Today is a day of rememberence. We remember watching our fellow Americans die unexpectantly and horrifically. We remember how ordinary citizens become heros and we remember how a country of diversity and differences becomes a nation of one. I remember being on a training operation in southern Mississippi as a Naval Instructor. I had 86 students training them on how to properly fire and utilize one of our many weapons in our TOA (Table of Allowance). The towers are hit and reports start flooding the radio as we are waiting to be cleared for fire by Range Control. The only call we recieved was telling us to get off the range we had been recalled to our base. A student came up to me and informed me his dad was an officer in the Pentagon assigned to Ward D ( Ward D hit by the third plane). I felt my heart sink. I was at a loss for words. I instructed the young troop to get back to work, we would figure this out when we got back.
As in all emergencies, caos insues before there is calm. It was a race to get back to base and find out our duties and what was really going on. We led this troop to a Chaplain so that he could find out about his father. Luckily, his father had went to a different ward to make copies of some paperwork and was on the way back to D when the plane hit. He suffered a broken arm and collar bone. He was alive and to me that was mission accomplished.
We all have stories like this. For those of us who served, are serving, a firefighter, emergency medical responder, or law enforcement officer...I remember. Our country is free, that makes us a target. However, we will stay free because we remember!
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