Have you forgotten?

First, God Bless the victims of 9/11 and their families.
Second, God Bless the police and firefighters and everyone else that ran INTO the buildings....
Third, God Bless everyone that assisted, in any way during or after the ordeal.
Fourth, God Bless America.

September 11, 2001 started out like any other day. I was on active duty with the Navy at the Richmond Navy and Marine Corp Reserve Center. I was on ADSW, aka Active Duty Special Work, being the Honor Guard at Veterans' funerals. I was on my way to find out what was scheduled for the day.

I remember the time exactly. It was 0854 hours. I was passing the conference room, noticing at first, only that the room was filled with the "gunnies" from the Marine Corps Reserve section from across the hall. Then I saw what they were watching...one of the World Trade Center towers was on fire.

One Gunny told me that a terrible accident had happened, but that was all that he knew. And so we watched....

And six minutes later, we were at war. We now knew that the crash had been no accident. The Marines, even before the debris had hit the ground in NYC, began securing the building and opening the armory. And then they called their superiors.
Over the next few weeks, they called in Reservists, in case they were needed. The gates were closed and armed guards posted.
One of my most cherished possessions is the Letter of Appreciation in a RED award folder that I have among my blue Navy award folders, which I received for volunteering to stand a guard post during the day so that the Marines could do their duties activating Reservists.

About an hour later, we found out about the Pentagon. Our eyes had finally been opened. Terrorism had ceased being a crime. Now we knew that, truly, we were at war.

Where were you when the Towers were hit?