I have been so busy with getting ready to leave Fort Lewis and head to Fort Riley, I am finally able to get on the forums and make this post. Ten years ago I was a member of the USS IWO JIMA(LHD-7) as we sat tied up to pier 10South at the Norfolk Naval Station. I was on the USS Wasp(LHD-1) tied up next to us getting some spare parts when I headed back to my boat. I walked into GSE shop and everyone was huddled around the tv. I turned in time to see the second jet hit the other tower and I turned to one of my fellow crew members and fellow native New Yorker in disbelief. Even 10 years later it is still something I find hard to believe. I remember driving across the Verranzano's Narrows Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn with my wife and looking to my left to see the still smoldering remants of the Twin Towers. I remember when the Towers were built in the late 70's much to the shagrin of some and then eventually they were an inseparable part of the New York skyline. I had and still have family that live in the City and connected to some who were there. A couple of years prior to 9-11, I drove up to NYC with friends of mine from Pennsylvania ( where I was living at the time) and we went to the Ladder 8 house(ghostbusters house) and we met some of the crew from 8 Truck. On 9-11 Ladder 8 lost one member, Lt Vincent Halloran, to this day I believe he is one of NY Bravest that we met. 9-11 was and still is tough for me. I was a fire-fighter in Pennsylvania for about 6 years and I felt the loss of 343 of my bretheren. In 2004, when I was faced with a career choice either face discharge from the Navy due to downsizing or go into the Army, I chose the latter. New York was and still is my home and I took the attacks personally and I wanted to be involved in the fight to bring those who planned, perpetrated and financed the attacks to justice or actually ; revenge. Like my father before me, my dad fought in the Great War that defined his generation, I have fought and continue to fight in a war that defines mine.
