story2074.xml

story2074.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-10

I almost didn't write this because I thought to myself, who am I to add such a trivial story to others who had been right there? Who lost someone? Or injured themselves? Who am I? But, I read one story from Georgia, far enough away and realized that despite the distance, I am an American and a soldier in the United States Army. I, too, was deeply affected by the tragical events because I love my country and don't want to see anyone in it hurt.
On that sad and extremely vunerable morning, I awoke without any knowledge of what was going on. I lay in my bed, not wanting to get up. After our pt session, I was tired and feeling a bit lazy. But, time waited for no one. Especially not me. I got dressed and went outside to find our parking lots practically deserted which was unusual, because parking was limited and on a normal day, any occupant would've had to fight for one. Not on the morning of 9/11. I also took note of the orange cones blocking the entrances/exits and the soldiers in kevlar and lbe's armed with M16s standing guard beside them. I felt something tighten in my chest as I began to grow increasingly confused. What happened, I begin to finally wonder. I didn't have cable and couldn't get a good hip hop station in rural Ft. Huachuca, so I almost never listened to my stereo, except for cds. That was my first regret.
I watched as the guards turned a car away that had been trying to enter and the driver got mad at them. I watched the incident in a daze then returned to my room to call my friend and let him know that my car was trapped so I couldn't get to work and could he please pick me up.
Then, I asked what was going on and due to his astonishment, he replied in anger.
"You don't know?!"
"Apparently not or I wouldn't have asked," I snapped back. Why couldn't he just answer me?
"The Twin Towers were hit?"
My heart jumped because I knew it was something bad, but how bad, I didn't know. "What? What are those? Hit with what?" The questions came all at once. What was going on and I felt lost. I knew that I had no control and neither did anyone else.
I heard his deep sigh of disbelief. "You don't know what the Twin Towers are? God!" Then, he told me.
Then, I felt myself growing angrier by the moment. I just wanted my questions answered and now! "It's not my fault that I'm not from New York! Why should I know what they are?!" And I hung up on him, knowing that I wasn't going to get anywhere with him or his attitude.
I went to my car and drove to the exit. The guard let me out with a little wave and I drove to my office at Greely Hall, the second biggest building in the U.S. Government, I was once told. "Mini Pentagon", the girl had told me. The back exit was blocked off with a high fence and no one was in the front parking lot. I did a u-turn in the street and headed to DENTAC, my original unit. When I arrived, they let me in. No one else was there but military. I didn't ask too many questions since I should already have known everything but I was arriving late too work.
The lobby's t.v. was on and I fell into a seat and didn't move for hours, mesmerized by what was happening. Then, it dawned on me a little while after finding out about the Pentagon that my family was close by in Manassas, VA. I begin to worry about everyone that I could think of that might have been involved. My sister, who was also in the Army, overseas in Italy; my parents and my Mom's boyfriend, who all worked near airports or D.C. I began frantically making phone calls but couldn't get in touch with my parents or my little brother. My sister didn't answer her home phone either and I sat back down in my same seat, in a daze.
My NCO's begin joking with me because I couldn't move from the screen. I was devastated that we could actually be attacked by anyone. We were the United States of America. How dare anyone do this to us? I hated every foreigner and wanted to know why they hated us so much. I wanted to retaliate. When I finally got through to my dad, he said that he wanted to come back in over this and he later sent me an email about trading in his suit and tie for the Army greens. I was a true military brat as well as a soldier. Both of my parents had served in the Army as well as my aunt, uncle, sister and my cousin who was stationed in Maryland.
Throughout everything, I forgot that I was supposed to get pinned that day too. I was getting promoted to Private First Class(PFC). But, like so many other planned things, it didn't happen.
My country got a wake up call but I'm sad to say that not much has changed and I wasn't very affected physically besides the fact that I had to park a good half mile from my barracks, had to pull guard duty 24-7 around the clinic and didn't get promoted on the planned date. Alot of soldiers that I am stationed with, though, started deploying out and the fort began to look empty. I was sad for them but proud that we were doing something.
Now, it's September 10, 2002, a year later and it feels like 9/11 occurred just yesterday. I'll pray tonite that nothing will happen and if the terroists try, that we'll be ready for them because we won't stand down.
And hope, maybe, that i'll get promoted on time this time around.