Sunday, September 12, 2004

Remembering September 11

Yesterday was the anniversary of that horrible day. I watched some of it on tv, about what was going on at the WTC site to remember that day. Watching some of the family members call off their loved ones name, it got me choked up a few times. It's funny how you think you have moved on, but when they have this anniversary, you realize it's still very much apart of you. I remember telling my buddy in the year 2000 when we were in Florida and our spy plane crash landed within China territory. I told my friend and my family right there, that if we went to war, I would join the Army to go fight for my country. For several reasons I wanted to join when a major conflict took place with the USA being involved was, I didn't want to have kids in the future and not tell then that I didn't serve when there was a major conflict. I was fascinated with the brotherhood of men-in-arms, it was like a second family, I wanted to have something like that. I was also very very patriotic. I said it with the thought back in my head that I would probably never have to join the military at all.

Until, when I was sleeping one day, the phone was ringing and ringing for about 15 minutes. I kept laying down and ignoring it. Until, my sister's friend who was staying the night over ran out of her room and picked up the phone. I remembered her saying "oh my god" and then yelled at my sister to turn the TV on. So, I quickly got out of bed too, interested in what was going on and saw one tower in flames. My first reaction, was some idiot pilot probably flew into the building. Then, before my very eyes, a few moments later, LIVE on TV, I saw the other plane hit the other tower. This took me by complete surprise, I knew this was an attack by terrorists.

I felt empty, because I wasn't able to help those people at the World Trade Center. I was far away, at my home in Michigan. I needed to help in some way, I wanted to go and fight the terrorist fuckers that attacked our nation. In March, I joined the US Army, as an Infantryman. I went to Basic training and got out in July. I was sent to the 10th Mountain Division, one of the best trained and most disciplined units in the Army, because they are one of the most deployed units. I was happy, because the 10th Mountain was already in Afghanistan. I wanted to goto war with the best, and feel like I was helping by preventing what happened on Sept 11 from ever happening again by fighting and killing those responsible. Around 8 months later, I found myself going to war with Iraq in March. I was finally going to be apart of what I was defending my country. I was finally going to get my chance to fight terrorism.

Now, after watching on TV. Having a combat infantry badge, stating that I have been in Combat for over a month. I helped busted as many as 3 terror cells in Iraq with links to Al-qaeda, and freeing 20+ million people from a ruthless dictator. I still watch TV about September 11 and I still feel empty and have no done enough for those people.
|