Reflections on 9/11 Via Eyes Of Veteran, Marine

“I look back on September 11 not only as a Marine and veteran, but as an American who has had the privilege of serving his community in the years since,” — Steve Sanchez, U.S. Marine and Veteran

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was at my place in Indio, California, when a buddy called and told me to turn on the TV.

I had just returned from New Jersey a few days earlier. New Jersey is where I grew up, so my family, friends and roots were back East. I had no idea when I left that within days our country would experience something that would forever change us.

I turned on the television and watched the news unfold. I remember standing there for a moment and then having to sit down on the couch.

Like so many Americans that morning, I was in shock. There was disbelief, sadness, and the terrible realization that we were watching something that was going to take the lives of many innocent people.

But I also remember very clearly one of my first thoughts:

“Our country won’t let this slide. We’re going to war somewhere.”

At the time, I was a young Marine reservist, having recently come off active duty. Within days, things began to change. My unit started preparing, training picked up, and we began getting our affairs in order. Eventually, our command told us what many of us already suspected: we were preparing to go overseas.

Less than two years after sitting on that couch in Indio watching September 11 unfold, I would find myself half a world away, serving as a Marine during the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom…the ground invasion.

That is one of the reasons the 25th anniversary of September 11 feels different to me.

For those of us old enough to remember that morning, there is a dividing line in our lives: America before September 11 and America after September 11.

We remember the first plane. We remember the second.

We remember the smoke rising over New York City, the Pentagon burning, and a quiet field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

And we remember realizing that our country, and our lives, would never quite be the same.

But 25 years have now passed.

There are adults raising families today who were children on September 11, and others who weren’t even born yet. Their children will know that day only through photographs, videos, textbooks, memorials, and the stories we tell them.

That creates a responsibility for those of us who remember.

Every generation inherits events it did not personally experience. None of us stood at Lexington and Concord when the “shot heard round the world” was fired. Most Americans alive today did not hear President Roosevelt describe December 7, 1941, as “a date which will live in infamy.”

Yet we remember because generations before us decided those moments were important enough to pass down.

September 11 must be the same.

When we tell younger generations about that day, I hope we don’t teach them only about the horror. Tell them about the firefighters and police officers who ran toward danger. Tell them about the passengers aboard Flight 93 who fought back. Tell them about Americans who lined up to donate blood and the flags that appeared on homes, businesses and freeway overpasses across the country.

And tell them about the young men and women who put on a uniform and went wherever their country asked them to go.

Twenty-five years later, I can still picture myself sitting on that couch, a young Marine watching my country come under attack, thinking America would respond and war was coming.

What I didn’t know was how personally the consequences of that morning would eventually touch my own life.

Today, I look back on September 11 not only as a Marine and veteran, but as an American who has had the privilege of serving his community in the years since.

Time inevitably creates distance from history. Our responsibility is to make sure distance does not become forgetfulness.

For those of us who remember September 11, tell the story.

Tell your children and your grandchildren. Tell them where you were, what you saw and how you felt. Tell them about those we lost, those who answered the call, and the extraordinary courage ordinary Americans showed that day.

Because someday there will be no one left who can begin the story by saying:

“I remember September 11, 2001.”

Until then, those of us who can should.