by Cliff Ball
Chapter 14
It was a bright, sunny September morning in Delaney, Nebraska. Twenty-six year old Aaron Atwood turned on the TV in his living room to the morning news so he could listen to it while he fixed his wife of six months breakfast. It was her twenty-fifth birthday, and he wanted to serve it to her in bed, even though she didn’t particularly want to eat it there. Since they had a TV in their bedroom, she turned it on while Aaron made breakfast.
As he was putting the cooked food on a plate, Aaron heard a breaking news alert, and the news anchor saying, “Um, apparently an aircraft of some kind has hit the World Trade Center in New York, but we’re not sure if it was an accident or on purpose. We’re live as it’s happening, so we’re getting as much information as we can before we go into speculation as to why this happened….”
Before the news anchor could continue, cameras trained in on another aircraft slamming into the other tower, and one could tell it was a passenger plane. Like the other building, it caught on fire quickly. Aaron was shocked by what he was seeing, and then he heard his wife’s reaction, “Oh my God!”
He picked up the plate of food, put it and a glass of milk on a tray, and rushed back to the bedroom. Mary Anne had tears in her eyes as Aaron sat down on the bed with the tray, and asked, “Have they said anything about why this happened?”
“No, but they’re working on finding out why such a thing happened. Who would do such a horrendous thing, Aaron?”
“I…. I don’t know, Hon. The United States does have plenty of enemies, but I can’t imagine using passenger aircraft to attack us. I’m sure the government will find out pretty quickly who did this and respond with whatever force is necessary,”
“I hope so,”
“I brought you breakfast, do you want to eat it?”
“No thanks, I’m not hungry anymore. You can eat it if you want,”
Aaron nervously gulped down the food as the two watched the news anchors attempting to get their heads around the now apparent hijacking of two passenger planes that were forced to hit the Twin Towers. As the news kept focusing on the burning Towers, reports came in that two more aircraft were apparently missing, but within minutes of that report, one of the planes had slammed into the Pentagon, now there was only one missing. Video was shown of the President being informed, and Aaron caught the look of shock, then of concern, on the President’s face as he pondered what to do next since he was sitting in front of schoolchildren reading to them. It was reported that Air Force One would be flown to Barksdale Air Force Base, and then possibly to Offutt, but no one knew for sure, only that the Secret Service wanted the President off the ground and away from anything that might happen to him.
Manhattan was in a serious state of chaos as the Police and Fire Departments did their best to get people away and attempted to rescue people in the buildings. The news media, especially the ones who were reporting from New York City, were clearly overwhelmed with emotion as they reported on the terrorist attacks against their city and on Washington, D.C., but that didn’t stop them from showing people jumping out of the two buildings to escape the now massive fire that was consuming the Towers. Mary Anne clutched tightly to Aaron as the Towers suddenly collapsed into a massive heap of dust and debris, killing thousands inside, while cameras showed the terrified New Yorkers running away from the massive debris cloud that consumed the area.
“Aaron, we need to pray, especially for our President and our country,” Mary Anne said through her tears.
“Ok. Heavenly Father, we come to you today because of the tragedy in New York, Washington, and all the people who have died due to the terrorist attacks. Please help their families in this time of need, please help our leaders do what is right, and please help our country to come together and focus on you. Thank you and in your name, amen.”
A few minutes later, it was reported on the news, “We have learned that some passengers on a United flight, numbered 93 we believe it is, have stopped the hijackers of their flight from causing any more harm to their fellow Americans. Unfortunately, the plane went down in rural Pennsylvania, and there are no survivors. We know this because one of the passengers phoned his wife to tell her what was happening on board. When he was told what happened to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, he got a group of men together and stopped the terrorists. While we don’t know where Flight 93 was headed, there’s a good chance that it was headed for either the Capital or the White House, since both buildings have been evacuated. We’ve also been informed by the FAA that all flights in the United States have been grounded or have been told to land at the nearest available airport. All flights are canceled until further notice. Stay with our broadcast as we bring you updates and reactions from various political leaders.”
