Life in America is always busy. There’s always something important to be done. Things always distracting us and keeping us preoccupied, preventing us from remembering historical events that have changed the World forever. This morning for me was no different. I was absorbed in my work and thinking about were I was going to find replacement headlights and a side mirror for the car when my wife sent a message asking “why are the Flags at half staff?” It didn’t take long to figure out the reason. Today is 9/11/12 the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. How is it possible for a veteran like myself to have had to pause for even a single second to figure out why Flags might be at half staff? I suppose this shows a small chink in my armor that reflects the possibility that I am not as infallible as I had thought.
Where were you? I remember. Do you?
I can remember as if it were only yesterday the events as they occurred in my life on September 11th, 2001. I had been working on the production floor of the creamery in a sleepy rural Minnesota town just as I had countless days before. An unusual event happened, I was summoned immediately and without explanation to the conference room. I recall just how odd this was as we always knew in advance of all meetings. Walking into the room, I noticed three more oddities… All on duty veterans were present and accounted for, the TV was turned on, and deafening silence fulled the room. Not a word was spoken as I took an open seat. Only then did I become aware that the shit had hit the fan. SOMEONE HAD ATTACKED THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! I spent the next minutes watching the screen in utter disbelief and shock. As an active member of the Army Reserve at the time my brain with into overload mode… What just happened, why, where had I stored all my gear (certainly the call would come), did I have my personal affairs in proper order?, people jumping to their deaths from burning buildings live on TV. At the end of shift my wife called a greeting from the living room “did you hear?” I think by the time I had gotten home everyone on planet Earth had heard the news. The Towers fell.
