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#2394 | Wednesday, September 11th 2002
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September 11th 2001. I, as well as many others of the 319th Civil Engineering Squadron of Grand Forks Air Force Base, ND, was on a temporary duty assignment at Eskan Village, Saudi Arabia. We had the luxury of CNN, and were able to follow along every second of the tragedy of that day. It seemed like a horrible movie, and took a second or two to realize that it was very real. That night at the dining hall, nobody spoke of the day's events. The next day a memorial service was help at the make shift chapel. After 9-11, the atmosphere on our little 1 sq. mile base was never the same. Commraderies appeared seemingly out of mid air. Everybody bonded closer together than ever before, especially with us being so far away from home, and yet so close to the origin of this evil that tried to bring our great country down. We prevailed then, and will prevail in the future. It seems a little old, but still true.....what doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger. Remember that America. Keep your heads up high. Be proud of who we are!!!!!!!!!
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Jan | 24 | North Dakota
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#1840 | Monday, September 9th 2002
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I was in class, when this happened. I remember getting into my van to go and grab something to eat and run home for a bit before my next class. The radio kept saying something about the pentagon. I didn't understand because the announcer was not forthcoming with any information. All I understood was that there was a fire. My thoughts turned to getting home and hopefully finding out what was going on.
Then I reached home and saw the unthinkable right there on my television.
I had made it home just 2 minutes before the first tower fell. I just remembered feeling lost. Should I go and get my children from school and daycare? Should I go back to class? Oh My God, what about my husband? Does he even know?
Then it happened again...Soon before I left to go back to class, the second tower fell.
I did continue my day. And as it went on, I saw more and more anger and sorrow among my classmates and even my instructors. Classes turned into full-blown discussions of what was happening to our nation. I remember seeing crowds around offices and classroom televisions, struggling to hear the latest news.
When I went to get my two smallest children from daycare, is when I think it finally hit home. I walked into my daycare provider’s home. It was quiet, as usual, because it was naptime. When I approached my provider’s living room, there she was just sobbing. It was then it hit. We just stood there, sobbing together—not saying a word.
Now that the anniversary grows closer and the TV replays those horrible images and the radio play those beautiful songs in remembrance, I will stop and thank God, again, for giving me my family, my friends, and my life. I will give my boys an extra hug and tell them for the ten-millionth time I love them. I will kiss and hold my husband a little longer before he goes to work. But most importantly I will go on, because if I let it get to me, they will win—and this American is not about to let them.
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Christie | 30 | North Dakota
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#919 | Monday, March 11th 2002
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My wife and I were both at work on 9/11. Although our office was closed that afternoon for security reasons, we stayed at work to finish up various tasks. We both feel that the response of the public and the news media needs to be tempered by some reality. First, we kill many more people from auto accidents, alcohol and tobacco in this country than we ever lost on 9/11. Second, terrorism of this kind is endemic around the world and has killed many more than we lost on 9/11 and the US is just lucky it hadn't struck here more often. Third, we have enough home grown nuts who use terrorism to advance their agenda (think OK City, abortion clinics, militia's) that could just as easily have been the terrorists as muslims. Fourth, it is very apparent to us that the current generation of Americans has grown very soft and fails to account for the world outside our borders. Get over it. In our part of the US, life was normal on 9/10, 9/11 and 9/12 and ever since that time. We flew to a conference on 9/23 for a week and have flown many times since then. Traffic at our local airport dropped just 4% over the last 6 months.
As a veteran, I am proud of the NYC firefighters and policemen and our military response and glad to see returning serviceman acknowledged for their service as opposed to being heckled and spit on like my own experience during Vietnam.
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t | 50 | North Dakota
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