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Mar 01

Visiting Ground Zero

For those who don’t know it, I am a hardcore Patriot. I served in the Air Force for 4 years and did a 6 month tour in Saudi Arabia and Kuwaitt during Operation Desert Watch. I’m one of those ‘tough guys’ who never cry and can take just about anything. But, I can’t sing The Star Spangled Banner or any patriotic song for that matter without becoming very emotional. Movies of patriotism break me down as well.

I think a large part of that comes from a regular routine that Sgt. Johnson, my Drill Instructor during Basic Training, put us through. Every morning he would march us down to the flagpole, call us to attention, call us to salute, and then instruct us to stare at that Flag for one minute while he directed our thoughts. He would tell us stories of heroes who gave their lives for our country, he would tell us stories about major operations, and sometimes – after we had done it for a while, he would tell us to remember those stories.

At first it was boring. Then he started telling us to picture ourselves giving the ultimate sacrifice for our country, which is what we signed up to do – and he would tell us more stories. The point is that after a month of this every morning, we would all turn extremely emotional during that time. It wasn’t sadness, it was pride and love. I learned more about love for my country from those sessions than anything else in life would ever teach me. The end result was that Sgt. Johnson’s trainees graduated with a very strong understanding of why we were there and with an over powering love for the USA.

This all came back to me today as I visited Ground Zero.

There is no way I could come to New York and NOT see Ground Zero. It was kind of like a pilgrimage for me. Fortunately, Adria totally understands this about me as it was freezing cold today and she is not feeling too great.

The area surrounding Ground Zero is under very heavy construction – presumably they are still performing repairs as there is not such construction going on elsewhere that I saw. As you approach Ground Zero, everything is fenced off, it’s still a dangerous area with several story ‘cliff walls’ where the old towers used to be. The fences have several very well done posters that talk about the history of the WTC, the loss of it, and a tribute to those who died. There are still a few memorials around as well. When you get to the fences, you can’t see much, it’s just a lot of cement. You have to walk a couple blocks around to get to the left side in order to see the hole where the WTC was. As you walk around it, there are more posters to see/read along the way. Once you get around, you can see the massive, gaping hole where the WTC was.

As I stood by the fence, staring into the hole (which I remember hearing is 7 stories deep, it looks like it could be) I fell into the old routine that Sgt Johnson taught us. (In my pictures on Flickr, one of the last of the WTC set shows a huge pipe sticking out of the side of the wall, that’s where I was looking) I stared at this massive pipe that looked like someone could walk through it and envisioned what had been there before, I envisioned all the footage and pictures I have seen/collected of the planes hitting and the towers falling. I stared at that pipe and saw the planes coming in, saw the people stare in horror as the second plane hit and things got really bad. I looked upwards to the skyscrapers nearby and envisioned the 300ish people who leapt to their deaths from unimaginable heights. I looked to the left at the massive hole in the ground where you can see through to the subway that still runs underneath and envisioned the un-imaginable piles of rubble that were left behind. I looked around the area and envisioned the dead who had leapt, the FDNY who had fallen, the NYPD who had given their all, and I envisioned the people standing in horror as they watched the devastation. And I wept.

This was a truly moving experience for me. I don’t know if it does or will affect everyone the same way, at first I felt a little odd – this isn’t my town or even my side of the country, but it is still MY COUNTRY. It was still an attack on our soil and an attack on all of us. I looked about and wondered if the New Yorkers thought it was weird that so many people come to see Ground Zero, then I noticed the memorials that continue to be kept up today and decided that they must feel grateful that we care enough to come to THEIR town and contemplate the destruction that they witnessed.

Today I’m very grateful for my country, for the ones who still serve in our military and most of all, I’m grateful for Sgt Johnson who taught me how to stop and appreciate and contemplate the sacrifices of those who went before so that we could enjoy the benefits of all the freedoms we have today.

Here’s the pictures I took while I was there.

1 comment

1 ping

  1. Neal Harmon

    Have you heard about the new work of a BYU physics professor? WTC an inside job?

  1. Phil801 - Geek Blog » Phil’s Pontifications

    [...] Visiting Ground Zero [...]

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