ta ta ta tata..(pause) drop..bang bang bang…RUUUUNNNN… That was the normal sound on the morning of September 11, 2001…my Drill Sgt. kept yelling “next! You there Come here! you will run up the hill and protect your battle buddy! with a 3-5 second low and high crawl…” He enjoyed seeing soldiers train, he lived to shape a regular civilian into a squared away soldier…at least that’s what i thought while i was stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, just weeks from Basic Combat Training Graduation….Man! i couldn’t wait to get out of there..i hated it..i hated everything…I don’t even know what time it was, but there all of a sudden training stopped…Charlie Company’s training was halted and we were called in to the shelter area…we were in the woods..it was hot, we were sweating, tired, we were traning, training, training….why? to defend this country…then the words came out…Drill SGT. said “Soldiers, it is time that you begin to take your training seriously….(he said it, with a cold, shocked voice…his eyes flashed in awe….)we didn’t know what was going on…finally he gave us the whole spill….”everybody Listen Up! the WTC has just been hit by two planes…(there was silence…and a slow hot breeze cooled our sweaty heads….i was in shock…i didn’t know anybody in the WTC, but there were some soldiers that did….we were told that we would not be allowed to go back on base becasue of the close proximity of NY, and South Carolina’s Ft. jackson….
I remember..not feeling anything at the time…i just couldn’t picture it…i couldn’t…my mind was blank…i was thinking about my fiance…and i knew he was going to get worried about me…i was ok…thank heavens…however, we had no access to t.v., radios, etc. because that’s how basic training is suppossed to be…they allienate you from everything…those 9 weeks are a living hell….one is nothing, but a machine, and we are being controlled…..finally…security increased…i didn’t receive mail for over two weeks..i was sad, furious…graduation was scheduled for the 4th October…my boyfriend wanted to fly and see me graduate, however, plans changed after this happened…nobody of my family came to see me, because of fear of another plane hijacking….and i definately didn’t want my boyfriend to fly all the way from california to south carolina!!!!never…it was a hard sacrifice to make.., but i survived….i promised, i swore to myself, that i was not going to see anything related to 9-11 for fear of going crazy…HOWEVER…i came into a site…it was impossible to avoid seeing the Horror….i know it’s been almost a year….and yet …the pain i feel for all the families has grown over the months..I CAN’T FORGET…I WILL NOT FORGET….i had nobody there, however….i feel the pain…i feel a horrible pain….and everytime i see something on the news…my eyes begin to water, my muscles tense up…and i get a knot in my throat…i feel a rage…a horrible rage….toward the RESPONSIBLE people….i just think…that if i ever get caught in such situation..i will loose my mind….now i’m happily married, however….if i find myself in such situation…in a hijacked plane….forgive me love(words said to my husband), but duty calls me…and i must AND WILL kill to save this land …so that you, and other americans (i am not even an american, i wasn’t EVEN born here, i am not even a citizen yet, yet…i feel such stong patriotism after this tragedy that my blood boils just to by thinking that anything like that could happen again…..)can live in peace and in freedom…..just remeber…FREEDOM IS NOT FREE….and if i have to die to save this country…..SO BE IT……
i just want everybody to know that…at least there is somebody that would give everything to live “in the land of the free, and the world of the brave….”
GOD BLESS THE USA.
Dedicated to:
Margarito Martinez, Armando Bonilla, Carolina Tamayo….and everybody that was there to support me, and that cared about me…..
Maribel