9-11: Never Forget

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You know, that is one day that will live forever in my memory.

I got up, turned on the television (at the time, I was active duty Navy, and watching the news was one of my quirks), jumped into the shower and got ready for a new day.

I stepped out of the shower, toweling myself off, and saw that a plane had crashed into one of the WTC towers. I then thought to myself that someone was a really bad pilot, or that something had gone seriously wrong. I then saw the second plane crash into the towers, and I thought that this was an attack.

I then got dressed in my uniform quickly, and got to MEPS to find out what was going on. There was a lot of confusion, and there were conflicting messages coming out. We then saw that the Pentagon had a plane crash into it, and knew it was an attack. They got all the people out of MEPS and had their recruiters come pick them up, then sent the rest of us home.

I spent the next few hours at home, watching my TV and trying to understand what had happened. Yeah, I remember what happened back then.

Only thing is, I'm scared another attack might happen on this 9/11. We have a confused nation, and we are all divided. Something a terrorist might try to exploit.
 
Anyone who would politicize this horror is really from the bottom of the barrel. The road by the Pentagon was my usual route to work. I was late because of what was happening, and wondering whether I should go to work in downtown DC. When the floor shook under my feet as I was brushing my teeth and I heard a tremendous explosion, I knew, but we still didn't know where the fourth plane was heading. I often wonder what it would have been like to be on that road and look to my left to see a plane coming at me. I went to the local hospital, gave blood, and sat around waiting to volunteer in the ER, until I realized that the victims from the Pentagon were being taken to other hospitals that had major burn units.

This was all that I could do, a tiny fraction of what was needed that day. But I had an aunt who served in the USAF who was a nurse, including in Vietnam, and I remembered her saying that it was okay to cry when something bad happens, but you had to get up and do something about it, even if it was just a very small thing.

Do not forget 9/11. That was a day full of heroes, and I'm not included. But none of us who had even the slightest connection to it ever will. Don't politicize it. Don't trivialize it.
 

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