My career, being in the ship-building industry, and living in this GReat Navy town, has found me on various Naval vessels all around the country.
That Tuesday was no different. I'd been working for the previous week, leading up to that fateful Tuesday, on the Norfolk Naval base, on board one of the LHA ships, I believe the USS Pelleliu, LHA5:
I had been shut up in one of the workshops on board for the past couple of days, sketching up some piping for my job, and really had no clue what had been going on that morning. some time around mid-morning, one of the sailors happened to poke his head in the space I was working in, and mentioned to me that I may have wanted to get my gear and head off the ship as they were making emergency preparations to get under way, telling me that a plane had hit the WTC.
My immediate thought, wonder what a plane was flying so low over Norfolk? as we have a World Trade Center building in downtown. It did not occur to me until I caught my first glimpse of news coverage in one of the ready rooms that my country, where I never thought to NOT feel safe, EVER, was now under attack!
Thinking back now, this is what those brave men and women must have felt like at Pearl Harbor.
Any how, I will also never forget the transformation of the world that day. The Naval Base changed in a matter of minutes, people that had been going about their normal workday, were now on high alert, and every direction brought views of an armed force ready to defend all that I hold near and dear.
That day rang true in the fact of a volunteer force, ready to defend freedom, against all threats, foreign and domestic. And is half the reason that I thank service personal whenever I see them. The other half of that equation being the fact that they deserve honor and respect for the sacrifice that they may have to pay on any given day, just for doing their job.
Even on an otherwise ordinary Tuesday, ten years gone.
To all service members, past, present, and future.
Thank you for your service and sacrifices,
Today is a day of remembrance, for all that was lost. But it should also be a day of some celebration, for all that we gained, as a country, coming together to save those that could be saved, mourn those that could not be saved, and for the resolve that though on any given day, we may be beaten down, but we will never be defeated. I give no small thanks that I was not personally affected by the loss of life, but do share equally in the remorse of a country, changed forever.
God bless every body!
Dawgbones
No comments:
Post a Comment