story5613.xml

story5613.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

My name is Joshua F. Schwartz. I am stationed on the USS Peleliu home ported in San Diego, California. My rank is E/4, Aviation Structural Mechanic Third Class Petty Officer in the United States Navy. My ship was in Darwin, Australia for a port visit before we transited over to the Arabian Gulf. My night was forever changed. It was about 11:30 pm in Darwin and a few buddies of mine and I were having a drink at the local taveren when all of a sudden on the TV, a special announcement came up saying that the World Trade Center had just been rammed into by a civilian airliner. We were all shocked. At first we just thought that it was a movie. It cound't be happening. Not when we were over seas. Well it did happened. And all 3,000 sailors and Marines were recalled back to the ship to ship out in a few hours. From there we headed straight to the Arabian Sea in support of Operation Endurance Freedom. We spent four months off of the coast. The Marines from the USS Peleliu (13 MEU) took over the air strip at Kandhar. It was Scary. I also helped to take care of the Northern alliance when the friendly fire incident happened. A total of ten were brought to the ship for treatment. Johnny Walker was taken prisoner on board also. During the whole time we were over seas in Support of Operation Endurance Freedom, people from all over the United States, people were emailing the ship and telling us how proud of us they are. And the best thing about that was that we could reply back to the people who wrote us. I actually met the love of my life this way. We wrote each other snail mail and emails for about 3 months. Then when we pulled back into San Diego; we met for the first time and we have been dating ever since. It has been six wonderful months for the two of us. My life has changed for ever and I have someone to share with it because of what happened on the treacherous day.