9/11 Reflections

Master Sergeant Christopher Flores, 51st Fighter Wing Security Forces defender I made the decision to join the U.S. Air Force before Sept. 11, 2001. I had no idea what the future held for me and I didn’t know what war was at the time. I was a teenager just trying to find my way. When I first learned of the attacks, I was in history class. I sat down and the teacher was wheeling-in the old school television to display the news and he said something was going on in New York City. I saw people jumping to their death instead of being burned alive. Shortly thereafter, the second plane crashed into the south tower and later I watched reruns of the towers falling. The other news was playing on the lower banner of a plane crashing in Pennsylvania and another in the Pentagon. Like many other Americans, I had mixed feelings of sadness, anger and of course confusion. I remember years prior to 9/11, our nation supported operations in Kosovo and the Gulf War when I was in grade school.