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Today is September 11
- Thread starter Ooh-Rah
- Start date
Topkick
Verified Military
Regardless of what actually happened on 9/11, 2001... I will always remember my brothers who answered the call. Especially those with whom I served and lost their lives. Charlie Kirk was a force for good, but today let's not forget real hero's.
Box
Verified SOF
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2018
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This morning USASOC HQ did a 9/11 Memorial PT session on Meadows Field. We drug out a hunk of steel from ground zero to 'reinforce' why we were doing memorial PT.
I'm smoked - but I'm alive.
We've all lost friends over the years but when you work up a sweat with a piece of the Twin Towers in front of the Memorial Wall that bears their names, it hits a little bit different. So, I've posted the below diatribe on a few different boards over the years and since I like some of you folks, I'm going to share it here again for those that have never heard the story...
What does America look like on the morning of September 12, 2001 if the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 had just sat silently in their seats ?? Instead, a passenger named Todd Beamer was heard by a 911 operator saying "Let's roll" just before he and a few other passengers stormed the cockpit to retake the plane from the hijackers. - I ask you all - reread that last sentence again...
Todd Beamer was heard by a 911 operator saying "Let's roll" just before he and a few other passengers stormed the cockpit to retake the plane from the hijackers...
...THEY STORMED THE FUCKING COCKPIT TO RETAKE THE PLANE
Let that sink in for a second.
I spent 30 Years in the Army - 25 of those in Special Forces - and those two words "Let's Roll" indicate some of the biggest balls in the face of adversity I can imagine.
Todd Beamer's words show a level of courage and resilience in the face of absolute insurmountable adversity that some folks will never ever be able to comprehend. But there is much more to the story than just "what happens if they don't rush the cockpit"
- SO much more.
How does our nation react if Flight 93 had made it all the way to the Capitol Building - or the White House?
How does the world react if the President of the United States of America has no choice but to order the F-16s piloted by First Lieutenant (later Major) Heather Penney of the 121st Fighter Squadron of the Air National Guard - and her commanding officer, Colonel Marc Sasseville (later later Lieutenant General) to interdict a commercial airliner full of US Citizens in the skies above Washington DC?
What does our national conscience look like when they find out that not only did Lieutenant Penney and Colonel Sasseville take off to interdict a commercial airliner - while flying a couple of F16s - but that they took off in a couple of F-16'S that had no missiles and no guns?
What happens when these two F-16s - flying into what was literally a KAMIKAZE STYLE suicide mission - have no available option but to intentionally collide with a commercial airliner to take it out of the sky?
"I'll take the cockpit and You take the tail"
THAT WAS THEIR FUCKING GAME PLAN FOR STOPPING FLIGHT 93 - I ask you all - read that line again:
"I'll take the cockpit and You take the tail"
What do you say to that?
How do you respond to that level of resolve?
What would that have done to our collective soul as a nation?
How does a nation repay the sacrifices made by the American families that spent the next 18 years performing acts of courage and selfless service? In the 24 years that followed, we have all seen, experienced, and heard first hand accounts of stories of American heroism and resolve that are so unfucking believable that if Hollywood put it into an action movie, it would seem so ridiculous and unrealistic that if you saw it in an action movie you would roll your eyes and walk out. Yet, most of us have sat down and had breakfast, drank coffee, cooked BBQ, and watched the children of those same men and woman grow up and send their OWN children off to do Americas bidding as if their gargantuan exploits were little more than another day at the office.
But here we are September 11, 2025 and suddenly, we can't figure out how many genders there are, we aren't sure what "inalienable rights" are, a majority of our elected representatives still don't know what "shall not be infringed" means, we have a Supreme Court Justice that testified to Congress that she could not define what a woman was, and even the most unapologetic "Democratic Socialists" are now saying the quiet parts out loud when they explain that it doesn't matter what a candidate's values and intentions may be - a candidate has to say whatever it takes to win. We even have a cross section of society that is openly supporting and defending the behavior of violent criminals, drug traffickers, and terrorists because the alternative would be admitting that the "the other party" may or may not be putting forth an effort to make things better.
Just yesterday, this nation saw a man loose his life to a despicable murderer simply because they did not have the intelligence or desire to debate Mr Kirks ideology. In 2025 America it just seems easier to martyr someone instead of sitting down to understand them. Oddly enough, the internet is rife with people actually celebrating the savagery. We even had a prominent TV journalist suggest that it may have just been one of his supporters playing with a their gun and 'celebrating'
We say "never forget" but I fear that much our nation forgot quite some time ago...
