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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

9/11 Never Forget - Where were you?


Where were you on 9/11?

Here is my story...what is yours?

My husband joined the Army in June 2000. He was stationed at Fort Riley Kansas but we were staying in a 2 bedroom apartment in the nearby city of Manhattan. We had a 2 year old son and I was 8 months pregnant with my other son. My husband was to leave in 2 days to go to training in California for a month, so my sister-in-law was to fly at 8:00am (pacific time) from Seattle to Kansas to stay with me in case I delivered early.

The night of September 10th, my husband, son, and I were sleeping on a blow up mattress (we did not own a mattress yet). My son was playing on the mattress earlier in the day and must of put a hole in it. In the wee hours of the morning I went to the couch because I was 8 months pregnant and I was trying to get comfortable and the deflated mattress was not going to cut it. I awoke to my husbands cell phone going off. I ignored it the first few times, then I gave it to him the third time at almost 8am. It was his mom telling us to turn on the TV.

There we were glued to the images the rest of the nation was glued too. The first plane crash into the towers, then the next plane, the pentagon, the crashing of the towers and flight 93. We were shocked, saddened, and shocked some more. But for a military family we knew things were about to change.

My husbands Sargent called a meeting at his house so we could all gather and discuss things. 
The temperature was in the mid 90's that day in Kansas. Our air conditioner went out in the car. But we figured we would be there quick since it was a 20 minute drive. What we did not take into consideration, is that our once 'open base' was now turning into a 'secure base', but with no preparation. It took almost 4 hours to get onto the base with dogs sniffing all cars, checking for bombs, secured men with guns. It was not a pretty sight. They did bring in port-a-potties which was a relief for me being 8 months pregnant. All I remember is I b-lined it to the toilet..there was a lady in front of me running to the toilet too and she had a huge locus stuck to her behind, but I had to go so bad I did not say a word!

Once we got on base, there were tears, but everyone was quiet. We all knew there would be war, which meant our families would be forever changed.....and they were.

My husband left for training later that week. We did not know if he would be back or sent straight into combat. I decided to try and fly to my moms house in Oregon since my sister in law never made it out. It took 7 cancellations of flights, but I made it. Less than 2 weeks later I gave birth to my second son in Oregon.

In 2003 my husband went to war when I was pregnant with my 3rd son. The war was not pretty and left a big impact on our family today. He returned 15 months later when my son was was over a year old  But we are safe, our nation is strong, and we can only be thankful. Many more were not so lucky.

I do ask that you not only remember those who were lost on 9/11, but those who were affected on that day. There were many people who have fought in the war because of 9/11 who's lives have forever changed. These people fought and are fighting for your freedom to assure this does not happen again.

God Bless You and God Bless America

 Shannon

 What is your story?

 

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