I was a junior in high school. I was also in the midst of a 15-mile drive through the Illinois countryside to get to school, where I would be scolded for once again arriving tardy.
Speeding along, the DJ on the local country radio station announced that a plane had struck the World Trade Center in New York. When I got to school, I mentioned what I’d heard, and my History teacher clicked on the classroom television. We watched all the events unfold there in that silent little room—jaws on the floor.
Having never been to New York City, and knowing full well it was 1,000 miles away from where I grew up, I couldn’t help but feel like someone had just harmed my next door neighbor.
I wasn’t alone. And many of the kids (17 and 18 year old kids), some of them my friends, became men right after that, finishing school and entering the military to do what they knew was right: Stand up for the greatest country on earth.
*Hopefully no one will ever forget that day. What were you doing the morning of 9/11? I’d love to hear your story.