9/11

At 8:46AM on September 11th, 2001, I was a sophomore in high school - I don't remember what I was doing at the time... I do remember walking into my next class, seeing the World Trade Center billowing smoke, and commented that they must be talking about the terrorist attack in 1993. Another classmate corrected me, "no it's happening right now!" We basically watched speechless as the towers continued to burn, and then collapse in horrific fashion.

At 8:46AM on September 11th, 2011, I was in a large airliner flying from Kuwait to at Atlanta, just a few minutes from touching down on American soil, commenting to a fellow soldier that it was about that time 10 years ago that the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

If anything and in spite of things I'm not necessarily content with, one of the things my time in the Middle East (so far) has taught me is just how fortunate I am. I wasn't deployed for a full year, there was only one mildly hairy incident outside the wire, and I'm coming back with quite a few blessings to say the least. A lot of money, post-9/11 GI benefits that I can use for grad school, and my mind & body intact... I'll take it! Many of my other buddies in my unit, though assigned to other PRTs, have also gotten through our deployment okay, and we'll all be demobilizing together at Fort Dix, the rest will come home soon as well. It's been quite the ride, and I know for a fact that even with all the dysfunctions of PRT operations, I was right where I needed to be from December 2010-September 2011. Did I change the world? Did I necessarily fight the good fight? I dunno about that, but I did my job!