reply to post by ladyinwaiting
i was firefighter in the airforce and stationed at nellis air force base on the outskirts of north las vegas in nevada.
i was living on base in the barracks for the 99th civil engineering squadron to whom the the fire protection flight was assigned. i was getting up
early that day as we had excersizes that week. it was my regular "kelly day" which is ... we were on duty and lived at the firestation 24 hour
shifts, every other day (with military obligations usually scheduled on our days off) and our "kelly day" was the one day a week (mine was tuesdays)
that we never worked, and were off for 3 days, every two weeks.
i had been stationed at nellis since january of 1999, with exception of a few deployments.
i remember starting my car and hearing the first tower had been struck by what reports were saying was a plane. but, i honestly didn't know how big
the towers were, or much about them, or their schematics prior to that day. i got out of my car and told a fellow firefighter by the name of forester
about a plane had hit one of the world trade center towers.
then i headed off to work. by the time i got to firestation 4, there were 11 firefighers and we were watching the news in the day room. we watched.
we knew what we were looking at and what firefighters can and "can't" do.
we watched a plane hit the second tower.
excersize was cancelled.
base defenses were activated. if you were not mission essential, you were not getting on base. period.
within less than 15 minutes we had birds (planes) armed and ready.
i said it outloud, and there were those around who heard me. i said we are going to war with afghanistan, and i said it right after we saw the plane
fly into the second tower.
we were already in a hightened alert. the pentagon got hit. a lot happenned on that base that day.
it was one of those times when the management has no choice but to put those who are most capable of performing at a position into that position.
we firefighters watched that days events unfold together.
i think i witnessed a new emotion be born that day.
no life is greater or lesser than any other, and what firefighters are willng and capable of doing at a moments notice for those whom they may have
never met is no exception.
but who ever helps create a situation where firefighters by the hundreds become collateral damage in moments doing what it is they do...
evidently no one wanted us firefighters to fight, or this war would have been over awhile ago.
but no, there were no bid contracts to be handed out, profits to be made, and a military to make subservient to corporate entities and subsidiaries of
other corporation(s?).
9 years into WWIII (
global war on terror) and tptb are just putting obsticle after obsticle in the way... unless profit is acheivable.
who wages war on firefighters? who supported the building blocks up to such a situation? who gave that day it's foundations?
late that evening at firestation 4 i got a call from the assistant chief, requesting me to accept a different postion for awhile. i accepted.
that day, and the days since, sorta hurt us firefighters, too.
i got an ouchy.
firefighters cannot forget, & we shall always remember
what happened to us, in us, on the eleventh of september
[edit on 5-8-2010 by Esoteric Teacher]