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#1388 | Tuesday, June 11th 2002
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“Who knows, maybe you even deserved it after all the times you've devastated other countries, be it economically or destructively.
God bless America? I don’t think so.”
After browsing thru a few postings I was deeply disturbed by the aforementioned post. The 18-year-old writer references a date of August 6 1945 and August 9, 1945. Is this the bombing you are referring to? If so why don’t you also reference December 1941 Pearl Harbor. This was an unprovoked attack don’t forget to indicate that. The bottom line is all three of these incidents occurred based on a Politicians decision. I too love my country but perhaps we should let the Presidents and Dictators box it out. Why don’t you spend your time resolving the issues in the UK instead?
GOD BLESS AMERICAN LAND THAT I LOVE!!!
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PROUD | 46 | District of Columbia
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#1297 | Sunday, May 19th 2002
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I was in my apartment in DC. It wasn't really mine, just rented to me by the people I was interning with at a journalism center. We didn't have a tv, just a radio, so I first heard what happened when my friends mother called. He was squatting at the residence with me. We grabbed a bike and a skateboard and went over to the bar I spent the summer, almost every night at. We watched the tv there and spent the rest of the day hovering about the capital taking things in. The last thing I did was go see a house we were thinking of renting. Our careers in journalism begans only days afterwards. I remember trying to call home in NY and not getting through, finally settling for an okay message to family through email. I remember feeling alive.
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Brandon | 23 | District of Columbia
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#1273 | Tuesday, May 14th 2002
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I was sitting in a Navy Lodge on Atsugi Naval Air Station with my parents.
I was stationed onboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63), forward deployed out of Yokosuka, Japan. My parents had flown in to visit me and see my ship for the first time in the three years that I was there.
On Sept. 10 a typhoon warning drove us into the safety of Atsugi's Lodge. The typhoon cleared Tokyo Bay mid after noon Sept 11. Keeping in mind that Tokyo is 16 or so hours ahead of the US, my late after noon was your pre-dawn hours.
I had gone out with a few friends to the onbase bar, Club Trilogy, for a quick drink.
When I arived back, my parents had passed out so I did the same.
I had been on leave for 15 days at that point, and like many Sailors on leave before me, I don't shave for as long as I can get away with it. That morning I did so that I could even get on my own ship.
We ate and preped for the day my parents were going to have as burned in there minds as the day I stood with a 3 inch thick rope in my hand down on the peir waiting for this WTC sized ship to do the strange dance a few hundred feet out.
We went down stairs without turning on the TV as we need to get an early start on the day. The front desk was empty. I knew of one cab company to call, none of us had cars (way to expensive in Japan) and we didn't want to walk the 3 miles to the train station. The Japanese cab driver told me he couldn't come on base. Which was odd, they always came on base. Went upstairs to look for the number of another cab company. My father turned on the TV just in time to see footage of the second plane. We sat there stairing for hours at the TV.
Four days later my Chain of Command told me that we had made preperations to get underway and I was being recalled from leave. I walked my parents to the gate, kissed my mother and told her how to get to the airport via the train. I watched until they cleared the gun implacments that the Marines had built up over night. I turned and without a second thought made all haist getting back aboard, the Warship Kitty Hawk. 12 hours later, nothing for miles around but deep blue water.
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JOSN | 23 | District of Columbia
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#1267 | Saturday, May 11th 2002
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The events of September 11th have affected me on so many levels that I cannot fully explain how I feel. I live in Washington DC, I go to school next to a Naval Base and Hospital, I live a half an hour from Dulles Airport. To know that this happened in my backyard scares more than anything in the world. I was in school when it was announced that the WTC had been hit by an airplane and I didn't understand the magnitude of those buildings and the damage it would do. I assumed someone in air traffic control had made a horrible mistake. When I heard that the Pentagon had been hit, I was slapped in the face by the realization that this was an attack. For me, this was not an attack on my country; this was an attack on my friends and family, my friends' fathers and mothers. This was not some ideological betrayal, this was my home and my life. Not knowing what was going on was probably the worst part. My school was closed and I remember trying to get in touch with my parents and not getting anyone. All of the cell phone circuits were busy and no one knew where their family was. I had a friend whose mother was in the White House that day and was just told to run. I have friends who lost loved ones. I lost friends as well. The image of the Pentagon in flames will never leave my consciousness and I can still see very clearly the second plane crashing into the WTC. I do not live a single day without thinking about what happened and about how I will never be the same person. I do not know if I will ever go for too long without waking up crying. I will never forget what I saw and can only hope that one day I can block from my consciousness the pictures burned into my memory for a week, a day, an hour even. My entire generation has been robbed of an innocence that I will do everything in my power to protect for my children. God Bless.
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Sam | 17 | District of Columbia
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#940 | Monday, March 11th 2002
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I heard the news from a crazy homeless man but I didn't believe him.
I was running late for work, again, the day of 9/11. I had been underground on the Metro when the WTC was hit. And I heard the the rumble and crash when the Pentagon got hit, but I had not yet heard the news of any of the attacks and really didn't think much of it. I work at the US Department of Commerce in DC, 2 blocks from the White House. It wasn't until I got to my building when my crazy homeless friend says "They World Trade Center is on fire." With this story, as with others he tells, I dismissed it and went on up stairs.
When I got there, I had an email message stating that "the New York Regional Office has been closed due to a bomb at the World Trade Center." At which point, my supervisor comes and says "they just hit the Pentagon." It then clicked what I had just heard on my walk to my building. I ran to the other side of the DOC that has a view of the Pentagon, and sure enough, it was on fire. And then I left the building. Still not knowing what was going on.
When I get out of my building at 14th and Pennsylvania, I look up, and hovering above the White House is a big, unmarked, low-flying, white jumbo jet. It is odd to see a jet flying right overhead in DC, but I later found out that it was a flying tactical command center protecting the White House.
Anyway, I got the full news coverage at the bar and decided that I needed to get back to Virginia. Fearful of further attacks to DC, I decided that I could not get back on the Metro. I had to walk. And the closest way out of DC and home was the Memorial Bridge which gave me a close look at the burning Pentagon. As I crossed the Mall, I was detoured around the Washington Monument. Then I heard the sound of more explosions nearby. These turned out to be the sonic booms of in-coming jets fighters.... regardless, when I heard them I screamed at them in the middle of the Mall, "Would you stop f**king bombing us!!!"
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Kevin | 27 | District of Columbia
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