By Curt Hendel, Veteran Reporter
Fourteen years ago, I sat down and wrote what I felt. It would be the first time I put something in writing for a newspaper and it became “A Veteran’s Take”. What brought me to the computer was the first anniversary of 9/11.
Now it is the fifteenth anniversary of that day. I think most of us, that were at least in their mid teens, remember exactly where we were on that day. It was like Pearl Harbor or the assassination of John F. Kennedy, it had that strong an impact on all of us.
The magnitude of the attack was impossible to comprehend. The fact that men had flown commercial, passenger aircraft into these structures was mind numbing to most. This attack was militarily a grand slam, for those that feel comfortable using civilians as a weapon. In a free country it is much easier to launch attacks against soft targets than in a totalitarian system. Our immigration system and laws were lax, and that also helped them.
I remember that initial response. Our nation had seen years of growth through the dot com boom and this was the first thing that started to bring us back to earth. The first task was to clear the rubble and count the dead. Stories started to emerge of the heroes, police and firefighters charging into the burning buildings to rescue as many of their fellow citizens as possible.
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