nmah6556.xml

nmah6556.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-07-12

My husband Jason, daughter Jordan and myself had stayed the night at my mother's condo in Jacksonville, Florida. Jason and I woke to Jordan wanting to watch a bit of t.v. as was her morning routine, however when we saw the screen we both reached for the remote. Jason thought I had left the television on the news the night before and I thought he had put on some war movie or something! We turned the volume up to find out what in the world we were watching. We saw the live feed of the damage done to the first tower. We both sat straight up in bed shocked by the images of what we were seeing. This had to be some kindof movie we thought. One of those Armageddon type deals, this couldn't really be going on in America! My husband is in the Navy so he reached for the phone to call his duty office as my mother came running into the room terror on her face. At this point we were then shown the second plane crashing and knew this was not some bizarre made for televison movie. This nightmare was real. In my head I prayed for the families of the people trapped in those buildings, and for the people themselves in hopes they may make it out alive. I prayed for the rescue workers I knew that must be on their way to help. I also took a moment out to selfishly pray for God to not send my husband out for his preplanned deployment a few days early. You see he was planned to ship out for a six month deployment on the nineteenth. I did not want to lose him, I could be strong for my mother who was already beside herself with grief. I could be strong and try to explain to my daughter what was going on. I could even be the shoulder to cry on for my best friend Wendy, who came to my mother's straight from work after hearing the news, sobbing uncontrollably. But I could not do it if my rock was gone. We sat in front of that little television all day glued, trying to gather whatever information the media could afford us. Forever etching the images of that day in our minds and hearts.

You would think what with us living so far south of the event it would have had minimal effect on us but it is quite the opposite. As we are a military family we saw first hand how secuity was raised so that no person was allowed on base without current proper military ID. Dependants weren't even allowed on base unescorted. Our active duty spouses had to be with us at all times. Going to the Commisary (grocery store) had gone from taking a few minutes to get on base and head straight to the store, to now having to have your husband with you (ID in hand) possibly get stopped at one of the random searches, and then having to state where you were heade and why. I have to say where some people would have been upset with the delay and so called invasions of privacy, I never felt safer because of all the security measures. We have been made to live thru stricter security measures, yet have been given a stronger sense of pride in our military and a renewed feeling of safety.

We were caught unaware, we thought we were untouchable and that such an atrocity could never happen on American soil. We were proven wrong. We need to remember to always be prepared, to stand united, and never allow such tragedies happen again!

We have always flown our flag as most military members do, and always will. We have however become a bit prouder of why we have that flag and the freedom it represents. We now feel it is not just our right to display our flag but our duty as Americans! We are honored to be given this symbol to show others who we are and where we come from.