Random Thoughts

As the days draw closer to the Anniversary of the day, that for my generation rivals 7 December 1941, my thoughts travel in ever widening circles in reflection and retrospect.

11 September 2001 is a day none of us will probably ever forget and a day none should ever forget. I had recently returned to the home territory after an absence that was 10 years to long. I had been working at a local meat packing facility in western Minnesota as a 3rd shift Maintenance team member. I had just laid down to go to sleep when a friend of my then girlfriend rushed into the house yelling for anyone who might be home. I shouted back that I was trying to go to sleep and thats when I heard the news that forever changed not just my life but the lives of everyone in this country I call home. I went downstairs thinking that whatever it was that had happened couldn't be that big of a deal. Imagine my horror when I turned the TV on and ESPN switched it's typical Sportscenter sportscast to ABC news and the video of those airliners hitting the WTC towers and the Pentagon.

I was still enlisted in the US Coast Guard Reserves at that time and I immediately picked up the phone and called the local recruiting office in the Twin Cities to inform them of who I was and that I was available immediately for anything they might have needed me for. In the end I wound up transferring from the Coast Guard Reserves into the Minnesota Army National Guard where I was finally able to feel as if I could contribute to the ongoing battle against Osama bin-Laden and his terror network. In 2004 I was deployed with my unit to Afghanistan where I worked to help secure our province for the first democratic elections in the history of the country. I was finally performing my duty in a manner that was worthwhile.

11 September 2001 was a day that changed all of us and for some the scars of that day will never fade fully. The scars of family and loved ones lost and gone forever. Ripped from the lives of those who's love for them has not died even though their loved one's died and were taken from them too early. This year on the anniversary of that tragic day I have been asked to write a blog memorializing one of the thousands of people who died on that most tragic of days. It is my hope and desire that when I finally work out the details of this tribute it will be one that can be respected by the family and one that truly honors that person. Only time will tell how well I do in this most honorable of assignments.

As I stated at the top these are just rambling thoughts and reflections of one person who will forever remember that tragic day that we call September 11th 2001.

From the HQ

The Grunt