149th Infantry Regiment uses patch ceremony to commemorate 9/11 attacks

Photo By Staff Sgt. Paul Glover | Capt. Daniels Mays (left), commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 149th Infantry Regiment, 77th Sustainment Brigade, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, and a native of Harrodsburg, Ky., administers the oath of re-enlistment to Sgt. 1st Class Adron Wilson, a native of Arjay, Ky., following a combat patch ceremony held Sept. 11 at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, for soldiers of HHC, 1-149th Inf. Regt. Wilson, who was serving as a Marine on 9/11, chose to re-enlist for his final tour of duty on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 as a way of honoring those lost in the attacks.  

JOINT BASE BALAD, IRAQ

09.18.2011

Courtesy Story

77th Sustainment Brigade

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq — Almost every American can remember where they were on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Capt. Daniel Mays, the commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 149th Infantry Regiment, 77th Sustainment Brigade, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, a native of Harrodsburg, Ky., was working at a state police post in Ashland, Ky., back in 2001.

“I was in shock watching the second plane fly into the tower,” he said. “I was sick to my stomach thinking how many people were trapped, but I was also in awe of the brave firefighters that were going into these buildings to save lives, which anyone else would have been running away from.”

First Sgt. Michael Mills of HHC, 1-149 Inf. Regt., a native of Barbourville, Ky., was working at a railroad on 9/11.

“My supervisor came over the intercom saying ‘One of the twin towers in New York was accidentally hit by an airplane,’” he said. “When the second plane struck the other tower, I knew that this was no accident. The United States was at war.”

Mays and Mills decided to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11 by following a tradition common to deployed military units: the combat patch ceremony. For HHC, 1-149th Inf. Regt., whose main body arrived at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, in August, the ceremony was delayed for a few days in order to honor those lost in the 9/11 attacks and in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We wanted to do something special on this occasion, and I can’t think of any time more prudent than on this date that changed most Americans’ lives forever,” Mays said. “I know it means a lot to our soldiers and their families. Soldiers will know that they were part of something special as we are closing the door and adding another page to the history books.”

Sgt. 1st Class Adron Wilson, linguist manager for the 149th Inf. Regt. and a native of Arjay, Ky., added to the ceremony by re-enlisting at the end of it. Wilson was in an airplane on his way to mountain warfare training as a Marine on 9/11, and he chose this date to conduct his final re-enlistment as a way of honoring those lost in the attacks and the wars fought since.

“I couldn’t pick a better day to do it than in remembrance of 9/11,” he said.

Wilson added that he takes just as much pride serving on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 as he did on the first anniversary.

• Date Taken: 09.18.2011
• Date Posted: 09.18.2011 03:26
• Story ID: 77197
• Location: JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