Remembering 9/11: Brian Cook

September 11 affected my life immediately. I felt as if part of our nation had been crushed.

I was in the Army at the time. As soon as I seen that the first tower was hit I thought that it was an accident. Almost simultaneously as the second tower was hit and it hit me just as hard. I knew we were at war. But at war with who? I didn't know at the time. I just knew I had to get my head right, because as a nation WE ARE AT WAR!

Still to this day I can not fathom the amount of lives lost. Over 3,000!!!! That is a number that I cannot get my head around. It didn't take over 3,000 lives. It took more. In each death, a family was torn, crushed, broken. Children lost their mothers. Children lost there fathers. Fathers lost their sons/daughters, Mothers lost their son/daughters and so on. I can only imagine the pain the families went through. I can only imagine the pain families feel for their lost ones when they knew their loved one was at the top of the building and had to choose to either jump or burn to death.

This is going to be a hard month for Americans and especially for New Yorkers. Ask yourself this does it feel like a decade has passed? Just look at the children in your families, most are grown now.

I have an iconic image in my head when I hear the words nine-eleven. The image is two great towers, a symbol of the greatness of the United States of America, standing tall in the sky, but they both have black smoke boiling out of them. God bless our America. Embrace the land you live in. I love our country.