story11323.xml

story11323.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2005-03-08

September 11th was my eighteenth birthday. We were supposed to be leaving the SeaTac airport the next morning, my family and I, to fly overseas to Japan for a vacation before I started college three weeks later. I had stayed the night at my friends as it was the last time I would see many of them for a long time since we were going our separate ways after graduation.
We woke up on the morning of 9/11 to the phone ringing for what seemed like hours. My mother had called several times to tell us to turn on the tv and watch the news. We did as she asked, having no idea what was going on, but hearing the panic in her voice. My friends and I were confused. Who did this? Could this happen here in Washington? What would happen now...are we going to war??
I remember going to work that day. I had always enjoyed work, but today things were different. Three thousand miles away, things were solemn. It was as if this had happened in our hometown. Radios were up full-blast as people wanted up to date information on what was happening.
My parents had taken my friends and me out to dinner and as we sat and ate, celebrating my birthday, the three televisions in the room where we were eating were running continuous footage of the attacks. Eastern Washington is a very patriotic place and I had been raised really, truly loving my country and my freedom. My family, on both sides, is full of retired marines, navy and army personnel and that had always made me very proud. All I could think was that if this attack had killed thousands, how many people were affected because the casualties were their sisters, brothers...husbands, wives...their children??
But the most touching thing of all, was hearing stories on the radio and reading in the paper the acts of patriotism that went on because of all of this chaos. Hearing of how the passengers on flight 93 fought back and probably saved hundreds of more lives from being victims of terrorism. I remember hearing on the radio of a lady who stood for 18 hours on a busy corner holding an American flag. If you drive in Washington down I-5, to this day, there are still people who hold up signs and American flags on the overpasses near Ft. Lewis, WA.
And now, here it is, over three years later and no one has forgotten. On September 11, 2001 I would have never thought that I would have been directly affected by the events of that day. But in November of 2003, thirty of my friends left for Iraq to fight in the "War on Terror". They were part of the Stryker Brigade stationed out of Ft. Lewis. After twelve months of writing letters and sending care packages whenever my income would allow it (I'm still a poor college student) all but one of them made it back safely. I'm so grateful to have them all back, but there are still hundreds of thousands of troops over there. Please keep them in your thoughts. I know I will never forget 9/11 and its aftermath. I hope you won't either...