I was in second grade, 7 years old, it’s one of those memories that’s burned in. You can remember the details of the moment. I remember walking in to our school library. I can picture coming through the door and seeing the librarian’s reaction as the events replayed on the news, shortly thereafter watching that first plane strike the tower on this TV she had above her desk.
Immediately, I can recall the feelings. I just knew something was off. The whole school paused and the teachers wheeled in those old TVs into the classroom.
That’s what we were doing that day in second grade. We were watching the events unfold. Shortly after the second plane hit, I think everybody knew that something wasn’t right.
I came home and told my dad, ‘I’m joining the military,’ with no comprehension or understanding of what that meant at the time. I’ve stuck hard to that path.
As I’ve grown up I remember getting to sixth grade and I had another cousin that graduated from the Air Force Academy and all that did was put a vector on what was already a goal. I knew what I wanted to do. This is how I am going to do it, this is how I want to serve so from sixth grade onward I have been motivated to join but it all stemmed from the events on Sept. 11.
It still means something to me. A lot of people may think I may be in the age bracket that doesn’t remember or maybe it didn’t affect me but they couldn’t be further from the truth. When you boil it down and get to the crux of it that was the singular event in my life that drove me to come into service and to this day and it is still a motivating factor. I serve because I don’t want something like Sept. 11 to happen again.
| Date Taken: | 09.11.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 09.13.2021 01:12 |
| Story ID: | 405051 |
| Location: | KADENA AIR BASE, OKINAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 26 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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