Saturday, September 11

Remembering 9/11

After the fall...
        That day nine years ago, it was late at night for me.  I was on deployment half a world away on the aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, just a couple hours from entering the Persian Gulf.  When I saw the scenes unfold on CNN, I remember thinking it couldn't be real.  As bad as I am with my memory, I still have no trouble recalling all those mixed feelings I had on that first night.  The confusion, the fear, the anger, the sorrow.  So many innocent people's lives ended or torn apart in one day.  But we knew it was real when we were ordered away from the Gulf to head toward the North Arabian Sea.  The word hadn't come down at the time, but we were at the front line of the war to come.
        We spent weeks cut off from our families, from any communication, so when the orders finally came to bomb away, it was almost a relief.  I later found out my husband and children were scared for my well-being, but I never felt like I wasn't safe.  I was worried for them.  In my mind, after seeing the attacks, they were a likelier target than my battle group armed more heavily than most countries on Earth. 
        What I took away most from all of it afterward was an unshakable confidence.  Despite any horrible events we may face, I know our strength as a country comes from all of us together.  You could hit our Pentagon, our major economic centers, even our White House or all of Capitol Hill, but that's not where the heart of America is at.  We wouldn't crumble, and we wouldn't weaken.  We mourn, and then we rebuild...

...we start anew.

6 comments:

  1. You are right about our strength and resiliency.
    I remember seeing a side by side photo of a residential street. On the left it showed a tight row of houses and said "Before 9/11." On the right were those same houses, every one of them bearing the American flag, and the words "After 9/11." We were a united country.

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  2. *salutes*
    Thank you for your service. Thank you for posting this.

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  3. It was such a horrific moment in time. I don't think the memories will ever fade. "We start anew" - I like that.

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  4. I am not an American but can still vividly recall the horror of that day and its effect all around the world. I still recall my other half picking me up from work and going home to watch the terrible events of that day unfolding. I remember a few days later the five minute silence at my place of work and shedding tears with the people around me. But I also knew that the people of American would not be beaten or driven apart and I salute you all for your faith in yourselves and eachother.

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  5. Thank you for sharing your personal account Angela.
    I was married to an AF Sargeant, Forward Air Control. During Mt St Helens, I never knew when he'd come home, or how long he'd stay. On one of the rescue missions, they opened the back of a truck and found all the troops had suffocated. That scared me more than the devastation of the mountain.
    I understand the pain and uncertainty your family went through, being unable to contact you, or know for certain you were safe.
    But I appreciate your confidence in yourself, your unit, and our country. I wish the people of our nation were still as unified as they were during that crisis. A by-product of the "starting new" concept; having to put the past behind us a bit to embrace the future.
    I cherish your memory here, and applaud your service to our country, especially during that time.
    Thank you.
    ........dhole

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  6. Thank you for sharing your experience of that day. It's humbling.

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