Where were you?
By Spike Bowan
©frogdogwriting
If you ask someone, “Where were you when JFK was shot?” or “Where were you when the Challenger shuttle exploded?”, dollars to pesos they can tell you everything to the tiniest detail. So it is for me and 9-11-01. I feel the need to share where and what I was doing on that day. This 12th anniversary of such a terrible tragedy in American History weighs heavily on my heart.
9-11-01
I was stationed as a Hospital Corpsman with my brother Marines on the West Coast. I had just finished up my overnight duty running on the ambulance on base and was crawling into my bunk. My phone rings, and it’s my mother on the other end. “Hello..” My mother quickly replies, “Turn on your TV now!” My mother knew that I usually fall asleep to FOX news, so I turn it on. I see one of the towers of the World Trade Center smoldering. I get out of bed just as the second plane hits the second tower. “I love you mom!” Click. I hang up the phone and in a few short seconds, I am dressed in my fatigues, up and running for the door.
Within moments the entire base is locked down. No one is allowed in or out. I get to my command, and am instructed to head to the armory once head count is completed. In less than thirty minutes, the entire base is pretty much armed and ready. Machine gun positions are being placed at every gate and key structure. Sand bags, jersey barriers and barricades are placed around the entire base. We sat and watched as the towers collapsed, the news of the plane hitting in Pennsylvania makes me scramble for my cell phone to reach my parents who live in Pittsburgh. The lines were busy, and panic began to set in. Shortly after I reached my folks, I was assigned to roving guard. The next few weeks were intense. You’re deploying, you’re not deploying, hurry up and wait. Get to the flight line, wait two days, go back to your barracks and stay ready…
We all know what has happened since, but that’s where I was and what I was doing when 3000 Americans were killed in a cowardly attack upon our Great Nation.
Where were you?
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God Bless the USA
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