story7502.xml

story7502.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-15

Hi, my name is chris ranallo. im in the united states navy. On Sept.11 on was scheduled to go out to sea at 9:00am. I was going out for a little over a month. The sea trial was calle com 2 x. It was the last big underway before my 6 month deployment to the arabian sea. Well, that day at 7:00am, I was thinking about the attack on pearl harbor on the flight deck. I looked around at the other ships, and I said to myself. Look what we have today! Nobody can touch us! We have more sophisticated technology. I remember it was a hot sunny morning. Just another typical day. I dreaded going out to sea. It meant attitudes would change, fights would break out. and the worst: home sickness. Well anyway I went to my berthing lounge and as soon as I got in there, the whole lounge was packed! And I realized that cnn was on. So I said g, whats going on here! They cleared the the view of the t.v. and then I saw the worst thing in my life. first I looked at the 2 towers on fire, then I looked at the caption and it read: 2 planes crash into the world trade center. I was in disbelief! I called home. And officals were beleiving this tragedy was a huge act of terroism. We didnt know for sure until The pentagon was hit. Thats when I felt the knot in the pit of my stomach. "Were going to war". I had tears in my eyes. I watched everything until it was time to go to work. We were supposed to go to the carribean, but due to the attacks the cno (commander of naval operations) ordered us to protect the coast of Washington. So I was there for 6 days. I was scheduled to leave for deployment March 17, 2002, but we were called upon to leave Feb.7, 2002, in support of Operation enduring freedom. I can tell u one thing, We are kicking butt against terroists! My command alone captured 3. One taliban and 2 alkeida. > Let it be known Terroists may have broken our security, but they didn't break or even crack our freedom! That's my story. Im glad to share it with all of u.

GOD BLESS U ALL AND GOD BLESS AMERICA

Love- chris ranallo