Remembering September 2001

On Friday we found out that the traveling September 11th National Memorial and Museum was in town, so we decided to go down town yesterday morning to witness the Dedication Ceremony. We were joined by our friend's son "Young Thomas", who is one of SPC Dude's friends from school.

By the way Lightnin's shirt states: "My Son is Away Protecting Our Freedom and I'm Very Proud of Him". Mine has a photo of a WWII soldier drinking from his mess cup and states: "How About a Nice Cup of Shut The Hell Up and Let Us Do Our Job We're Freeing a Nation".

It was a somber and yet relaxing atmosphere. Several local dignitaries spoke along with several from New York.

One man from Connecticut, Tom Roger, spoke about losing his daughter. She was a standby flight attendant who was flying on American Airlines Flt#11.

The grey background for the speakers was actually two steel beams that will become part of the structure of the Museum. Everyone that was present was asked to sign one of the beams.

We gladly added ours to the several thousand names already inscribed.

We also met a women who's son was lost in one of the Twin Towers that day. She's holding a shadow box that contains the charred remains of his driver's License.

She saw our shirts and came over to us and thanked us for what our son, and those like him, are doing as a result of events of that day. Unfortunately we didn't catch her name.

These three young men raised money to help support the memorial by walking from Rossford, OH to Washington DC, a 65o mile hike.

I'm glad that we went down there to be a part of remembering this tragedy. Getting to meet folks that lost their loved one's in this terrible act of terrorism helped to rationalize why our son is in the desert for his second tour, and our Nephew has also completed two tours. They both signed up as a direct result of that day.

We need to remember this day above all others, even Pearl Harbor. After all this was an attack against innocent civilians, not a military facility. On that day nearly 3,000 people were senselessly murdered, and over 400 rescue workers lost their lives trying to help those in need. If we don't remember then we are likely to let our guard down and allow a similar or worse attack against freedom to occur!

Once we returned home we further honored the day by exercising our right to brew beer! Hey several of our founding father's were avid home brewers, and when we brew beer we truly do honor their memory!