Coming Togeather Through Tragedy Essay Research Paper

On September 11th, I was working in an Army dining facility at Fort Leonard Wood. Like most Americans, the day of the terrorist attacks sticks out distinctly. It was a major event shared by all Americans. This attack seemed to have brought out a deep patriotic movement through out the entire United States, almost having the same impact that the Pearl Harbor attack had on the United States and its people. Although this attack killed and ruined thousands of lives, it brought a country together and had a positive impact on many other lives.

The attack occurred while I was at AIT, advanced individual training, which is job training for the Army. It was part of my training for the Army Reserves, although you still train with Regular Army soldiers during AIT and Basic, which I completed a few weeks prior. Unfortunately on that infamous day, I was on KP, kitchen patrol, and that whole day I worked in the dining facility instead of training. There was only a radio in the building, so we received all our information from it and the people that were coming in and out. I did not get to watch the news and see what happened until about ten o?clock that night.

When I first heard about the planes crashing, I only got sketchy details at first that did not make much sense. A civilian cook was the first one to tell me about it; she said that a plane crashed into the side of a building in New York. When the situation became apparent as a terrorist attack, they stopped training just that one-day and the base went on lock down the rest of the time I was there. Those of us in the dining facility had to keep working and try to put together what happened from what other people were telling us. We tried to figure out as reserve and regular Army soldiers what kind of impact this would have on our lives. There was a lot of talk of us going to war, but I thought it was just people over reacting.

The two statements that I remember most that day came from my drill sergeant and one of the cooks. The cook had watched the news on T.V., and she said that the two towers both had planes crash into them and were gone. It just seemed too unreal, I could not really comprehend it until I saw it on the news that night. The attack just seemed to leave America in a state of shock and unsure of what to do next. Our drill sergeant came in around lunchtime and told us to get ready for war. There were fifty thousand dead, and someone was going to pay for it. Although the number dead actually was much smaller, this still seemed to be the sentiments of many Americans following the attacks. They wanted the biblical ?an eye for an eye?, but revenge does not seem to solve problems.

I could not wait until that night to call my family, and they seemed happy to hear from me as well. That day made many families look at what they have and realize how lucky they are. These kinds of events help make people see what is really important. The media and the population seemed to forget about the petty things and focused on helping those who were hurt by the event and raised millions for them. The attackers tried only to take and destroy life; however, it brought the best out of the emergency personal and other ordinary people that tried to save lives.

I was amazed by all the support and complimentary comments people made to my friends and I in the airport on our way back to our homes. Many people said we were doing a great thing by serving our country, and they certainly made us feel that way. The situation has created huge support for the military and also for the men and women in it. Many celebrities and other entertainers are visiting military posts to show their support and hopefully make life for personnel a little more enjoyable.

We may need these kinds of events to bring us together, so we see through our differences, instead of focusing on them. It reminded us that we are part of an entire world of many countries and backgrounds. We tend to be small-minded and try to isolate our selves from the rest of the world, but Pearl Harbor and September 11th taught us having that outlook, may cost a heavy price. It seems that this horrible event may have done us more of a benefit as a nation than harm. The terrorists made a mistake by attacking us, instead of making us weaker, they only made us stronger and now they are paying the price.