September 11, 2001...

I know they say that every generation has an event that they will never forget... for some it was when WWII started, for others it was when JFK was shot. For me, it will always be September 11th, 2001.

Our morning started out just like every morning. I had my coffee, got the boys up, walked them to school, Joe went off to work, and then I jumped in the shower. As I got out of the shower, I was standing in the bedroom, towel trying my hair and watching "The Today Show" when they broke in saying a plane had hit the World Trade Center. The reporters were saying they believed it was an accident, they were trying to get more details, etc. Then, the second plane hit. When Matt Lauer said, "it is believed that these planes were acts of terrorists" I knew that our world was about to change. Especially for our military and their families.

I called Joe at the motor pool. He had been listening to the radio on the way in, and didn't realize it was real. He thought the morning show was just bs'ing. There wasn't a TV close by, so he couldn't watch what was happening. I put a tape in the VCR and hit record. He had to see what I was watching. I called my best friend, and woke her up. We sat there on the phone for hours, flipping channels and just not believing what we were seeing. Every few minutes, the call-waiting would beep, and it would be a family member checking on us.

I walked to the school to pick up Austin and PJ, not having a clue of what to tell them. They were such little boys, and I didn't know how to explain what had happened in a way they would understand. I don't remember what I actually said to them, but I do remember looking at their sweet little faces and wondering how many little boys may have lost a parent that day. At that point, I just wanted to hold onto my babies forever.

We had to get out of the house. We needed some sort of normal activity. We loaded up, and went swimming with Trish. And, for a few hours, while the boys splashed and dunked each other, Trish and I did our best to pretend that we weren't scared.

Joe came to get us from Trish's house, and that was the first time he had been able to see a TV. He sat there watching the news channels, in disbelief as they showed the events of the day. Post was on lockdown, so it literally took us three hours to get home that night. The boys were asleep in the back of the car. After we put them in bed, and gave them extra kisses, Joe and I sat on the couch and watched even more footage on TV. We talked about what this meant for us, as an Army family. We both knew it would just be a matter of months before the deployments would start. He left in March '02 for a deployment to Kuwait.

I know that I'll always remember that day, and the days after.