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Where Were You When It All Started?

Remembering 9/11/01

By Jason Ray Morton Published 3 years ago 7 min read
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Where Were You When It All Started?
Photo by Steve Harvey on Unsplash

Remembering 9-11

It's quite an extraordinary view and something that I have never, nor will I ever, have the privilege of witnessing. The Twin Towers were a part of the New York City skyline for many years before September 11th, 2001. I never gave them a second thought until that morning. At 8:45 am on a clear Tuesday morning a Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of fuel crashed into the first tower or what was known as the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The plane's impact with the building, near the 80th floor, left a gaping, burning hole in the 110-story skyscraper that killed hundreds of people in an instant and trapped hundreds more located on the higher floors.

While the evacuations of the towers had begun, television cameras broadcasted live images of what many believed to be a freak accident. It took just 18 minutes to prove that this was no accident as a second 767, United Airlines Flight 175-appeared before turning sharply toward the World Trade Center and slammed into the south tower, impacting near the 60th floor. It was right then and there that America knew the sad truth of what would come next, we were at war.

19 men with connections to an Islamic Terrorist Group that I had never heard of before that day were responsible for changing the world as we knew it. Many of them lived in our country for over a year, while some arrived just months before the attacks, to act as muscle. Those that lived here the longest took flying lessons at commercial flight schools, right here in our country.

These men easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through checkpoints at three airports on the East Coast. Boarding four flights in the early-morning hours, all heading for California, they blended in with our fellow American flyers, having chosen the flights most likely because they were the most loaded with fuel for the transcontinental flights. It was soon after takeoff that the terrorists took over the planes, putting the passengers through the worst moments of their lives as the terrorists took over the cockpits and turned the passenger-filled planes into missiles.

By Axel Houmadi on Unsplash

Where Were You When You Learned Of 9-11

I remember the day like it was yesterday, as I'm sure most Americans that were adults remember it well. I'd just left a Tuesday morning staff meeting at the Sheriff's Department where I was a shift Seargent. I stopped at one of my guy's homes for a visit and to talk about work. When I walked into the back door at Bill's I went down to his basement mancave where he spent his time on his computer, relaxing, and enjoying several beers after what was a long night at work. It was a simple get-together of two guys that were third shifters as well as buddies.

Bill: "Hey, sit down and check this out."

Me: "What's up?"

Bill: "Just watch."

Bill handed me a beer as I sat down, watching his flat screen as a news report was on about a plane crash. I didn't know what to think. As I sipped from the can of Keystone Light, the second plane struck the south tower of the World Trade Center. I just sat there, my mouth agape.

Me: "What the hell is this?"

Bill: "While you were at the staff meeting a plane struck the World Trade Center. The North Tower's been on fire for a while...now one has hit the South Tower."

One plane would have been tragic enough, but a second plane made it all seem so much worse. I remember sitting there with Bill for the longest time, neither of us speaking much, other than to say how horrific things looked. Bill was in his late 50's while I was not even 30 years old. He'd been around longer, had served his country, and knew what was going on better than I did.

Bill: "We're going to war."

Me: "With who? Who the hell would do this?"

As the towers burned, I sat and watched the news catch shots of a man jumping from the tower, I imagine preferring that, over burning to death. Then came the news that the Pentagon got hit, the towers fell, and the news that United 93 was down in a field. It all seemed surreal as we spent the majority of the day watching the events unfold, time and time again until I knew it was late and I had to go home.

It was after 3:00 that day when I finally turned off the news. I went to spend time with my son, who was just about to be 10 years old. I remember thinking about what kind of a world he was going to grow up in, now that we were going to war, at some point and with someone yet to be named. For the first time since Pearl Harbor, America had suffered a devastating attack on American soil. Thousands of people had been hurt. We know that 2,996 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks between the attacks on New York, the Pentagon, and those that were on United 93.

I won't even go into how disheartening it is that we have expended countless manpower and risked American lives in Afghanistan only to see how things are playing out as I write this. Over one hundred civilians and thirteen American soldiers dead at the hand of a suicide bomber. It is frightening to think that as we prepare to move out of the region, to finally hand the future of Afghanistan back to its' people, this is how it is playing out. The Taliban, the very regime that was there, to begin with, is now back in control of the country and as they're known to harbor terrorists, have placed the people of the country in great danger. Many Afghanistan citizens worked with our forces to try to effect change in their country. Americans, many of them, are still in Afghanistan and we have a President that can't seem to assure that we'll get them out. American soldiers died fighting for an ideal. Innocent lives were lost during the 9-11 attacks and many more since. Trillions of dollars spent, and for what?

The saddest thing about all the losses that we've suffered since 9-11 is the loss of our innocence, something that nobody can ever get back. Isis-K may be a problem we'll have to contend with, and the middle east is now in danger of being run by the same tyrannical mindsets that have attacked us, tried to kill us, and hated us for years. What have we learned?

We didn't teach the extremists that associate with terrorism anything, that much I'm sure of, and yet, did they learn the most important lesson they could have learned from us. To me, it's best summed up with a quote from one of my favorite action scenes as the hero takes out the terrorist.

"You know what you guys don't get, we're not a fucking republic, we're not a fucking flag, we're not just one man. Assholes like you have been trying to kill us for a long fucking time. But, you know what, a thousand years from now, we'll still be here."

Gerard Butler-Mike Banning

London Has Fallen

Extremists will always be here. So will we. While I might not understand what, if anything, was really proven by the 20yr war we fought in Afghanistan, I hope that our current administration handles things in a way that we can all live with. Get our people out, get those that helped us, and those that want to get out of Afghanistan out. Then, let them live their lives however they want as long as it doesn't disturb the peace. If it does, the, deal with it in a way that it is done, once and for all. But, above all else, remember that it's not our job to fight for people's rights if they won't fight for them. At the end of the story, that's a lesson that I hope our side learned over the past 20 years, or at least have been taught by recent events. No matter how much we invested in teaching them to defend their country when push came to shove, they handed it right back to the very people that we were there to protect them from and betrayed the sacrifice of every one of our men and women that served there.

By Ben Lei on Unsplash

Thank you for reading, and never forget those that have suffered loss and sacrificed so much to keep us safe from those in the world that would do us harm just because of our beliefs.

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About the Creator

Jason Ray Morton

I have always enjoyed writing and exploring new ideas, new beliefs, and the dreams that rattle around inside my head. I have enjoyed the current state of science, human progress, fantasy and existence and write about them when I can.

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