On the 7th Anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Do you think we are a safer country? Where were you on the day that changed American history?
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It was 0620 in the morning; I had just arrived at work. One of the civilians I worked with Mr. Cabrera screamed my name “Malcolm come quick.” As I raced to his office he had the television on. The news was showing the devastating footage of the World Trade Center, a moment later we watched the second airplane crash into the world trade building. You could feel the sadness and disbelief in the room. As you know this was the September 11th attack on the world trade center. The day that forever changed American history. The first thing I did was call my wife to inform her of the attacks. She had already had the news on the television. I could hear the sadness in her voice. As we spoke my boss TSgt Watkins had informed us that the base had been placed on lock down. The rest of that day there was a somber feeling in the work place. We as a unit really did not work. The rest of the day we were glued to the news or talking about how precious life was.
Two weeks later on September 26, 2001 I was informed myself and 25 others would be deployed to an undisclosed location. This was the first employment of Operation Enduring Freedom, the operation that was going to end global terrorism. When I was informed there were 2 different feelings going on inside of me. The first feeling was I was happy to do whatever I needed to do for my country to get the people who harmed us and changed many lives. The second feeling was where are we going? Was there a chance I could be killed? The difference between American soldiers and these terrorists is American soldiers want to do there part to defend us and come home. These terrorists are willing to give there lives that cannot be combated. At the time my wife had also given birth 3 months prior to our first child Destinee. There was mixed emotions but I was ready to defend and support this great nation.
On September 28 2001, we were waiting to load on the plane to go to our undisclosed location. You could hear a penny drop as you could feel the nervousness of everyone in the room. Before loading the plane we were briefed by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) personnel on were we would be going. As OSI prepared to tell us were we would go you could feel the anxiety. Then the words came out of there mouth…You are going to…Guam, it was like a sigh of relief kicked in. The smiles on people faces were all over the place. As we loaded the plane we knew we had a mission to complete and were excited to do our part. The 4 months spent in Guam were some of my proudest days in the United States Air Force. I watched a group of individuals come together and accomplish a mission. I forged friendships there that I still have today. September 11th 2001 changed American lives forever. As we approach the 7th anniversary of that day I would not feel right without speaking of that story.
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