I imagine that adults who talked to me thought that I was a strange and funny little kid. After all how many 10 year olds do you know who would sit there and argue with you as to who should be president? Not to mention that I looked forward to the year 2024 because that would be the year I was old enough to run for president myself. I was very patriotic and passionate. However at the end of the day I had not much more than the average knowledge span of a 10 year old when it came to world news and politics. I remember September 11th 2001 quite well. I remember the call and my Mom turning on the TV to watch the news of it happening. I remember my Dad coming in the front door asking if we had heard the news and putting aside work for a few hours to stay and watch transfixed to the news channels as we flipped back and forth between the coverage in a desperate hope for more news and understanding of what was happening. Mostly though I remember their shock, and my confusion. In my world politics was a fun table topic, and war, that was something I read about in my books , wishing I was living during the 1940 because that would be" so cool". As every other American that day I was shocked that my home could be attacked. As I watched the images on TV that morning I did not know what the world trade centers were, I had never heard of them nor did I understand the blow this would be to our economy or to our nation. I just knew that the news anchors had started talking about that this was war, and that my parents watched it all with tears in there eyes. I knew that as people jumped to their deaths to avoid burning in the buildings that everything I knew about my little world had changed. This was no movie, this was real. As the towers fell and the people ran, I sat there overwhelmed and watched as the dust closed in as a heavy darkness descending over everything, I think something changed in me. This was America, and we were fighters. I wasn't old enough to go out and fight or to help or even to know what to do to make a difference. But I knew that there was those who could go out and fight, and they became my heroes. I recorded off the radio ever speech and song that would remind me of what had happened and that would show me that we were fighting back. I believed in the words that we didn't start this war, but that we would be the ones to finish it. I grew up during a war. When I was 10 I thought that meant bomb shelters, victory gardens, and metal drives. By the time I was 13, we were fighting against an enemy in two different countries, and in this new age of war it wasn't bombs but terror attracts that we had to worry about. As troops were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq I knew that it wasn’t what I had read about but we were at war.
My Dad always says that he knew from the first time that I told him that Chase was joining the United States Marine Corps that I would marry him. How could I not after hearing that. He had a point, to me that was true patriotism, and being a patriot was only second on my list after being a Christ follower. Before we were dating and Chase told me he was joining I couldn't believe it. America's troops are my heroes, and the guy who liked me wanted to be one of them!
To me September 11th 2001 isn't in the past. It isn't something that did affect us. It still affects me to this day. I had a friend who challenged me to come up with what 9/11 means to me. The memorial line for 9/11 is "Never Forget". But to me that isn't an option. How could I forget, when that is what my husband is fighting for? Every morning when he kisses me goodbye for the day I have a reminder when I see him in his uniform. Every night I remember when I trip over his combat boots in the middle of our living room floor. We got married January 30th 2010, and Chase left March 13th, just weeks after for a deployment to Afghanistan. The war was real to me then in the reminder that he was gone, and in the comfort of couples my grandparents age who hugged me after church and told me "we made it through a war or two", and that I could too. 9/11 stays with me in the after affects of 10 years later and my husband is preparing to head back over to the war zone again in a few months.
When people ask me why I would let my husband join the Marines, I can't help but look at them funny. Why wouldn't he? We are at war. And I want to tell them that I couldn't be more proud of him for fighting for the freedom that they take for granted.
There is a country song that came out shortly after 9/11 by Darryle Worley called "Have You Forgotten?" I think that this song sums it up pretty well for me. "Have you forgotten how it felt that day?" I haven't, and neither has my husband or the other men and women who fight to keep our freedom everyday. We didn't start this conflict, but we are going to finish it!
*Added September 11th, 2012.
I just had the joy this week of welcoming my husband home from his second tour of duty in Afghan land. I couldn't be more proud of him, or more happy to finally have him home after what will, hopefully, be his last deployment. I hear people who are fed up with the war. I hear them say that we shouldn't still be over there, because the people there will not ever except the freedom that we are trying to give them. I remember the night that we found out that American Navy Seals had killed Osama Bin Laden. The feeling of relief and joy that we finally got who we set out for after the 9/11 attacks. People say that we got him, so lives shouldn't be risked over there any more. Maybe that is true but I wont get in to that on here. All that I know is that as long as American troops are serving anywhere overseas, if I see the point to it or not, I will stand behind them because without them we wouldn't be free. So thank you to all who serve, and to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. May we never forget the cost of our freedom!
*Added September 11th, 2012.
I just had the joy this week of welcoming my husband home from his second tour of duty in Afghan land. I couldn't be more proud of him, or more happy to finally have him home after what will, hopefully, be his last deployment. I hear people who are fed up with the war. I hear them say that we shouldn't still be over there, because the people there will not ever except the freedom that we are trying to give them. I remember the night that we found out that American Navy Seals had killed Osama Bin Laden. The feeling of relief and joy that we finally got who we set out for after the 9/11 attacks. People say that we got him, so lives shouldn't be risked over there any more. Maybe that is true but I wont get in to that on here. All that I know is that as long as American troops are serving anywhere overseas, if I see the point to it or not, I will stand behind them because without them we wouldn't be free. So thank you to all who serve, and to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. May we never forget the cost of our freedom!
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| Me and Chase at his homecoming from Afghanistan in 2010 |
Here is one of my favorite 9/11 speaches:President Bush addressing a joint session of Congress, just nine days after the 9/11 attacks
