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Friday, September 11, 2015

This day






As much as I'd like to forget it, I never will. Nor will any of you who are old enough to remember it. I was still active duty USMC at Camp Pendleton on that dreadful morning. I got an early phone call that woke me up from a dead sleep to scream in my ear for me to get my ass on base for formation and roll call. Shaking the cobwebs out of my head I went to the living room to get dressed and turned on the TV. Absolute chaos... It still doesn't even seem real 14 years later.  We were under attack and shit was about to get serious. The GWOT was going hot.


 Normal life just a day before... 

Much respect to the brave men and women who ran toward the chaos to help. It takes a special kind of courage to saddle up and keep going when you are scared to death in the face of such adversity. Some folks are born with it and some folks learn it later on. 

Many condolences to those left behind that had to keep living life without their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, friends and family. There is nothing to replace the loss of loved ones and so many innocent people. I wish there was and that the wounds would heal. Folks say to forgive. It's not that easy for me and most likely will never be. 

1 comment:

riverrider said...

i was loading up at andrews and fly out to bosnia for a contingency op. the guys in the dayroom called me in, asking me what just happened, like i knew. i saw the second one hit seconds later. i said "well, somebody just kicked our ass." this mission just went hot. moments later a colonel came out n told us to go back to dix and standby. it was 3 days b4 they cleared us to deport. bosnia was a known infiltration route for muslims into europe, many jihadis had come to "help" during the war. the pucker factor was high for the duration.