Posted on 09/08/2006 5:07:16 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2006 – It was an “eerie feeling” returning to the United States after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Peter Pace. Pace, then the commander of U.S. Southern Command, had just been confirmed as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was in Bogota, Colombia, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
“First, like all Americans I felt shock and anger,” Pace said during a recent interview. That was followed by determination “and the certain knowledge … that the vice chairman seat that I thought I was going to was going to be very different than what I thought.”
Pace said the Colombian military reached out to him on Sept. 11. “They made sure that when my plane landed in Cartegena, where we needed to refuel, that the security was rock-solid,” he said.
When Pace flew to the United States, all civilian aircraft had been ordered to land. Military air traffic controllers were handling all flights in the United States. “We experienced flying back in to the United States under (North American Aerospace Defense Command) control rather than the normal civilian controllers,” Pace said.
When he landed in Miami, his was the only airplane at the airport that was moving. “There were all of those things that were totally eerie and disjointed from what you would expect from any normal day,” he said.
The events of Sept. 11 certainly changed his job as vice chairman, a position he held for four years before becoming chairman. Normally, the vice chairman deals with budgeting, weapons systems acquisition and the like, Pace said. “I spent my four years as General (Richard B.) Myers’ deputy for the war,” he said. “I spent my time helping General Myers craft the advice he was giving here in Washington.”
The events also took Pace back to his military roots: going to war in Vietnam after his commissioning in 1967.
“Now, almost 40 years later, the country is at war again. That’s the bad news,” he said. “The good news is we have tremendous young men and women who serve this country exceptionally well. We will do what we must do to defend our country and make sure that our families and all American get to live in freedom.”
Remembering that fateful day. Where we were and what we were doing is forever seared in our soul when America was attacked.
Thanks for posting this. In spite of the Clinton's who wish we would never remember this, unless of course it is Bush's fault, we must never forget. I know for sure, I never will.
Man, this will bring back memories.
I was in Midtown Manhattan. Sitting in a conference room that faced the WTC. The person sitting next to me said SHIT! I looked out the window and one of the towers was on fire. One person in our conference room was on the phone with his sister when the line went dead. He ran out of the room.
Watching in horror we saw the second tower erupt in flames. I got a call from my teammate who was on the bus coming into NY from Jersey. He yelled into the phone that a plane just hit the WTC. We sat there in silence, watching the buildings burn then the second building fell.
At this point we figured out what happened. Our office manager came into the conference room and asked that we leave the building and go to our DR location. I looked at him and said our DR site just collapsed and who was the Einstein that suggested we move our backups to an office in the WTC.
After the first building came down, the guy who left the conference room came back in. His wife worked for a company in the WTC. When the plane hit, she was in the direct line of the plane.
Everything after that was pretty much a blur. I got across the river into New Jersey 16 hours later and my wife had to negotiate every small road to get to me.
The next morning I went to the garage where my car was. The attendents marked the tires with chalk of everyones cars that were there overnight. When I got my car, the attendent said welcome home.
It was at that moment when I finally broke down and sobbed.
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack was unprovoked and unannounced. No state of war existed before the attack.
On April 18, 1942, just over four months later, America retaliated with a bomber attack on Tokyo. The pilots had been trained and qualified, in that short time, to do something that had never been tried before: to fly off a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean, conduct a bombing mission and then ditch instead of land at an airfield.
On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked at the World Trade Center in New York City and at the Pentagon near Washington DC. The attack was unprovoked and unannounced. No state of war existed before the attack.
On October 7, 2001, less than one month later, the United States attacked terror camps and a terror government in Afghanistan.
It is difficult to imagine any other nation in the world being able to respond so quickly and so professionally after an attack like that suffered by the United States on December 7, 1941 or on September 11, 2001.
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