When I reread the story of the passengers that tried to retake Flight 93 - or the story of Lieutenant Penney and Colonel Sasseville and what they were prepared to do for their nation, it makes my allergies act up. It reminds me of how lucky I have been to enjoy so many of the freedoms that I so dearly enjoy - it clears my mind to reflect that there are still men and women in this country that are willing to surrender their lives for the benefit of others - and for just a moment, it allows me to forget about the trashy human beings that pollute the streets of permanent DC and so many other American cities and neighborhoods not because they want to better it - but because they know they can profit from the misery of their countrymen.
Then I remember that there are also people like those that allow me to share this board with them.
...and I feel a little bit better about our hope for the future.
NEVER FORGET
I'm smoked - but I'm alive.
We've all lost friends over the years but when you work up a sweat with a piece of the Twin Towers in front of the Memorial Wall that bears their names, it hits a little bit different. So, I've posted the below diatribe on a few different boards over the years and since I like some of you folks, I'm going to share it here again for those that have never heard the story...
What does America look like on the morning of September 12, 2001 if the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 had just sat silently in their seats ?? Instead, a passenger named Todd Beamer was heard by a 911 operator saying "Let's roll" just before he and a few other passengers stormed the cockpit to retake the plane from the hijackers. - I ask you all - reread that last sentence again...
Todd Beamer was heard by a 911 operator saying "Let's roll" just before he and a few other passengers stormed the cockpit to retake the plane from the hijackers...
...THEY STORMED THE FUCKING COCKPIT TO RETAKE THE PLANE
Let that sink in for a second.
I spent 30 Years in the Army - 25 of those in Special Forces - and those two words "Let's Roll" indicate some of the biggest balls in the face of adversity I can imagine.
Todd Beamer's words show a level of courage and resilience in the face of absolute insurmountable adversity that some folks will never ever be able to comprehend. But there is much more to the story than just "what happens if they don't rush the cockpit"
- SO much more.
How does our nation react if Flight 93 had made it all the way to the Capitol Building - or the White House?
How does the world react if the President of the United States of America has no choice but to order the F-16s piloted by First Lieutenant (later Major) Heather Penney of the 121st Fighter Squadron of the Air National Guard - and her commanding officer, Colonel Marc Sasseville (later later Lieutenant General) to interdict a commercial airliner full of US Citizens in the skies above Washington DC?
What does our national conscience look like when they find out that not only did Lieutenant Penney and Colonel Sasseville take off to interdict a commercial airliner - while flying a couple of F16s - but that they took off in a couple of F-16'S that had no missiles and no guns?
What happens when these two F-16s - flying into what was literally a KAMIKAZE STYLE suicide mission - have no available option but to intentionally collide with a commercial airliner to take it out of the sky?
"I'll take the cockpit and You take the tail"
THAT WAS THEIR FUCKING GAME PLAN FOR STOPPING FLIGHT 93 - I ask you all - read that line again:
"I'll take the cockpit and You take the tail"
What do you say to that?
How do you respond to that level of resolve?
What would that have done to our collective soul as a nation?
How does a nation repay the sacrifices made by the American families that spent the next 18 years performing acts of courage and selfless service? In the 24 years that followed, we have all seen, experienced, and heard first hand accounts of stories of American heroism and resolve that are so unfucking believable that if Hollywood put it into an action movie, it would seem so ridiculous and unrealistic that if you saw it in an action movie you would roll your eyes and walk out. Yet, most of us have sat down and had breakfast, drank coffee, cooked BBQ, and watched the children of those same men and woman grow up and send their OWN children off to do Americas bidding as if their gargantuan exploits were little more than another day at the office.
But here we are September 11, 2025 and suddenly, we can't figure out how many genders there are, we aren't sure what "inalienable rights" are, a majority of our elected representatives still don't know what "shall not be infringed" means, we have a Supreme Court Justice that testified to Congress that she could not define what a woman was, and even the most unapologetic "Democratic Socialists" are now saying the quiet parts out loud when they explain that it doesn't matter what a candidate's values and intentions may be - a candidate has to say whatever it takes to win. We even have a cross section of society that is openly supporting and defending the behavior of violent criminals, drug traffickers, and terrorists because the alternative would be admitting that the "the other party" may or may not be putting forth an effort to make things better.
Just yesterday, this nation saw a man loose his life to a despicable murderer simply because they did not have the intelligence or desire to debate Mr Kirks ideology. In 2025 America it just seems easier to martyr someone instead of sitting down to understand them. Oddly enough, the internet is rife with people actually celebrating the savagery. We even had a prominent TV journalist suggest that it may have just been one of his supporters playing with a their gun and 'celebrating'
We say "never forget" but I fear that much our nation forgot quite some time ago...
