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A quarter century ...
The world went from looking pretty good, from my own perspective, to yet another nightmare vision.
I'd grown up during Vietnam, the specter of that conflict loomed ever closer as I got older. Casualty lists published in magazines, along with pictures of those who fell, were not uncommon. I began to wonder if that was my fate.
No.
Then the Cold War, which seemed to heat up throughout my adulthood, but never boiled over. The threat of nuclear weapons hovered over everything.
I was on Okinawa when two U.S. Army officers were murdered by the North Koreans in the DMZ. We had two squadrons of Phantoms on the way to Kunsan in no time at all. War seemed very likely.
No.
The Soviet Union collapsed, the Warsaw Pact died, it looked as if peace was breaking out all over. I retired from the Air Force, my oldest went into Navy ROTC, things were looking pretty good.
In the spring of 2001, my son was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy. My oldest daughter had an ROTC scholarship in hand and would be following her brother into that program. Everything seemed wonderful, and in many ways it was.
It was a Tuesday, an absolutely gorgeous day. I was in the courtyard at work, chatting with a buddy, someone mentioned that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. My first thought was this ...
I went down to the cafeteria, on the way I heard that it was a commercial airliner which had hit one tower of the building.
It wasn't an accident, it was this ...
At the cafeteria where, back in the good old days, we had a television tuned to CNN, we could see one tower of the WTC smoking. There was a big crowd in there, all eyes glued to the screen, everyone was very, very quiet.
As we watched, a second aircraft hit the other tower.
A friend in the crowd turned to me and asked what this meant, I answered with three words ...
"We're at war."
And so we were, but with who? A bunch of assholes who were already dead? The country they came from, the guy who planned the whole thing?
While I walked back to my desk, in stunned silence, my first thought was how this might affect my son, now on active duty. Then I wondered how The Missus Herself might feel about me returning to active duty. It was a possibility.
But this was a different war, Dubya went after the wrong bad guys, Iraq was a sideshow. Afghanistan followed, the world once again went to hell in a handbasket and once again the specter of nuclear weapons raised its ugly head.
Who was the enemy?
All I know is that the world changed that day, and not for the better.
And things seem to be getting worse.
The American people woke up on September 11th, 2001. Now they've gone back to sleep.
The wolves are once again at the door.
Never forgive, never forget ...
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| U.S. Air Force Photo |
Have you noticed that Shrub II is back with his "religion of peace" trope???
ReplyDeleteThat entire clan...
Something people forget, or have never taken the time to learn, is that Islam is a political system masquerading as a religion. A warlord death cult with the aim of world domination, and has been waging war on the civilized world since the 7th century. At war with the United States specifically since the late 1700s. Shifting factions, shifting leaders, but one goal.
ReplyDeleteIndeed Sarge where have those twenty five years gone? Since then the voters in NYC have forgotten since they elected a Muslim mayor. Joe nailed it in what he said. Yesterday we had a bright blue, cloudless sky just like that day..........wondering if it will repeat today. Ah.....memories.....
ReplyDeleteAnd...What religion does the Mayor of New York belong?
ReplyDeletejuvat
And his religion allows them to lie about how it is peaceful the entire time in order to conquer us.
DeleteJuvat, Marxist
DeleteWe have not all forgotten the evil that is islam.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem like most have forgotten as more come in, we elect them to our hightest honor of being in Congress where are laws are written and then states are giving them one concession after another. Now Texas!! is going to allow them to build a muslim city with all their sharia laws, their mosques and their ring a ling. Welcome to America. We've stood strong for 250 years but I doubt there will be a 500 year celebration.
DeleteWe missed the chance to stop the Islamic drive. We should have nuked Mecca and Medina at the same time. Peace upon them!
ReplyDeleteExactly. That's something else we forget. Iran might be the current Ministry of War, but Saudi Arabia is the true head.
DeleteOur ultimatum should have been to our "friends" should have ve been, "You have a week to give us all the people in planning or we turn Medina into a sheet of glass. Then you have another week. Then we do the same to Mecca."
And told Israel to tear down the Al-Aqsa and reclaim the Temple.
A hand full of Muslims attack NYC and **"We're at war."**
ReplyDelete25 years later a communist Muslim is running NYC.
What happened?
Sarge, I remember precisely where I was when I heard the news of the first lane hitting the tower. Still haunts me to this day.
ReplyDeleteNever forget. Never forgive.
ReplyDeleteWe are still in this war, mostly on defense, or oblivious to it. But, at least with Iran we are very wisely refraining from the folly of boots on the ground or nation building.
JB
I fear that they have just moved the front lines to within our own borders and they'll just outbreed us and vote us all out. - Tuna
DeleteYep, I fear you're correct.
DeleteSon called night before to remind me to check on flowers he was sending to grandparents (9/11 was their 53rd anniversary) and also complained about having to fly out of Logan the next morning. Next a.m. hubby yelled "turn on the TV" and after the 2nd plane hit and news said they came out of Logan I grabbed the phone to call son's secretary. She didn't know the flight number. Company's HQ was in the Towers. Paced/Prayed a lot that day. Wasn't until 7pm that night when son called, They had been routed all over but finally landed in New Orleans. Turned out the HQ had moved 10 days earlier to 3 blocks away.
ReplyDeleteI was driving in to work in London for late turn (2-12) anti-terrorism deterrent patrols. It came over on the BBC news that a plane had flown into one of the twin towers. My first thought was that one of the traffic spotter planes had made a big mistake. I arrived in my units control room as the second plane hit. I spent the rest of the day in various meetings as we in the UK tried to work out what was occurring. As the Chinese say ''interesting times'.
ReplyDeleteRetired
That day and the following days left mixed feelings about my fellow citizens. The way people in NY/NJ responded, the immediate voulenteer marine operators and NYC First Responders was inspiring. Within hours the lines at the gas stations in my Northern Colorado town went for blocks. By day to or three cheap plastic flags were on seemingly every car rear window. Not inspiring.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard the news, I was replacing the fan belts on an old Dodge van. Nothing I could do so I finished the job on the van. I remember feeling much like hearing the news about Prersident Kennedy. I was part way through AIT at Ft Leonard Wood. Collectively we trainees cleaned our rifles and started checking our gear. What else was there we could do?