Wow, here it is September 11, 2007. It is the sixth anniversary of the attacks by terrorists on our home soil and as I watched the towers fall that morning, everything in my body yearned to someday make the bad guys pay. I was recently out of the Navy and wrote my commanding officer and told him how I so badly wished I could be there when our ship sailed into harm's way. Somehow I knew that event would lead me here.I can remember my daughter coming in as I watched it on TV and I was so drawn in, I couldn't turn it off no matter how badly I wanted to. I remember seeing flashes of bodies falling from above as victims jumped to their deaths rather than be burned alive as the fires raged far above the firemen below. As footage started coming in from people on the streets, my daughter stood beside me as the second plane was shown striking the building in a fiery crash. My daughter, only four at the time, exclaimed that was cool and asked me to rewind it. I didn't know what to say. The innocence in her young face made me glad she couldn't understand what was happening.
So, I sit here today in the land of Islamic Extremists who still want to kill me. I remember this day as the day they attacked us in our backyard and today I proudly fight in theirs. Every day I am away from loved ones I hurt and know that many people back home don't care that I am here. Some are blind to the fact we will fight terrorists.
They will not quit, they will not surrender. They wait patiently, spending years finding a weakness and in an instant, they exploit it. Here is where they breed them, here is where they train them, here is where they give them money and weapons and HERE is where we should fight them. Oh we will fight this war, in their yard or ours. I believe we will be pulled out of Iraq. We will be sent home to our families and someday, we will relive 9-11 on our soil again.
When that time comes, I will proudly stand up for America and our way of life. I will rush to the front lines in defense of those who can't; and even those who won't. F
or me it is much more than a badge on my shirt or just polishes on my boots.It is something instilled deep within my soul and I will never be able to watch my country, my friends or family enter into harm's way while I sit idly by. I will stand up and lead the way. For God and country I will fight, for I am an American Soldier.