911 11-15 Memorial

I was in the Army stationed at HQ, USSOUTHCOM in Miami, FL at the time. I was the J2 (Intelligence) Watch Floor NCOIC. My civilian boss was counseling a young Air Force lieutenant and I was sitting in on the counseling (I didn't agree with that, but it wasn't my choice). From where I was sitting, we couldn't see the screens of the large bank of television sets. I noticed it had got real quiet and folks were migrating to see the TVs. I asked what was up and to get folks back to work. A couple of the folks told us that we needed to come over and see what was happening. I don't recall the exact time, but I seem to recall that the second plane had just hit when I walked over. But then I have trouble reconciling that in my mind in chronological order. I think I actually got to the TVs before that. But I do recall when the second one hit things started happening. The J3 (Operations) folks started calling embassies & consulates down in South & Central America and in the Caribbean. As the J2 NCOIC, I was coordinating gathering information on what terrorist or insurgent groups were doing in the AOR; to see if they were taking advantage of the situation. All American assets everywhere were locked down immediately. As soon as the second plane hit, discussion turned to who was responsible and the first name to pop up was Osama bin Laden. It was pretty much a no-brainer as we were concerned in intelligence.

The headquarters building was located right in the flight path of Miami-Dade International Airport and by 10:30 or so, the decision had been made to evacuate. However, since we were the Watch Floor we had to stay. I was in the office till about 7pm that evening as I recall. After I left, I was in heavy Miami traffic and stopped at a traffic light. Naturally I was in uniform and looking around. This guy in a pick-up truck next to me caught my eye and as I looked at him, he saluted. It was...memorable.

The next morning as I went to work traffic trying to get on base, they had increased the security checks so that every single car was being inspected. It backed up traffic in a serious way. I made my way around it, parked elsewhere and walked onto the property. As time went on, this died down. However, they did build a separate building for incoming mail after several anthrax scares. A couple of times they evacuated the main building due to bomb scares from the postal building (we'd evacuate to the opposite side of the property. Seemed kind of strange to me, but that's "above my pay grade" as we say in the military).

I retired in 2006 after 21 years of service. Now I am a teacher and teach every year about September 11th on its anniversary. At first, students remembered it and knew where they were. Now I have students who were too young to recall it. It's interesting to see it begin to fade into the collective consciousness. I consider it part of my duty to ensure it doesn't fade into distant memory. However, I know it will much like Pearl Harbor has for most Americans. Sad, but true.

That's my story. At least the unclassified version.