story5845.xml

story5845.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I had been in the Air Force since Jan 2001. I was in Tech School at Sheppard AFB in Wichta Falls TX, learning how to be a crew chief of the F-16 Fighting Falcon. I had graduated tech school in July 2001 and was waiting for orders. Mean-while I was persuing my education at MSU. When I arrived at MSU at 0800hrs I noticed that the flag was Flying high above the school. I went to class and started my tests. A series of five. After the first two tests we had a break. So I went outside for some fresh air. When I did I had notice that the flag was now at half-staff. I knew immidiatley something was wrong, so I wen't to my car and turned on the radio. It was all aver the news... every station... That one of the twin towers have been hit by an aircraft. Moments latter they were describing as they were watching, the second tower had been attacked. I was at a loss. We had to finish the tests, and needless to say it was hard to concentrate after that. When they testing was finished, I had recieved a call telling me to report back to duty asap. On the way back I stoped to chek on my family, and let them know that it might be a while befor I got back home again. When i had got back to base, we were on Threat-Con Delta. When I finnaly got back on base after the inspection of my vehicle I was amazed at the silence. Every day while i was there thier were jets flying and studen't walking everywhere. But when I got there, All jets were grounded and no one could be found.Everyone was in there dorms as a required security measure. Even the birds had stoped chirping. All the roads on base was baracaded, and all I could think about was revenge. Since that day I have had the opertunity to serve my country in the war on terrorism. When I arrived at my permanent duty station, my unit was one of the first units deployed to Afganistan to Defend our Great Nation. My feelings of Sept 11, 2001 run deep, and will fight til the end to keep this Great Nation of ours safe for our generations to come. God Bless Americe!