“Aaron, can we get the families together tonight?”
“I didn’t think you wanted company today, since it’s our six month anniversary and your birthday,”
“Yeah, but that was yesterday. Today, I kinda feel like being surrounded by my whole family. You know?”
“Yeah, I know. I kind of feel the same way. I’ll go call everyone; I don’t think anyone would have a problem coming over tonight.”
Both sides of the family had no problem with coming over later on, but they all made it clear they didn’t feel like celebrating anything, but being around family was what was important in this time of tragedy. As everyone talked, some of the younger males in their twenties began talking about joining up with the military. “I hear that it was a guy named Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan that backed Al Qaeda and told them to attack us. I hope President Bush will send hellfire and brimstone on that bunch,” stated Dale, Mary Anne’s brother.
“I saw on the web that Saddam Hussein was the one who backed the attack, along with some guy named Evans. Evans is supposed to be some super rich tycoon who is involved in everything, including this terrorist attack. We should’ve gotten rid of old Saddam back in the Gulf War when we had a chance. Now look at what he’s done,” complained Jerry Hogan, who was married to Grace, Aaron’s sister.
“Jerry, you know you can’t believe everything you read on the web. Don’t you know that’s where all the black helicopter and conspiracy types hang out?” answered Aaron, while the others laughed.
“Well, the web is also good for getting news the mainstream media doesn’t report. News about what the United Nations is planning on doing when it comes to re-claiming the Earth from us humans to rumors that the last election was supposed to have been fixed in favor of the Vice President to reports about how global warming is junk science and how Gore is making money off of the whole scam. Just because you see it on TV doesn’t make it true, you know,”
“Chill out, Jerry, we didn’t mean to rile you up. Anyway, I was thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to join the military, especially if we’re going after those terrorists, show them that nobody messes with the good old USA and gets away with it,”
Everyone in their twenties agreed with Aaron that joining up with the military to take the fight to the terrorists was a good idea and they all agreed to sign up by the end of the week. None of the wives were very happy about the plan, but they understood, and gave their husbands their blessings.
As Aaron was getting ready to go down to the recruiter’s office, Mary Anne stopped him, “Aaron, I need to tell you something that I should’ve told you on Tuesday, but other events happened along the way,”
“What is it, Hon?”
“I found out that I’m three months pregnant, the doctor told me on Monday,”
“Really? That’s wonderful news!” then he gave her a hug. “But, I’m about to join up with the military, do you want me to put it off?”
“Oh, don’t do that. I’ve got yours and my family to help me when I need it. You need to do this, your country and our future child is depending on men like you who defend our country from evil people,”
“If you’re ok with it, I’ll go. But if you’re not, I’d have no problem st
aying here,”
“Aaron, please do this, because I am ok with it. I love you, but stop being such a bonehead,”
Aaron kissed Mary Anne and left for the recruiter’s office. While he was outside, he noticed how eerily quiet the sky was without all the aircraft crisscrossing it, and he kind of missed hearing jet aircraft zoom by. Aaron hoped that flights would resume without too much trouble. He made his way to the recruiting office, joined the Army, went through the pre-physical checkup, and was checked out as a fine physical specimen. A week later, he was sent to the training base by way of bus and was joined by others, like Paul Delaney, his best friend, who had just gotten married to Elizabeth Lincoln, who was the best friend of Mary Anne, since they didn’t want to put off getting married now that Paul was going into the military. Paul had been inspired when the President went to Ground Zero in Manhattan to cheer up the workers who had to sort through the mess of the downed Twin Towers and promised them that the people who downed the Towers would be brought to justice. Paul was a guy who didn’t trust the previous President enough to want to go into the military, but decided this new one seemed trustworthy enough that he wouldn’t screw over those he commanded, at least not purposefully. Paul did think a few in Congress would do it the first chance they had, just to make the President look bad.
Nine weeks later, Paul and Aaron were assigned to units in Afghanistan after the Air Force had gone in and attempted to weaken the Taliban. Later, Paul was reassigned to Iraq when the U.S. invaded that country.
******
