Note: As I started writing this, I realized, in order for this to be a decent entry, needed to be divided into more than one part. The impetus for this entry is obviously the killing of Osama bin Laden during a raid in Pakistan by, likely, US Special Operations Command soldiers. These view are entirely my own, and I have no inside knowledge of how things worked with this. I’m saying this because I could be completely off-base with my insights and opinions. As I always say, please question, look for a reliable source of evidence, and for your own, well-educated opinions. Most of all, be civil, open-minded, and admit when you’re wrong. I’m wrong a lot. Please enjoy the read.
I remember where I was on September 11th, 2001. Most Americans remember where they were. I was at Fort Bragg, North Carolina with my company doing a workout at a lake. We were preparing to commemorate the Waal River Crossing, where many brave Americans from the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 307th Engineers sustained heavy casualties in a daring daylight attack. How little did we know how much our lives would change on that day.
Just after 0900, our CQ (charge of quarters) drove his own vehicle to the area where we were, typically a15 minutes drive from the company area to where we were. The first indication that something wasn't right was the fact that he was driving his Ford Taurus approximately 50 miles per hour on a pothole-filled dirt road to get to us. As he stepped out of the car, gasping for air, he told us that two airplanes had flown into the World Trade Centers and that something big was going on. The battalion commander wanted us to get back to our barracks. As we were on two-hour recall at the time, we had to be prepared to go anywhere in the world within 18-hours. We thought the call had come and were ready to go. Ironically, half of our company was on a training mission in Argentina at the time. Alas, those were the days before September 11th, 2001, where nobody was going to war and everybody wanted to. How naive we were.
We were absolutely dumbfounded, and as the day’s events played out, we all wondered who would do this to us? Seeing the World Trade Centers crumble and seeing some victims choose to jump to their deaths rather than face burning to death made the tragedy hit home. Everybody knew somebody who was affected by the tragedy. My company commander told us to pack all of our gear and to pack flashlights and search gear. We honestly thought we’d be headed to the Pentagon or New York City to help with the search effort. We weren’t. We didn’t go anywhere for just over a year. As you may remember, the war in Afghanistan kicked off just over a month later, and conventional forces started fighting Al Qaeda forces shortly thereafter.
Before that day, Al Qaeda was just a name in a list of terror organizations that I’d never paid attention to. I always envisioned us fighting with Iraq or North Korea in an Army to Army fight. I never figured that I’d be sitting here, almost ten years, three deployments, too many dead buddies and soldiers, and one blast wound later, watching the news telling me that the man who gave terrorism a face was killed by US ground forces in Pakistan. So ends the a chapter of my life than began almost ten years ago. The face of the world changed that day but today we continue living. Right now in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are US service members getting ready to go out on patrols who probably took this news with a shrug, a well-earned puff of a cigarette, and an understanding that their lives won’t change much as a result of bin Laden’s death.
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