There I was in uniform, guarding a high level priority aircraft on Elmendorf AFB in Alaska. I was down to my last couple of hours on shift performing my duties as a Security Forces member, when I received several phone calls from my buddies who were also on shift with me. They told me to quickly put on the radio, there is talk about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center buildings. Thinking It wouldn’t be much of anything, I slowly got up off my seat and stopped what I was doing to turn on the radio. Within seconds I realized this was something serious.
After listening a few minutes to understand what was all going on back in New York City, the new crew from the facility I was guarding began filtering in for the beginning of their shift. Though most of the crew members looked like they were ready to prepare the jets and deploy in a moments notice, some members had no idea about what was going on. After listening to the radio for some time to make sure what I was hearing was true, one family member came to mind, my Godmother.
My Godmother works right around the vicinity of the World Trade Center, so I quickly grabbed the phone ignoring any calls on my hand held radio to call back home and find out if she was OK. I got in reach with my parents back on Long Island and they told me they got word from my Godmother that she was OK, though she along with thousands of other New Yorkers were walking over the Brooklyn bridge, because everything was shut down. I could hear in my mother’s voice that she didn’t know what to think right now, the news was awful and on the other hand here I am serving in the Air Force far from home believing we have just been attacked.
I reassured my mother that I was fine and not to worry about me, but do what you can for my Godmother if she needs anything. Though I knew in my mind, the possibility of seeing war was the closest it’s ever been in my military career, and that moment I knew the people I worked with and myself were ready to be called upon to do what we must, since by this time the news was claiming this was looking more like a terrorist attack.
I was already working a 12 hour shift that night, but as soon as my flight got relieved from duty, that 12 hour shift turned into close to a 16 hour shift. We were briefed on any intelligence about the situation and we were told directly from our flight chief that when we get back to our living quarters, to be ready to work longer shifts, and understand deployment is very possible at this time. I had just gotten back from a 4 month deployment in Saudi Arabia that ended in June 2001 and though it was great to be back in the states, I knew if I was called upon, I was more than willing and ready to go back to the Middle East. Though that day never came and it wasn’t till some time after I separated from the service that my Squadron began to deploy to Iraq.
As the months went by after 9/11, I was given a chance to return home for a week and a half. It was something I was looking forward too, seeing my family and friends again and checking on my Godmother who had been working in the city that day. When I returned home and was on the ride back from the airport, I remember seeing just about every single home displaying an American Flag. I thought to myself “I never saw this before”, yet it was a great site to see. Flags lined the streets all through out Long Island N.Y. and though today the flag my father put out still waves in the wind, other Americans have put their flags away.
When speaking to people on my vacation, you quickly see just how many innocent people died in the World Trade Center attack. Everyone just about knew someone who had lost their life in those buildings, and during the time I was home I went with my parents down to the World Trade Center. I had an empty feeling standing there in front of a wall that was blocking the entrance to the WTC work site. Thousands of letters and flowers covered the wall from thousands of people, from letters to a father a child lost, to letters from strangers from other countries giving their condolences, it was another reminder of just how many innocent people lost their lives that day.
Though September 11, 2001 is a day that came and went for many Americans, it’s a day that has never really ended for those who have lost loved ones. New Yorker’s will never forget the sacrifices our men and women of FDNY, NYPD and all other emergency responders who have lost their lives, trying to save others.
Today the war on terror also continues; 8 years later and our men and women of the Armed Forces continue to need our support.
