Remember...

It was about 7:30am on 11 Sep 2001.  It was the second full week of my MBA program and I was opening my locker, getting my text books out for the day.

Janie was walking by and asked if I'd heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.  We walked into the student lounge and joined a small group of our classmates watching a small TV that showed smoke pouring from the "Twin Towers".

The rest is history.

It was eerie, the feeling I had while watching the fires and collapses.  I was sick to my stomach.  My body didn't want to move, while my mind screamed at me that I should get back to studying. 

I remember the absolute quiet of the skies as no aircraft were allowed to fly in the country.  It was strangely peaceful to be outside in the crisp fall air.  The sky was blue and void of the contrails that had cluttered it longer than I'd been alive.  I remember thinking how incongruous it was that it was so beautiful on such a horrific day.

Since that day when nearly 3,000 Americans were killed, thousands more have followed them fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Tens of thousands have suffered life-shattering injuries and will never be their "old" selves again....

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