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.