Remembering

I had taken the summer of 2001 off after the Emerald Inn sold, and I was staying in a motel in Edmonds. I had slept in a bit, and I was a little startled when my cell phone rang. I looked down and saw that it was my son calling. His voice was shaking, and he asked me if I had the television on. I told him that I did not, and he said that I had better turn it on because the World Trade Center has just been attacked. I quickly turned on the set, and just as I did, the second plane hit the other tower.

In stunned silence I watched the smoke billowing over lower Manhattan, my mind not quite capable of fully comprehending what I has just witnessed. My son then jarred me back to minimal reality when he reminded me that he has just moved back to Seattle from NYC, and that his former office was only a block  away from the WTC. I bowed my head and said a quick thank you to God .

Moments later, as I continued to watch the carnage, an emotion that I had not experienced that many times in my life cascaded over every nerve and cell of my being. Rage, pure unadulterated rage, shook the very core of my being. I was 49 years old, but at that very moment, I wanted nothing more than to join that US Armed Forces, and go and hunt and down and kill the bastards who had committed this act of war.

I took a shower to cool down a bit, and then waked out to the street and down to my favorite Starbucks. The atmosphere was totally different that morning. No one was talking, and heads were bowed. I got my coffee and lemon roll and went outside to sit. The atmosphere outside was no different than inside. A funeral like hush hung over the great Seattle blue sky.

I finished my coffee and started trying to sort out the myriad of emotion's that were running though my body  and mind. The rest of the day I sat glued to the television, wondering, watching, preparing for the possibility that the entire nation could be under attack. The Puget Sound metro area is surrounded by various military bases including a large nuclear sub base, several Air For Bases, Coast Guard, and FT Lewis Army base.

Even the motel where I was summering was totally quiet, and the silence was deafening. The, there was the thundering sound of planes in the sky. That sound was particularly jarring that evening because all flights had been grounded in the US. As if we were all one man, every motel door opened and we all with great trepidation  went out to the parking lot and lifted our eyes towards the evening sky. There they were, A squadron of F15's and they were ours. As if once more we were all one, our collective voices said. "thank God they are ours". I then knew that we were be all right. The full power of the greatest nation on earth was guarding over us that night.

I also had comfort in knowing that the cowards who were behind this dastardly attack would see those same planes , only they would not be comforted in seeing them, They would bee feeling the most chilling terror possible as the power of the united people of America sought revenge.

Let us never forget that day, and maybe we never forget Pearl Harbor Day.   We must not let the PC police rewrite history.