story10748.xml

story10748.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-08-11

The time was roughly around 8:45am. I had been woken up by my father as it was the day I was due to ship out for boot camp in the United States Navy. I rolled around in bed for a few more minutes then made my way downstairs. My Mom and Dad said "Look whats goin on" then I turned my head and saw what I thought was the Air Traffic Control Tower at JFK on fire. I said "Is that JFK?" they said "No, its the Twin Towers, a plane crashed into one of them this morning." I replied "Is it bad weather or somethin?" "No sunny as can be" said my Dad. After he spoke those words I saw an object approaching the second tower and striking it. "Is that how it looked when it hit?" I asked, "No" said my mother "That just happened!" I will never forget the feeling in my gut at that moment. It is one that is indescribeable and I hope will never be repeated. As the day progressed I was still getting myself ready to get shipped out to Great Lakes for boot camp. It was when I was buying new shoes at the Rugged Warehouse in Annapolis that we heard of the plane hitting the pentagon. I thought to myself "This is serious....what is next?" We rushed home and when I got home my recruitter EM1 Bruce Piatek USN, was on the phone and said, "Mike, due to the events that have happened today, you wont be able to get out today". I said "I understand, just keep in touch." He replied "I will, expect to go out tomorrow." "Ok, I said" The day passed and the headlines came and the next day Sept. 12. I was dropped off at the recruitting station, and off to MEPS we went. Once there we continued to watch the news until they put us on a bus from Baltimore, MD to Chicago,IL when the country was in peril. The whole ride to boot camp I thought to myself "Im so proud to be going to serve my country when it needs me the most! I had never felt better, and Knowing the the fact that I would help get the bastards that did that to us. So There I was, me and 79 future sailors confused about the times, knowing we were the ones that would have to get the next job done! It was a special time at Great Lakes, we knew this was a new kind of war. But we were not afraid. Because we were all americans affected the same way that day. And it changed us all forever. For the Best. GO USA!!!