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I have been to Iraq and Afghanistan a few times.

I was preparing for a guided hunt at Grafenwohr, Germany after two years in company command at Ansbach. My successor was at the Commander's Course at Grafenwohr. My household goods were already at my next duty station. I was wearing traditional German hunting clothes, a few days' growth of beard, my rifle was in my pickup truck, and I had said my good-byes to my company, the staff, and commander of the 235th Base Support Battalion, LTC Cyndy Connally. I walked into the Burger Bar next door to battalion headquarters and ordered a slice of pizza, then stepped out to buy a Stars and Stripes form the machine outside. I came back to take the slice and the guy behind the counter said a plane had crashed into one of the towers at the World Trade Center. He had it on the small TV on the wall behind him. I had been been part of the security arrangements for another base in Germany for the US Embassy bombings in 1998 and mentioned if there was a second strike it was a terrorist attack. About that time the second plane struck and I ran next door to tell LTC Connally I was standing up the guard force. She was on the telephone when I stuck my head into her office and she just said "Go!". I was proud of my team just then. I ran across the quad to my (former) orderly room and my leading NCO, SFC Maria Williams, was already executing the security plan we had created. The arms room was open, Soldiers were lining up to draw weapons and other elements of the guard force from adjacent units, all support, were preparing to do their part. That security mission, which consumed the company and the assets of our adjacent partners, was to last for a year of long shifts and some version of normal mission accomplishment. We locked the large, main gate to the post, Bleidorne Kaserne, which had been a German artillery garrison, to enable better control of traffic. By day's end we had flowers, piles of flowers, laid before that gate by our German neighbors. One of our admin staff ran to McDonalds (the mess hall staff was on the guard force) and when she returned she was in tears. The drive-through server had run from her station and outside to the car for a tearful hug and to offer her condolences. The outpouring of grief to the BSB, which was on the edge of Ansbach but inside a neighborhood, was tremendous - we'd always had a great relationship with the community but this was unexpected, heartfelt, and moving.

I am still at work for the Department of Defense. I will remember the day for the rest of my life. I am also back in Germany.