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Offline Flyin6

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CIEMR: Today is Patriots Day
« on: September 11, 2022, 10:43:56 AM »
Today is Patriots Day

Some things should be remembered, and some things are forever etched into our memories. We establish holidays to recognize the significance and enormity of a particular event. We celebrate Christmas because we Christians just want to celebrate the birth of the savior of mankind. His actual birth may not have actually happened on the 25th of December, but we nevertheless recognize that day, and it is perhaps the most recognizable holiday in the entire world. We recognize Independence Day for what it was, the birth of the United States of America. It too is significant and well known everywhere.

Neither of those days was etched in our memories because we were not alive when it happened. So, we grew up and at some point, we were introduced to the idea and grew to accept it. December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day, the Sunday when Japan attacked the United States of America is much more recent but is not etched in the memories of those still alive.

I was in grade school when I remember my principal coming into the classroom and whispering something into Miss Caron’s ear. I saw her shed a tear, then she told us that our president, John Kennedy was just shot. Shortly after that the buses came and took us home early. That date is etched in my memory because I experienced it. It is of a higher significance to me because I actually experienced it.

I was an Army pilot just leaving the room in Tucson Arizona to fly a para drop mission for some Navy Seals during another “etching event.” The guys down in the rental car were yelling for me to hurry it up, they wanted to swing through a McDonald’s on the way to the airport where our Chinook was parked and waiting. I watched the liftoff of the Columbia. I watched it climb and climb and I was all caught up in the moment, and I watched it explode and break up. It was surreal like I was watching a movie. I remember turning, still halfway out of the door to the hotel room, and saying to the guys in the car, “The space shuttle just blew up.” That moment became part of me, forever etched in my memory.

Many years later I walked into my apartment near Cincinnati. Being a relatively new airline pilot, I had a place along with a couple of other pilots as is the tradition within the industry. I Had just flown in from Canton-Akron airport on the 6 AM, my last flight and I was dead tired from being out all night inside either a jet or a hotel for a couple of hours. I had just sat down when my phone rang. It was Kathy. I answered and she just said, “Oh thank God you’re OK.” That seemed pretty odd to me as I flew all the time and often on these late-night/early morning pairings.

I asked why she had asked that. She responded, “You don’t know what’s happening?” I answered that I did not and she said, “Turn on the TV.” I asked her what channel, and she said, “Just turn on the TV.” It focused on the image of the tower or towers burning, then there were reports of the pentagon then of additional possible attacks. I watched as if that too, was surreal. I remember saying to myself, “We are at war, the United States is at war.”

Today is Patriots Day. Today we remember the brave firemen and police who died trying to save those trapped in the burning towers. Today we remember when an unspeakable evil came to kill us and set us on a course that would cost many thousands of more lives. We remember the efforts and sacrifices of all brave Americans who died or sacrificed or suffered. We think about the children and wives and husbands and grandmothers and granddads, brothers, and sisters who lost a loved one.

I personally also remember thousands of soldiers who went on to fight. Today is 9-11. Today is Patriots Day.
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