911

It was late in the afternoon and everybody was getting ready to go home for the day.  My XO (executive officer) came and told me (then, a Specialist and compony armorer) to go get the keys to the arms room.

I had no idea what was going on, but went and got the keys.  When I got back, he told me what was happening, and a bunch of us watched it on TV on AFN (american forces network) and stood there in shock.  We were in The Army in Germany, and all we did was train for war...  which now seemed highly probable.  We were all worried about people at home in the states, but had to fulfill our military role overseas.  

We went the the highest "threat-con" which meant that post was locked down and I spent the next 2 days in the arms room issuing weapons to people pulling guard duty.  Once a system was in place, I only had to come in once every eight hours for weapons and ammo count.  It was a long, frightening couple days, and months, that eventually resulted in a year in Iraq for myself.  I think about it all the time, but it seems like another life at the same time.