I was in 9th grade English class with Mrs. Lashley at the time. She was a tall thin blonde woman with no command presence over unruly children from South St. Petersburg. I believe I was in 3rd period by the time I found out. I got a note from a Teachers Assistant that my mother was at the school to pick me up and take me home. At the same time I heard an announcement over the school intercom presumabaly to tell the school of the events but I couldn’t hear it. Everybody was loud and misbehaving, as usual. I went to the office and met my mother and she looked worried. We walked (very quickly) to the car and in the hallway I asked what had happened. She said “honey, we’re going to war” and then gave me the details. As a young kid in 9th grade I was blown away and quite nervous. I had visions of soldiers putting their gear on and loading their weapons heading off into the distance to fight.

We had to go to a local elementary school to pick up my sister who was in 3rd grade (I think?). She was in the lunch room with all the other kids for assembly of some kind. On the drive home I listened to the radio for the updates on the situation. By the time I made it to a TV both towers had fallen and the PA flight crashed as well as the Pentagon flight.

I can remember talking in my American Government class just DAYS before the attacks about the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden, and the training camps in Afghanistan. My teacher actually predicted that there would be a terrorist attack from this group on America in the near future. Too bad he was right. My next memory is from a few years later watching the news and seeing a U.S. Marine laying dead in the streets of Iraq; another soldier trying to drag him behind a hummer. I knew right then and there I would be a U.S. Marine and wanted all of Iraq to feel the wrath of America.