re: Where were you 15 years ago today?

Well, for me it was all over after I helped Sgt Pepper teach the band to play but 15 years ago I was watching planes fly in and out of the only public airport operating that day.

True Story

I was leaving my job being a Ranger Instructor and headed to serve in Italy. I retired 7 years later and what feels like a 100 years older. I wouldn't change a thing!

I was a 5th year senior at UGA and jogging to a law class for the midterm exam. I was running late, and this professor was notorious for locking the door if you were late and failing you.

I ran up the stairs of Park Hall and hoping I would make the exam and there the professor was, standing at the door, as if waiting for me .... and I said "Did I make it in time?" and he said "All academic activities have been cancelled due to terrorist attacks in Washington DC". I said "Are you serious?" and he said "Yes".

So I walked down the stairs, out to Baldwin St and it just so happenned one of my best friends was driving by with his girlfriend at the time, and I hopped in their car. His GF's dad was a delta pilot.

As they were driving me home, they filled me in on what had happenned, although they only knew about the plane crashes at the time.. towers hadn't come down.

I get home... and my crackhead neighbor greets me... he knew some shite went down but didnt' have TV in his apartment, so I invited him in to watch the news.

We watched fox news together for about 48 hours straight.

This even was truly the Pearl Harbor of our time.

On one hand, I am frustrated by millenials that don't fully "get it" but on the other hand, I am glad that children at the time weren't fully involved... how would a parent go about explaining this to children? You'd probably try to gloss over it in some way, make it not sound so bad... I don't know. I have a toddler. I don't know how I would try to explain things like this to him.

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I didn't know that there were people in the world who hated the USA.

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You also didn't know there was a complex underbelly network of intelligence agencies who'd go to extreme measures to trick the world in order to push forward a variety of agendas.

I was working my first job out of college. I was staying at a friend's house, after driving halfway back home after a training road trip. I'm sleeping on a trundle bed in the guest room when someone runs in and says "Wake up! Wake up you gotta see this on TV!" I said "what is it?" They said "World War 3!" I'll never forget watching that news coverage and trying to wrap my brain around what we were seeing. I'll also never forget that every single channel on cable was showing the news feed, except the Cartoon Network. Very eerie day and shocking.

In Atlanta... The night before I had worked all night to make deadline so I was sleeping that morning. My future wife called and woke me up and said "we are under attack" spent the rest of the day at her place watching tv all day. I remember local news reports that the cdc was a target and the city was on lockdown. Never forget that day and the following weeks of flags everywhere and a united nation. Crazy thing was my wife was in NY the week before having meetings in the trade towers....

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Wonder if you ever ran into my dad. He was a major there when 9/11 went down.

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Where did he work?

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Dude loved to wear his dress blues and loved PT.

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Yeah, we probably wouldn't gotten along.

I don't think I ever ran across him though.