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On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was on the USS Wasp in Norfolk, VA to do an antenna installation on the mast of the ship. When we went into the maintenance shop, there was footage of a plane flying into the towers, and then a live feed of the second one, which I assumed was for some movie but quickly found out it wasn't. We had to race to the base exit in order to not get trapped on base, missing the complete shutdown by 5 minutes. I reported back to my command, and we stayed on our site for several hours before going home. Soon after I volunteered for the Auxiliary Security Force and spent 7 months working with called up reservists standing duty on the gates and on our shore. It was a very insane time, but it was what happened after that affected me the most.
Due to 9/11, we entered the theaters of Iraq and Afghanistan. Several people I knew went to those areas and worked- including all of the SEAL team members I worked with (I was support comms). One of those men, Nathan Hardy, whom I served with on the USS Harry S. Truman in the gulf, died while on mission. THAT is the after effect of this tragedy, the military men and women who have been lost. I remember the good times and how much life he had, and to lose just one person is too many. I had no idea that by the end of the decade, thousands upon thousands of my brothers and sisters of all services would be wiped away, and it angers me inside- all totally unnecessary, for what?????
THAT is what 9/11 means to me, and I can't take the flags and the songs and the speeches because I have to turn away and reflect... I can't think about it, because it kills me inside. Words could never express what we have truly lost.
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