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