Never Forget

Been waiting for this post all day.
Thank you Jason!

Please do not ever forget the tragic events on 9-11-01
 
There is a great program on history chaneel called 102 minutes, anyone under 25 should see it.

A fresh PFC Watson , Scared, angry and ready for war seen the destruction on the XO,s , tiny little tv. We were scared, but so angry and ready for war. Little did I know it was the match that lit the fire that changed our lives forever
 
Jason W. said:
There is a great program on history chaneel called 102 minutes, anyone under 25 should see it
Click to expand...
A group of us are watching it now

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I was 21 and had been at the Ford dealer for a little more than a year, my first real job after tech school. I had built a transmission on the 10th and nearly had it installed. Came in at 730 on the 11th, buttoned it back up and hit the road for the test drive. Manager wanted a 10 mile test drive on all major jobs back then. I was cruising around Fayetteville listening to John Boy and Billy on rock 103.5 in the customers car when they broke in with breaking news of a plane hitting WTC. I rolled back into the shop at 9:00. I was excitedly telling the other techs about the terrible accident I heard about on the radio so we decided to go to the break room to see if it was on TV.

We turned on the TV just after 9:03. Seconds after the second plane hit. One of the old guys said we're at war. Most all of us sat in the break room watching til lunch. We watched the reports from the Pentagon, we watch the towers fall. We saw people jumping, at least til they quit showing that.

I went to lunch and stopped at a Radio Shack to get some resistors for a project I was working on and stood in line behind people buying radios and miniature tvs. When I got back the parts for another transmission had arrived so I stood at my workbench looking out the window towards Ft Bragg wondering if I was going to see some huge explosion here since it is one of the largest bases.

In just one morning everything changed around Fayetteville. You could see it in the soldiers eyes, and their families. Where I used to be able to freely cut through the open base to get to work quicker or go to lunch there were barricades and barb wire.

I'll never forget that day. Our generation's Pearl Harbor for sure.

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I remember just about every minute of that day... from where I was when I got word of the first plane, to watching the 2nd on TV, to every bit of discussion amongst my lab mates all day in our advisors office... I'll spare the details.

But for me, the spirit of the day has changed, but only b/c of my personal situation.

8 years ago today, my daughter was born. And very dramatically.
It was early in the morning, we were still 5 weeks from D-Day, and the labor and delivery crazy fast... like one of those unrealistic movie scenes, where they barely make it to the hospital.. and anyone who has had a baby (especially women) are like, "BS this takes like a whole day or more of boredom and pain..."
Well in our case she came literally a few minutes from when I pulled up to the delivery parking lane (90 mins after water breakage), screaming to let us in ASAP... it had been a 25 min, 95 mph drive down I 95 to get there. In fact it happened so quick I missed her coming out b/c they made me move my car and fill out papers before they'd let me in to join my wife. They had just ran her into the 1st triage room and didn't even have time to boot up a sonography machine, POP: out she was... butt-first, BREECH even. We were the talk of the hospital for days.

Our son was almost 2 months premature, so we knew what being early means and what can lay ahead. Luckily, she was juuuuust far enough along for it to not be a problem.
It wasn't until an hour or more later, when Rach and I were finally calming down a little, that we even realized what he date was.

Ever since then, while I fully respect and honor the day, the lives lost, and what it represented for our country, the sting has been less, and I've found my focus on the (second) new life in my hands to raise. We spend the day celebrating life, growth, and change. And then later, after the kids are in bed, is when the old emotions begin to come back.

In fact we were just discussing this at dinner tonight. Our son, 13, has come to realize we never really talk about it, because our focus is always on his sister on 9/11. For this we realized we have been sorely remiss, and in the future will really need to work harder to make sure they both are aware of the significance of the day.
 
Sitting in the chow hall on Ft Bragg watching it go down on TV. We were told to pack our shit and stand by. Everyone from the top down was unsure what was about to happen. We were all just waiting for the call. The call came, told our loved ones bye (my oldest daughter was 11 days old, didn’t see her again until 6-7 months later), jumped on a bird at Pope AFB, and off we went to do great things. That was the beginning of multiple combat rotations to all sorts of shit holes around the world for the rest of my career. Wouldn’t change a thing.
 
I remember I was just coming back in from gym class my sophomore year of high school. I didn’t really know what it meant or the ramifications it would have. At the time I assumed it was a small personal air craft and the event was accidental. But I’ll say visiting the memorial a couple years later was one of the most chilling and reverent moments of my life.

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I was in my first year of college and skipping class. Stopped at a gas station to fuel up my sexy 1986 S-10 Blazer, before I drove to TN to see a girl, and it was on the TV.

It's really weird to think that kids who weren't born then are graduating high school now.
 
I was in 8th grade science class when it happened. I don't remember a whole lot about that day or really what was going on and what it actually meant. As the years passed I quickly learned how devastating that day was, then my wife and I went to NY in 2011 on the 10 year anniversary and walking into the church near the site and as soon as those doors closed behind you, it was dead silence. Seeing the uniforms of fallen fire fighters and pictures of those who lost their lives that day was something I will never forget and I remember walking away from there with a new found respect for our country and what it is we stand for.
 
Of all the memories of that day this one haunts me.
I worked with an old dude. Cool old crotchety vet. The kind that only exists in construction trades I think. He had been (according to him) on of the last batch of "kids" shipped to Vietnam in like 72-73 ish. Always said while he was a Vietnam Vet in name, he had missed most of the hell that the earlier fighters had witnessed. I had always been fascinated by Vietnam as a kid and loved to ask this dude questions as a 23-24 year old kid. Today I wouldnt pry as much. But he was always gracious yet brief. He had done a little over a year in the jungle. Came home served stateside. And then in the mid 90s retired to civilian life and worked construction because "it was hot, fun and dumb"

He and I were together on 9/11. We didnt know anything was unfolding until late morning. The action was over before we knew about it. On construction sites, pre smart phone, news didnt travel.

As we sat eating out lunch at a greasy gas station grill he looked at me and said this "Your world just changed and you dont even fucking know it. Im old and done you still have to live with this shit. Our country will panic and overreact. Getting on a plane at all will be a bitch the rest of your life. But those fuckers arent thinking about planes no more. They've already moved on to the next plan. But our government will make life suck for all of us."

Pretty prophetic words 17 years later.
 
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