Friday, May 20, 2005

9-11 and the beginning of a nightmare that would last for a long time

i remeber well standing in the front room alone that am turning on the tv and tuning into the news. well i actually dont watch the news but when i was trying to pick out a channel to watch i ran into the news that am and thought hey wait a min what are they doing playing a disaster movie on here for ? So i flipped by it and noticed that the other news channels had the same thing on them. and i figured ok maybe i better stop here for a few and check this out. well we all know what we saw that am on the news . and let me tell you i was not just schocked i was totally horrified. and i didnt know what to think or do when i realized what i was watching wasnt a movie. i called my husband at work right away and told him and he said they had all stopped working and were watching the news instead. i was getting pretty scared. and then i called my daughter who was if i can remeber tuned into the radio then because if memory serves me right she couldnt afford cable tv yet and you couldnt get the news with out having cable tv.
all kinds of things ran through my head as i watched in total horror as the second tower went down.
what is going on and where? is this something that is going to come our way ? if so how soon? if not what do we do from here? where are my kids and grands and how are the kids i do have out of state doing? and what in the world is going to happen to my son in the navy!!!???
i was a total wreck before the end of that day as i know so many of us across the usa were. and i knew too how much the mothers and wives and husbands and fathers and relatives of our military were going to just flat be set on edge because of this .
well i hate to say this but its the truth. for the next 5 months i was a total wreck emotionally i was almost over the edge. i couldnt sleep and my mind was going on and on . during that time i suffered a broken toe which didnt help matters.
but what really did me in was having a son in the Navy and not knowing what was going to happen to him. what would he have to do ?
it took him almost three weeks before he could actually call me . not that he couldnt he could have stood there and insisted on calling home but he said he saw the lines of people trying to get in touch with family and said " i decided to wait until the lines werent as long" so it took along time before i heard from him which didnt help me out at all. everything got shut down for along time emails puter use only thing going was phone and those didnt go up for awhile. and the black outs for bases ran wild during those days.
eventually we got in touch and he said that his unit was heading out to japan. not to worry about him . he was sure those orders wouldnt be recinded. well we were hoping but of course during that time no one knew what was going to happen next.
But in fact his unit did go to japan and once the war began in afganistan i am sure if they wanted his unit to go he and they would have gone . but instead they did end up in japan and like i said once the war started and things with korea began to act up they were given a choice stay in japan for a year and be prepared or go to the states and onto the war ? they decided to stay and watch the koren side. and so he stayed in japan for a year.
it was the begining of alot of missed holidays and special family occassions with him. and he wasnt able to take his lap top with him when he went there.
the very frist set of holidays right after 9-11 happened were the beginning of the missed holidays i rememeber getting the phone call from him and asking ok when you coming home for chirstmas ? only to here " no ma they have to put our base on alert as you know all of them are and well i did have leave for christmas but everyone that was going to leave left and there were not many of us here they asked for vollenteers to stay and helpman the base so i stood forward and said ok. so i am staying i hope you understand and i hope this is ok with you." what could i say i protest? no i said ok i do understand. it didnt set well with me at all but i understood. not only does a Navy man have to do what he has to do but his family has to do what they have to do along with him or her. make the sacrifices right along with them. and that is what i did along with every other military family in our country.

No comments: