9-11 and the End of My Mission, or, Just the Beginning

The last couple of days have carried with them a whole range of emotions. My thoughts wandered from seeing the events of the morning of 11September2001 unfold on the television, to the 343 FDNY Firefighters who paid the ultimate price doing their job, to the brave men and women of our U.S. Military Forces who voluntarily put themselves in harm's way to stop the cowardly and terroristic threats on our Country, to the 4,000+ deaths and 31,000+ wounded in Operation Enduring Freedom, to the some 2,800 deaths in the attack on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the Shanksville, PA crash site, to the families of all of those who died. I thought of the American outcry on 9-11 and in the weeks following... and I thought of the short memories of Americans as people drove and strolled passed Fire Houses and Ground Zero hardly paying attention except to whatever was driving them for that day... even one New York paper had the exceptional lack of a moral compass as to put the opening of the NFL season on the front page and the 9-11 information and stories beginning on like page 20... Very sad in my eyes, but, that's America, right? I also witnessed a great number of New Yorkers and Americans from around the Country come to Ground Zero to pay their respects and to ponder the events of that fateful day.

I have been in the very capable hands of the FDNY Pipe and Drum Band all weekend. I have met some of the greatest guys I have ever met... true Heroes on the Home front. These guys volunteer for Band detail along with their jobs as Firefighters. And not only did they show me around and teach me some FDNY history and show me the sites, but they took me in and took care of me like one of their own... without hesitation. I am truly honored to have spent the events leading up to as well as those of 9-11 in their company and care.

Today I am fortunate enough to spend one last evening in NYC as I have been invited to the USS Intrepid for the last Band ceremony of the weekend. Tomorrow I will be loading up the U-Haul, thanks to U-Haul and the Wounded Warrior Project, and driving back to Texas with a few days to myself to think about my newly acquired friends, the War on Terror and where I fit in to all of this as an American. I would like to continue this ride annually in the years to come for the ultimate benefit of our Troops. With the continued support of great Americans like those who helped me complete this mission, I'm sure we can make a go of it. ESSAYONS!

Ride On!