I Will Always Remember!

I remember the events of the morning of Sept 11, 2001 like it was yesterday.  We lived in Pueblo at the time.  J was 2 and I was pregnant with K...... T was already in his 2nd grade class and I was walking M to the gate to start her morning Kindergarten class.  We got up to the fence to get in line and her little friend asked if we had heard that a plane had crashed.  His mom was not there to elaborate, so I just figured that he had heard something on the news that morning.  He was pretty hyped up about it and so it got me curious.  Once I said goodbye to M, I went home and turned on the TV and was shocked at what was happening before my eyes.  My hubby was in the shower and so I went in to tell him about it.  He hurried and finished and we watched together in horror.  Was this really happening to our country?  How could this be?  Those poor people.  We were in shock and seemed to watch the footage forever.  That whole day, I couldn't stop thinking about it and feeling sad.  Everything changed that day.  My children will never know or understand what life was like before that dreadful day. I will forever remember that day and the courage and strength that America demonstrated to the world.  I am so proud to be an American.

So T was in charge of the 9/11 ceremony at school this year since he is JROTC Group Commander.  He got with his 4 other leaders and put together the video above to be broadcasted throughout the school last Friday.  He did a fabulous job...............
Then that afternoon was the ceremony.  He was dressed in his dress uniform.....they got berets and ascots to wear this time.  I thought he looked very sharp.  Even better when he wore his aviators (of course, I missed getting a pix of that)

He contacted the fire and police to see if they would show up and they did....Engine 17, Truck 10 and the Battalion Chief, plus 2 police cars.  He asked the choir to sing and the band to play.  The color guard lowered the flag and T even gave a speech.  It was so awesome.  He did a great job getting it organized and delievering his speech.  I was able to get a video of it...the whole ceremony in fact, but it is 14 minutes long, so I will not bore you with it.  I am so proud of him and the way he lead the program.

Afterwards, his Chief came up to me and told me that when he picks who will be what leadership position for the school year, he hopes that they will do a good job and he picked the right person.  And he told me that T proves to him every day that he is in the right position.  I knew that he would make a good Group Commander (I'm his mother, I know these things), but to have the Chief confirm that and seek me out to tell me that......that is saying something.  It is a lot of work to lead the corp but I knew he could do it.  Way to go T!!!