A Day Late

Yesterday was pretty hectic, so I didn't get anything posted, though I did take time for remembrance and reflection, as I hope you did.

Like many of you, I remember where I was the day a group of sub-humans attacked civilians in New York and Washington, and reminded us that, even in the twenty-first century, the idea of civilized humanity has still not taken hold in some areas. Time may have clouded my memory of some of the details, but the events unfolded, as best I remember, as follows.

At that time, in my role as a defense contractor, I was working on a U.S. Military installation in Huntsville, Alabama - an hour behind New York - working closely with the Saudi Arabian government in their procurement of military hardware from the U.S. government. We were actually in the process of planning a series of meetings with some Saudi military personnel, to be held in Huntsville the following month, when I was sitting at my desk and my team leader stopped by.

She asked me, "Did you hear about the World Trade Center?"

I hadn't.

But for some reason, just hearing the name of the place immediately made me think of the 1993 WTC bombing, so I asked, "They didn't bomb it again, did they?"

She said, "Yeah," and then followed up by pointing out that we really weren't sure yet, but that a plane had hit one of the buildings. It could only be an accident.

Of course, a few minutes later the idea of it being an accident was no longer a reasonable thing to think, as we received word that a second plane had hit. We were under attack.

I tried to log onto a website to get the details, but it seemed every server was clogged with traffic. I e-mailed a friend working elsewhere on the base, asking if he had heard anything. All he wrote back was, "Yes, get to a TV or radio." It was then that I remembered to turn on the radio on my desk. Sure enough, the local station was broadcasting ABC's coverage of the event.

About this time, I was called into my Division Chief's office for a previously-scheduled meeting to make plans for the upcoming meetings with the Saudis. He is big on continuing on as normal, holding the panic until we know more information. Fair enough.

But we weren't in his office for long when another member of the team stuck her head in his door to tell us, "The Pentagon's been hit."

Meeting paused.

We had a guy from our Division in Arlington on business that day. He wasn't scheduled to be in the Pentagon, but his proximity to it got our team leader on the phone quickly, trying to make contact. No luck, the phone lines are either clogged or down. His wife called the office to see what we knew. A few minutes later, our man in Arlington was actually able to get a call through to us, much to everyone's relief.

It was about this time that another employee of the contractor I work for came down the hall announcing that one of the Company Vice-Presidents had directed that all employees leave the base as quickly as possible. Naturally, no one was being allowed on the base at this time, and we wondered if we would be able to get off the base. Fortunately, there was no trouble in that regard.

After leaving the base, I went immediately to the company's building in the city. Every television to be found in the building was turned on, and everyone's attention was on the same thing. I went to the office of a worker that I had shared an office with a few years earlier to watch events unfold.

I hadn't been there long when it happened.

First one, then the other tower collapsed into the city in a massive cloud of dust. Everyone present realized that we had just seen a lot of people die, a few hundred miles to our north. After a few minutes, someone quietly said, "It's gone!" Walking the halls, I could detect a combination of high levels of despair and anger over what had been done to us.

Yes, us. Everyone there realized that the attack was designed to kill a portion of us, but to hurt all of us. And it had.

Being a company whose primary customer is the U.S. military, and that is staffed by a large percentage of former, as well as active, military personnel (guards and reserves), we all knew that our business just became a larger part of American life, and that, sleeping or not, the American nation was a giant that was being readied to inflict vengeance for the blood of her children.

When I finally got home that evening, I received calls from friends who wanted to compare notes, as well as one from a friend who lives alone and wanted some company that night. "Come on over," I told him. And he, and I, and my wife watched the ongoing coverage together, including President Bush's address to the nation. In office less than eight months, his presidency was now destined, for better or worse, to be one of the most consequential in history.

President Bush's comments confirmed what everyone already knew - we were now at war, and would be for many years, due to the nature of the enemy we would have to fight. That war continues to this day, and the blood of Americans is still being shed, but now the battle is being fought on our terms. Specifically, it is being fought on the turf of the bad guys, and not on our turf. Young men and women are still stepping up to serve in our all-volunteer military, making their service even more recognizable as the honorable sacrifice that it has always been.

In the days following the attacks of 2001, this nation decided that we should no longer have to live with terrorism as an every day fact of life. No civilized person likes going to war, with all that war involves, but a reasonable person realizes that war is sometimes thrust upon a people. To borrow from Abraham Lincoln, there were those who were ready to go to war to impose their tyranny, and there were those who were ready to accept war rather than let that tyranny succeed. And the war came.

How long will the war go on? No one knows, just as no one knew on December 8, 1941 how long that war would last. I have no doubt that many were frustrated when that war dragged on past the roughly two-years that comprised our involvement in the First World War. But however long we had had to make the sacrifices in previous conflicts, it was recognized that we had to stay in that fight until it was won. One hopes that the powers that be will have that same commitment to the present struggle for life and freedom - that it will last as long as it takes to win.

And lest we lose sight of what's at stake, it is good for us to remember - vividly - what we saw on that day. We saw the best of humanity in the actions of Americans trying to help one another, and the worst of humanity in the actions of our enemies who took pleasure in taking the lives of innocent civilians and then danced in the streets of far away lands in celebration.

Remember New York.