a direct hit on the building.

I sat in silence, suddenly realizing that she had been sitting at home all day watching this unfold while I barely had any real concept of what had happened.
After watching for a while, she turned to me and asked, "Do you think they will call you back?" We knew even then that this would not go unanswered or unavenged. I really didn't know if that would become necessary. I knew that in the past our response had always been to launch a couple of missiles somewhere and consider it done.

This time was different though. Part of it was because of who sat in the Oval Office. Part of it was because of the enormity of this attack.
The next words out of her mouth were, "Even if they don't call you back, are you going to volunteer?"

I could not answer her right then, but we both knew the answer. My job in the Army was Infantry. The Infantry is for young men and at 43 years of age I was no longer a young guy and the almost two years of civilian life without any real work out regime didn't help either.

Well it never came to that, but in the ensuing years I lot of my friends and people who had either served under me or me under them went to fight this war for our country. More then a few of them paid the ultimate price. For the better part of five years that has always gnawed at me. I wasn't in the fight, I wasn't there for those guys. Would some of them be alive if I had gotten back? Would I?

On this day let's never forget what happened and let's take time to honor not only the people in those buildings that lost their life that day but all of those since then who sacrificed to make sure that in spite of everything, you have been able to carry on some semblance of a normal life.

As always on this day I wish to honor a person who while not American born became an American citizen and not only served his adopted country in Vietnam but also gave the last full measure of his life that day in New York City and is credited with saving over 1700 lives. That man is Rick Rescorla. Get to know him.

Have You Forgotten?