Most of you know, I dont normally speak publicly on serious matters. Yeah I joke and pal around this board, and Ill lend my insight and knowledge at times, but as a whole I generally keep to myself.
That being said, there really arent words for this. It physically hurts, painfully so, to recount that day. A fellow firefighter/medic friend of mine listed the chronological order of events earlier, and despite being at work, I was so affected I had to remove myself from my station for a few minutes.
I know that I, like many of you, can not look at the New York skyline, even in its majesty, and not have your heart scream in that spot for the image burned into our heads of the two towers that once were.
I know most of you, like myself, cant look upon the Pentagon, and the field in Shanksville PA and shudder at the thought of what was, and what could have been.
And what, in my humble opinion, I think it all boils down to is this: "Gone but never forgotten" are tenfold deeper than mere words. They are how most of us, who affected by that day, as I was/am, live our lives each day. The colors that fly are a little bolder to us, the tones dropping, even at 2am, are a little more critical to us. Because for those of us who know of "Gone but never forgotten", realize a little fuller how to live as if our last, so though who fell went not in vain. I don't want to forget, as it helped shape me and become a part of me. And its for all this that I, not shamefully, not mournfully; but proudly proclaim as many of you have, and will: I will Never Forget!
God Bless and God Speed to all my brothers and sisters in uniform