I remember where I was 5 years ago when I heard the news. I was standing in the crane bay at Perlick, working, cutting something on the bandsaw I ran. Rainer came over to me and mentioned that a place had hit of the towers of the World Trade Center. I nodded my acknowledgement and wondered how a place, like a Cessna, had hit the WTC? Rainer told me when the second plane hit...then it sank in...a jet...

I remember those minutes, hours, days and weeks after...I was bumped to second shift, so I stayed up late watching the news every night, not going to bed until 3 or 4 in the morning. I kept hoping that someone else would be found alive amongst the rubble and carnage, that one more person wouldn't die from the attack...

I remember when the US went into Afghanistan, to get Bin Laden. I was keen on the mission that the B-2's were flying out of Kansas City, loaded with bunker busters. I wanted to see Bin Laden face what he had done.

I remember the uncertainty of those days and weeks...not sure really what to do, what to say. I know I call my family more in those days, to talk, to share, to love...

I remember that at some point in the last 5 years, everything got political. We aren't people anymore, but party members, or a demographic.

I remember that on September 11, 2001, the very thing we watched on the news that always happened on "their" soil, happened here.

I remember...