“You’re going to war.” These are the words that changed my life forever. I was just 18 years old and barely out of high school. I believe most people remember September 11, 2001. I do like it was yesterday.
It was a beautiful morning. The sky was blue, and the temperature was modest as I set on the driving range of Long Hills Golf Course in Benton, Arkansas. Golf balls were not the only thing flying. That time of year, the skies and trees are full of life. There was a cardinal setting about forty feet or so from me. No matter what happened around it, the cardinal just minded his own business with a worm hanging from his beak. I probably hit a hundred balls down the driving range. With maybe ten going where I wanted. I wasn’t, and still to this day, not much for golf, but it did get me out of my first-period class, gym. That old gym was full of dust and stale air. So, every chance I got to get out and do something else, I took it.
I already enlisted in the Army back in April and was so proud at the ripe young age of 17. Something changed on that September day. As I began my backswing, the coach yelled for everyone to get on the bus. We still had about an hour left before we had to leave so this struck some of us strange, but we did as we were told and got on the bus. After about ten minutes everyone was finally loaded. At this time, we were told the World Trade Center in New York had been struck by a plane. We didn’t think too much of it at the time, but as we got back to the school, we realized something was not right. The emotional atmosphere of a high school seemed to be different. Everyone was full of despair and content. The seemingly always loud and crowded hallways were quiet and somewhat organized as a student made their way to the next class. I walked into my next classroom just in time to look at a tv, which was playing the news. On TV was the WTC and it was on fire. That is when the second tower got hit. The room ...