Remember 9/11
I do remember 9/11. I was an officer on the staff of United States Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. I was at my desk (well my little cubicle) doing some small bit of military staff work. That is what the many officers and NCOs on war-fighting staffs like USCENTCOM do: we work on small projects that eventually find their ways into one puzzle of the larger mission. Someone came into my larger office area composed of about 10 of us and said “you better watch the television!” We all huddled around the set in a brigadier general’s small office and watched the horrifying replay of the impact of the first plane into the North Tower at 8:46 A.M. This was later confirmed to be American Airlines Flight #11 from Boston. CNN was playing the tape over and over again. We all were wondering what was going on and discussing whether this was an act of terrorism, a pilot gone insane, some other problem with the aircraft. No one really knew at the time that this wa