When I reread the story of the passengers that tried to retake Flight 93 - or the story of Lieutenant Penney and Colonel Sasseville and what they were prepared to do for their nation, it makes my allergies act up. It reminds me of how lucky I have been to enjoy so many of the freedoms that I so dearly enjoy - it clears my mind to reflect that there are still men and women in this country that are willing to surrender their lives for the benefit of others - and for just a moment, it allows me to forget about the trashy human beings that pollute the streets of permanent DC and so many other American cities and neighborhoods not because they want to better it - but because they know they can profit from the misery of their countrymen.
Then I remember that there are also people like those that allow me to share this board with them.
...and I feel a little bit better about our hope for the future.
NEVER FORGET
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ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Something from my wife who works in local government as an attorney and she mentioned how there are many young people who were not born or were not old enough to understand what 9/11 was and how that changed out country. And that so many of these people talk about "free Palestine" yada yada.
It's probably the same for those of us who weren't alive for the Marine Barracks bombing in Lebanon.
But there was a young woman who works at the government, just turned 21 and she asked my wife "what was it like" and it made her think about how many people under 25 are interning and in major offices and are helping shape policy and the power they yield...yet they didn't experience us getting attacked. Just like on the domestic front they didn't experience crime before broken windows policing.
It's probably the same for those of us who weren't alive for the Marine Barracks bombing in Lebanon.
But there was a young woman who works at the government, just turned 21 and she asked my wife "what was it like" and it made her think about how many people under 25 are interning and in major offices and are helping shape policy and the power they yield...yet they didn't experience us getting attacked. Just like on the domestic front they didn't experience crime before broken windows policing.
Devildoc
Verified Military
Every morning at 7:45 our department has a zoom 'huddle', near the end of which the boss or facilitator asks, "does anyone have anything else?" This morning one of my colleagues piped in and said, "in light of today being 9/11 and what happened yesterday, please have grace with how people might be feeling." The resulting conversation varied between 'who was Charlie Kirk?' and 'I wasn't alive on 9/11 (or was a small child) so it's meaningless to me.' It made me sad.
I miss how we as a nation felt the day after. The hugging your neighbors and helping everyone out. It showed we can be United. And what a force we are when we decide to do so.
Topkick
Verified Military
I understand not knowing who Charlie Kirk is if you dont care about politics you wont know...but saying 9/11 is meaningless is an odd take for an American. I wasn't alive for WWII, Korea, or Pearl Harbour, and not old enough to remember Vietnam. They all mean a lot to me.
Box
Verified SOF
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2018
- Messages
- 2,311
Very few of us were alive for Korea. Even less for WW2. The very last WW1 veteran died in 2011 at the age of 110. Even a war baby from WW1 would be over a hundred years old. As of 2024 there were only about three or four GRANDCHILDREN left over from the Civil War...
...and the nation is STILL fighting about "racism" and inequality that dates back to those early American conflicts.
An American that truly believes 9/11 is "meaningless" to our way of life is willingly and deliberately ignorant in regard to the world going on around them - but I'll bet that they all have 'Door Dash' accounts, they all know how many "Uber-Stars" they have, and they all know where the closest Starbucks is.
I'd also bet that have an opinion on the current number of pop culture genders that are being recognized by left wing extremists.
THAT is part of the problem. Our nations educators have convinced a horrifically large percentage of the population that the USA is an inherently racist organization of Oligarchs and that nothing matters unless it feels good...
...and if it feels good, do it.
Incrementalism has driven a dagger into the heart of what America stands for. When we were young and our hearts were an open book, we used to say "live and let live" - but the incrementalism of this ever changing world in which we live in has made far too many people say "Live and Let Die"
Just an observation.
I served in Afghanistan four times with various SOF units in the Joint Task Force. I'm sure that others who were in the same units at the same time will recall that inside the Task Force joint operations center (JOC), on the right side coming in the front entrance, were two blown-up photos on the plywood walls. One was a picture of two young Rangers holding up a flag behind their buddy, who was in a hospital bed after being wounded, as he re-enlisted.
The other picture was this one. In case you don't know what it is, it's the "falling man" from 9/11.
I wrote a little about it in this old post on my blog.
https://havokjournal.com/culture/life/75th-dance/
The latter picture explained why we were there. The former embodied the spirit of those who we were there with.
Proud to serve in those units, and with those people. Proud to be an American, on September 11, 2001, and every day since.
The other picture was this one. In case you don't know what it is, it's the "falling man" from 9/11.
I wrote a little about it in this old post on my blog.
https://havokjournal.com/culture/life/75th-dance/
The latter picture explained why we were there. The former embodied the spirit of those who we were there with.
Proud to serve in those units, and with those people. Proud to be an American, on September 11, 2001, and every day since.
Topkick
Verified Military
To this day, that photo pisses me off. I remember it real time.
When you fail to remember 9/11, Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, the stock market crash, etc. then you do not understand how we arrived at that moment. We will repeat those same mistakes because history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
Topkick
Verified Military
