Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Where were you when the world stopped turning?

Recently there has been quite a bit of discussion on the boards for college about 9/11 and if it could have been an inside job. One lady posted a link to a documentary which covers this topic and it does a very good job of making you think that there is a chance that our own government was responsible for 9/11. The documentary is located at www.loosechange911.com. (Beware: this sucker runs for 90 minutes). I honestly don't know what to think about what happened on 9/11. I do know three things:
1) it affected me personally because the US deciding to go after terrorism before it hit us again sent me to a war zone for a year.
2) it made me realize that the US is not the untouchable badass that everyone thought we were
3) I will always remember where I was the day the twin towers came down.

I was on a field exercise in Camp Colburn, Korea. Myself and a few other people from my section were huddled around 1SG's laptop watching the planes hit the towers on CNN. Shortly after our Company Commander called a formation and told us that the United States had been attacked and that we had to pack up immediately and convoy back to Yongsan. Earlier that day I remember thinking how much it sucked to be away from my barracks and stuck on Camp Colbern living in tents and having to eat at a Dining Facility instead of being able to go down and get a burger somewhere. I was only 19 years old at the time and at that point in my life the world was still about me, me, me. 9/11 definitely changed that for me. When I originally joined the Army I thought there would not be a possibility that I would be going to war. I thought I could do my two years which was my original enlistment and get out and go to college with the GI Bill. I know the purpose of joining the Army is to defend the country if need be but when you're that young I think you tend to put things like that in the back of your mind in favor of the things that sound more appealing. When I joined all I could think was I am getting the hell out of Muskegon, I will get to see alot of places I probably would not have been otherwise, and I got a steady paycheck and college money. Going to war was so far down the list it wasn't even a consideration.
I remember that horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach when I watched the footage of those planes hitting the towers. Its the same horrible feeling I had when we first touched down in Kuwait 15 months later because I had no idea what to expect. I remember wanting to call home and tell my family that I loved them in case I didn't get the chance again. How many people in those towers and on those planes didn't get the chance to get those last I love you's in? It is hard to believe that one day could give someone such a big dose of reality but I think it did for alot of us. I sincerely hope that the documentary is wrong and the government is not responsible for 9/11. I know the documentary is just one opinion and that different video clips and quotes can be spliced together to make any position look favorable but now that seed of doubt is there. I hope some day they find the truth and are able to punish the people that were responsible for the tragedy whether it be Osama Bin Laden or members of our own government. And I hope we never become as complacent as we once were and can avoid suffering through another 9/11.

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