Like a lot of people, I can count the top 10 most impactful moments of my life. They range from the most obvious like when I married the love of my life and the births of our beautiful girls, to the most sacred and important such as my decision to accept Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior. However, there are some that are very personal and poignant and one of those is September 11, 2001.
Going back many years ago as a kid having been born in Odessa TX, and growing up in Chris Kyle/Petroleum/High School Football country, I was surrounded by a lot of patriotic and tough people. My Father was one of them. As a kid of the 1980’s during the Reagan Administration and having grown up during the last decade of the Cold War, I was very patriotic. I watched and re-watched all the Rocky and Rambo’s, Chuck Norris, and Clint Eastwood movies. We loved watching Magic and Bird go at it. Tom Laundry walked the sidelines on Sunday. Hulka mania was it with his theme song, “I am a real American”. MTV actually played music videos, and the hair bands were all over the place. Good stuff.
I was consistently researching to see how we were stacking up economically and militarily against other nations, but especially the USSR, the world’s other superpower at the time. Watching Ivan Drago kill Apollo Creed was traumatic for me. Rocky had to get pay back for America because our honor was at stake! At least it felt that way. We were very grateful to live in the U.S.A. and my parents from a young age began to espouse the core values of faith in God, opportunity, hard work, and the American spirit of courage.
I was always fascinated with the United States Navy from a young age. When I enlisted in May 2001, it was a surreal experience for me, especially my first night in boot camp as I laid in my rack. Despite the exhaustion, shock, and transitional stimulation, I remember thinking as I looked up at the rack on top of me, “Wow, I’m actually here. I’m in the U.S. Navy”. But despite being a patriot, I was also an undisciplined and unstructured free spirit, which meant that military precision and discipline didn’t come naturally and the mental transition was exhausting. After boot camp graduation I was a student at Naval Hospital Corps School learning the fundamentals of patient care as a Navy Corpsman. On the surface I was moving forward and completing my tasks, but inside, I felt disconnected from everything around me. Such feelings aren’t entirely uncommon for some service members as they transition into military culture their first year at differing paces, but my pace felt very slow and lethargic. It was as if all the noise, training, intensity, and occasional buffoonery that accompanies military downtime felt like a façade with no clear mission and purpose. Yes, thank God for peace when we have it and no one wants a war. I wasn’t exactly hoping for a war when I enlisted and was looking to serve my 5-year initial contract. My plan was to serve and then get out of the Navy to resume civilian life in San Antonio. The long-term plan was to continue my college education, find a job, and simply live a peaceful and quiet life.
Those were my thoughts. That was my plan. And I was living in a state of what Henry David Thoureau calls “lives of quiet desperation”.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I had just finished an airway management lab that was designed to ensure we could support a patient’s respiratory function. Upon completing the lab, I walked into the large student lounge where there were TV’s and knew something was wrong. Live news coverage was already covering the first plane that hit the first tower. After my eyes hit the TV screen, the second plane hit.
I remember being in the classroom afterwards as regular instruction ceased and we received major security briefs. I then realized a couple of my classmates had family that lived and worked in Manhattan near the towers and were being consoled by our instructors and their close friends. They were waiting for any news from their relatives to see if they were ok. We were then dismissed to our berthing spaces but the base was locked down as we entered the highest force protection level, FPCON Delta.
A couple hours later, I went into the berthing lounge for a brief moment to watch the news. There was a press conference with Military leadership providing a brief. I cannot remember exactly who they were, probably the Joint Chiefs. But as I was watching the conference in a state of personal shock, disbelief, and anger, my personal nuclear moment came.
A General in Uniform said, “I want the American people to rest assured, your Armed Forces ARE READY! ”.
And in that moment, everything changed.
It was not the rush of what felt like nuclear energy going through my veins that made the difference, though HIS WORDS helped make that happen. It was the fact that in that moment, I knew I was exactly were God wanted me to be. And I went from being a tired guy, to pushing a 21 year career with incredible ferocity and intensity. COVID broke some things in and around me in 2020 that I had to spend time fixing, so I retired in 2022. But I loved every second of my Navy Experience; even the things that sucked. And there’s always a lot of that.
The most important and sacred function of the US Government is to protect its people. It’s not too tax its citizens incessantly or tell its people how they need to live. The Bible is better at that. There are things that government does that make sense like creating and enforcing a judicial system of common-sense laws.
But the most important job of Government, is to provide for the common defense. And it is the War-fighter….., the Sailor, the Marine, the Soldier, the Airmen, and the Coast Guardsman that pays with their blood, sweat, tears, and the time away from their family, that makes the American dream possible. It is the warriors family, the spouse and children that have to spend not just days and weeks away from their hero, but months away at times knowing that their Mom or Dad is not out simply doing regular company business. But that they are in harm’s way and they have to do their best to carry on with civilian life while their hero is miles away in harm’s way.
Thank God for all workers and professions that make society function. But it is the American servicemember that is more than anyone else living in what Theodore Roosevelt calls “the Arena”. That is more true today than ever with the increasing technological, professional and occupational demands that are expected of the warfighter across the Armed Forces as they face threats and pressures that are increasingly sophisticated.
If our nation is not safe, everything else including economic opportunity and our general social well-being is compromised. National security is paramount and thank God for the men and women who make it happen.