Sunday, September 11, 2011

Remembering 9/11. My Personal Account.

World Trade Center Attack

As far as I can recall, i've never posted any tributes or such to the memories of 9/11. This being the tenth year of my marriage and also the tenth year anniversary of this nightmare, I figured now would be a good time to share my memories...

It was the year 2001. July 3rd, i'd gotten married to my husband who was, at that time, in the United States Navy and stationed in California. I was adjusting to being away from family and starting life as a new wife. Around a month and a couple of weeks later, we'd found out we were expecting our first child. Time went on, but not much...

On September 11, 2001 I was abruptly awakened by my husband who told me that the Twin Towers had been bombed. What were the Twin Towers? They didn't carry any significance with me. If he'd said the Sears Tower, definitely, but I didn't grow up knowing of many other Towers. He sat there watching the news, and I sat there with him. I was concerned because he should have been at work already. It wasn't long before I learned that the Twin Towers were two prominent buildings in New York. We watched intently. Replay after replay of that first building being hit.... and then the second... and later the Pentagon.

"Milcah, we're going to war!" I remember my husband saying. He was scheduled for an upcoming tour to Egypt and let me know then that he wouldn't be surprised if they left Egypt and went straight to Iraq from there. What would happen? Where would I go? What about our unborn child? If he went, would he make it back alright? ...But we haven't even been together that long. Sadness and confusion.

He went ahead to work. I waited for a phone call with an update. I suppose that's pretty much all they did at work that day... watch the news to see if anything else would go down. Fortunately nothing else did.

Time went on and my husband went on his tour to Egypt. He did only stay for a month and was able to come back. Shortly thereafter, they started deploying the troops to avenge the lives that were lost. My husband didn't have to leave in that first round, but I remember him having to stay behind some late nights and hold the fort down due to a shortage of staff. His tour to Iraq would have come around, but it just so happened that he was being moved to another duty station, so he just missed having to go.

I'm so glad that in the end he was able to stay stateside, but it goes without mention, all the lives that were lost during the resulting wars on terrorism. Thoughts that can get you down if you let them go too deep for all of the lives that were lost in the attacks and as a result of them. Sadly, we're still seeing the effects. 10 years later.

In closing, i'd like to share a touching post made by a Facebook Friend:

A decade ago we all woke up to horror, fear, sadness, and anger...In the weeks and months following a change happened. We were not rich/poor, black/white, Dem/Rep, Yankees/Southerners, liberal/conservative, east coast/west coast, white collar/blue collar...we were simply Americans united. For a time we were One Nation Under God.

Picture used courtesy of cliff1066

No comments:

Post a Comment

Don't be shy. Share your thoughts