Some people prefer not to think or look back at the attack on America by Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001 because it pisses them off all over again. It shocks and frightens them just as it did 10 years ago. They would rather put it out of their minds and think of better thoughts instead of reliving the horror. Au contraire, we MUST NOT FORGET the horror, the shock, the raw anger, and the need for ultimate and unflinching utter revenge on those who perpetrated this cowardly act on us – and those who help them. The criminals, the enablers, the sympathizers, all of them. While time does heal all wounds, we cannot let that healing mask our need to fulfill this revenge in its required completeness and finality. Yes bin Laden is (finally) fish feed thanks to Seal Team 6, but his followers remain. They ALL require extermination. We must not falter. Those who do not understand this simply do not count in our world.
I still remember Mike Enos calling me from work early that fateful morning, the comp day off I had long been waiting for. I remember him telling me we were under attack and that they hit the WTC, and my only reaction was, “You’re shitting me!” Then he told me to turn on the TV, and I was totally shaken. We were being attacked on our soil. I could not stay home. I was in such a daze while I rushed to get dressed and then sped off to work, making it into the back gate of Wheeler AAF before the Threatcon/FPCON Delta clamp down began. It was to be the first of many high energy days at work and our galvanized effort to push back.
As far away as we were from the east coast, it still reached out and touched those of us at DISA PAC who’d been a part of the unit in the late 90s. LTC Dennis Johnson, our former PC1 Chief circa 1996-1998, died in the attack on the Pentagon.
I save the news footage videos covering the horrific NYC scene so that the anger, the rage, the RESOLVE that I felt on that day and the following weeks will resurge within me everytime I watch the clips. Take the time to reminisce, think about what we went thru, to get angry again, to renew your vow to support the war on terrorism. We cannot forget. We cannot afford to.