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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?
I was passing meds in the Day Care Center to a handful of WWII vets. The TV was on to the morning news shows, like always as they waited for breakfast. The first plane hit, one of the gentlemen said "That was no accident". Shortly after the 2nd plane hit everyone in the Center was in front of the TV. "We are at war. Just like Pearl Harbor" he said.
ReplyDeleteOne of my nurses had a daughter who was going to college in NYC. She couldn't reach her daughter. Tried all day. I sent her home. Her daughter, who was running late that day, normally was on the subway that went under the Towers. She walked out of Manhattan that day, it took her 12 hours until she was able to reach a family member, her Uncle, to say she was safe.
My next door neighbor at the time was in the local volunteer fire department. She had just gotten engaged to one of the firemen in NYC. He didn't make it. They never found his body. Men from that volunteer department did 2 week rotations working on the pile, hoping to find him so she could at least have closure in burying him. All of the guys who went and worked on that pile from our department are now gone. Everyone of them due to illnesses from being down there.
I can only watch so much of the coverage, hear so many stories. For decades, Islamic countries have said they want to kill America.
I am not a fan of war. However, in this instance, I am fine with turning very large swaths of sand in the Middle East into glass. I am fine with turning loose the Hounds of Hell to do whatever needs to be done to be absolutely certain that Never Again could something like 911 happen.
My feeling on "the poor innocent civilians" in those countries is Karma can be a real female dog. Collateral damage happens. If you don't want it to happen to you, then change how your country is run. How, in just 25 years, could the people of NYC vote in the mayor they have totally blows my mind. The "greatest generation" was great because once they realized that Evil was spreading across the world, and if nothing was done, it would spread here as well, they went to war. To win. Not to pussy-foot around. To Win. To get it done. Was it easy? No. Not even a little. Did we lose blood and treasure? Yes, yes we did. Do we need to do it again? Yes, yes we do. Because the only way to stop this Evil is to completely commit to eradicating it completely. Glass sounds like the best way to go to me.
Never forget. Never forgive.
Suz