Remembrance of a dark September morning

Eleven years have passed, and the memory is still fresh...

It was a bright, sunny Tuesday morning, much like today...I was off work that day as I had a doctors' appointment...I was finishing my coffee and preparing to leave the house when the news program on TV suddenly showed an image of a smoking tower in New York City...A plane crash, they said...For some reason the reporters kept saying it was a Cessna, but a Cessna couldn't have done that much damage...Then another plane, clearly a passenger jet, entered the screen...then the explosion of fire in the second tower...

Everything seemed a blur after that...Even though I did not know any of the people directly affected by that mornings' atrocities, I carried an ache in my soul for some time after...The thought that so many innocent people could be vaporized by the whim of a madman was sometimes too much to bear...

Of course, the passage of time has tempered those emotions...Life goes on as it should, and it's okay to get caught up in mundane things like the start of a new football season....But on a day like today, it's very easy to remember those who were lost...

Definitely seems as fresh 11 years later , bless all that have served , and all those that have been lost ! Plus all the families of those mentioned !

I posted a thread in the National forum, I was living in New york at the time, and lost several friends in that tragedy. I will always hold this day in vigil for my friends and their families, a day to not be forgotten, and each of us can recall where we were that day and what we were doing.

I clearly remember the day. I was living in Maryland at that time, about an hour and half from DC.

My youngest had just turned 2, and I was taking him into his first day of daycare. The place was huge and very noisy. As I was signing him in, I glanced at a very small b&w tv over the counter. And saw the footage....

I damned near dropped my son in horror.

I had family and friends that worked in the Pentagon, that thankfully escaped unharmed. I rushed home, turned on the news and stayed glued to the TV for the remainder of the day..

The 11th anniversary comes on the heels of me getting the news that my oldest will be deploying to Afghanistan at some point after the new year, to continue the war on terrorism.

Unfortunately, most will never forget the loss of life and destruction

Alisha...xoxo

Alisha, I remember when you told us your son was just off to bootcamp, and you were looking for advice on how to be an army mom! The years do go by, and I will include your son in my thoughts in this new year to come.

I was working as a civilian employee at NSA Mid-South Millington, TN. Where they had just relocated the Bureau of Navel Personnel.

When the second tower was hit, I started making calls to all of my family stationed on the west coast and around the world. We are a military family with at least one member of our family in each of the Branches of Service. Within an hour, 8 members of my family were on alert, and expecting to be sent where ever needed for the US response to the attack. I couldn't go to work for a few days as my base was on lock down. When I finally was called in, my first task was to prepare our "Cold Storage" units. 3 units as big as a football field, to receive and store the dead, pulled from the rubble of the Trade Center, Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, so that they could be preserved as evidence. Getting through the preparation was easy, seeing the bays empty, knowing that they were empty, because the victims were vaporized.... I just couldn't wrap my head around that fact. It still hard to...

All of my family members have rotated to "The Sandbox" 2, 3 and 4 tours since 9-11, and I'm grateful that they have all returned home safe. As such, today will ALWAYS be a day of service for me, of meditation for the loss, and of gratitude for the living....

I heard a report on NPR that "an airplane has been reported as crashing into one of the World Trade Centers Towers." I thought small plane (Piper Cherokee, Beech Bonanza, etc). About a minute later the phone rang and one of my co-workers call. "Dude, somebody just crashed an airliner into the WTC". TV on, conference call and we basically sat in silence. And saw the second plane. I was in shock. And then the first collapse and I started crying for the 50,000 people whom I knew had just died. Right after the second tower collapsed I went out and put up the flag. And saw several of my neighbors doing the same. And the one with a true flag pole was lowering his.

Bullet in the brain? Easy escape. Missile strike from drone? Never expected it. Being slowly buried alive by 300 degree rocks? That's what I'd do to them.

It's not any easier to cry for 2500 than it was to cry for 50,000. And I still do.