by Steven Easley

Created on: August 23, 2008   Last Updated: August 26, 2008

Have you forgotten?

9/11: September 11, 2001 do you remember where you were the day the earth stood still? I'm a prior service Marine Sergeant, and I remember exactly where I was and what was going through my mind just moments before the second plane was used as a weapon of mass destruction.

I was standing in the living room of my parent's home in Tennessee after hearing only that a plane had crashed into the one of the World Trade Center towers. I watched as "Good Morning American," interrupted their broadcast to show the footage of the second plane on approach to the Twin Towers. My first thought, crazy as it was at the moment, was that maybe the plane was one of those emergency planes used to fight forest fires, and that it was on approach in an attempt to extinguish the flames, which were raging out of control in the first tower.

Then my world and my heart stopped in a moment of absolute terror, as I watched the plane strike the second tower. In that instant, I honestly thought it was the end of the world, as described in the Holy Bible, in the book of Revelations. I was overtaken in an instant of earth shattering fear; I literally felt my heart stop. Then since I was still standing and realized that this isn't the way it is foretold to happen, I was taken with the sorrow and angry that I think most human beings the world over felt.

The attack on the World Trade Center wasn't just an attack on America; it was an attack on humanity. I'm not the judge, and I'm certainly not the best Christian in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but I know what was done was wrong on so many levels. I'm not putting anyone down or trying to say anyone's beliefs as a religion are wrong. I feel that each individual on this planet has an equal right to believe as they choose that their relationship with God or a god by any name is their personal business between them and the deity they worship.

As I stated at the beginning, I'm a prior service Marine. I'm damned proud of that fact and I'm proud to be an American. Our Unites States Marines are made up of individuals from all walks of life and from different religious beliefs, and there are those I'm certain who choose not to follow any religion. This is true not only the Marines, but for every branch of the military, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, Coast Guard. Because of the simple fact that our military, our troops are people, individuals with individual dreams and hopes and loves. They do not take their

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