I was into work early this September morning, earlier than usual and believe based upon the timing I missed morning physical training. The change of the Fiscal year was just a few weeks away, and I was writing a plan for my unit of soldiers, Ky’s counter drug recon soldiers, in how we were going to prepare to meet the challenges of the new year. My guys were and are elite soldiers, handpicked and put through a rigorous selection exercise, with only about 20% succeeded in satisfactory completion.
It was a great plan, or I remember it being so, and I was mildly annoyed when I was interrupted at the door by SFC McArdle. “Sir”, McArdle said to me in his heavy New Hampshire accent, “A plane has flown into the World Trade Center.”
“Was this an accident or terrorism, Robbie?”
“I don’t know Sir.” It was not the last time I heard that phrase this day, in fact maybe it was about one of several dozen times someone replied to me on 11 September 2001 with ‘I don’t know’. I went on to opine based upon my training, that if it was an act of terrorism, who the likely culprit was. I was correct.
“See if you can find out.” I said, Robbie disappeared.
I went back to the plan for just a second- and it was good, very good. It was the best plan that no one would ever read. I did this for what I remember being an extended period of time, sure that I would be briefed shortly on the beginning and end of the incident in NYC. I remember laboring on, and showing my coolness under pressure, but the events of the day show that to be in error as well- as I probably only demonstrated coolness for four or five minutes, tops, and the tension of the day made me stand up from behind my desk and find out what was happening. I made my way to Operations, where the TV was on, precisely at the time that the second plane hit.
The six or seven of my soldiers that were in operations were all seated, shoulders forward, hands folded together in front of them, jaws set and eyes open. They looked like coiled springs. I picked up the training NCO’s telephone and tried to get my boss, Colonel Rick Branscum, and was told he was flying. “Does he know?”
“I don’t know, Sir.”
“Make sure that he does and have him call me at Lexington Ops.” My next call was to Guard Headquarters in Frankfort, where I got the Domestic Operations Manager, LTC Alan Denny. My unit had responsibility for immediate response in the state, and I needed to know if we had a mission.
“No- not yet”
“Do you expect one?”
“I don’t know.”
A few moments later, Robbie McArdle walked into Ops. “A plane has crashed into a building in Washington.”
“Which one, Robbie?”
“I heard it was the Pentagon.”
Honestly, I dismissed that it was the Pentagon, as that seemed too likely a target, and one that everyone would assume. I did believe that Washington had been attacked, and I also did know at that moment we were at war, and told the fellows as much.
“We don’t have a mission yet, but we’re not going to be caught by surprise with one, and nobody is going to be waiting on us. Cancel all missions in the state and put everybody on a two-hour recall. Prep 3-day rucksacks, and line them up in the conference room. Full basic load, all of the comms, body armor, and mask.”
The guys that were in the room, now about a dozen were still momentarily frozen, the coiled springs waiting for me to add additional information or give the command. I gave the command.
“Ok guys, let’s go.”
The springs launched. A dozen soldiers went in a dozen directions and did so hurriedly. We were a great deal better in the world of “Let’s go”, than we were in the world of “I don’t know”. I sat there, by myself for a long, lonely instance until COL Branscum called me on the phone and we discussed it. He was set down with his helicopter on a mountain in Eastern Ky, and I would have given anything if he would have been closer instead of out on the job.
I can remember semi-humorously how the intensity crossed wires and caused tempers to flair in JSO HQ Lexington. Everyone needed to be engaged, doing something, making something happen, and not suffer my fate of the those just standing by and doing nothing. Wink put the radios out on the table, and Wild Bill put them back on the charger. Wink cussed him for that, for the most part like he did every day, and every day when he did so it never bothered Bill, who’d immediately would give right back. Today it seemed like it did bother Wild Bill, and it bothered me that it bothered Bill. Operations was calling soldiers individually with four or five soldiers hovering around the single phone, all trying to dial it at the same time. Every conversation was nearly the same, “We’re on 2 hour recall- come to building 28 to prep ………..no, I don’t know any more than you do……..I heard it was the Pentagon……LTC Hogan is here………..No, we don’t have a mission yet.” What would have taken us about ninety minutes to complete on a normal day took much longer, and went on into the afternoon.
We didn’t go that day, but we were ready. We did go to the airports for a month or so, while a Military Police Unit could be recruited and trained. This took me all over the state, and the appreciation for our uniforms was universal. In the month that we were on that duty, bouncing back from the five cities in Ky that had commercial airports, the training center at Greenville, HQs London, HQs Lexington, and HQs Frankfort, I did not pay for a single meal at the restaurants that we used on the way. People would cry- literally break down and weep- when they saw us.
I experienced my very first moment of awesome patriotic inspiration on the day President Bush told the country that “We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.” It was in this moment that I realized that I could not stay in Ky, and that I had to go forward. I informed my chain of my intention, but assignments would not come easy, at least that early. I was picked up on a tour as a staff officer on the Crisis Action Team, Army Operations Center, at the Pentagon- and departed in January 2002 to serve in that capacity. It wasn’t what I wanted but it was as close as I could get.
I experienced the second moment of awesome patriotic inspiration at the Pentagon. Not from anything that I saw that military in nature, and it was surprising to me that it was so magnificent.
The Pentagon of course has five sides, and one of the five sides had been severely damaged in the attack. In fact, except for the center A ring on that wedge- every other ring B, C, D, and E wings was either destroyed or required reconstruction and had to be demolished. I was inspired by the fact that regardless of the conditions, the temp, the weather- the construction crews worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as hard as they possibly could to undo any sign of the attack. I noticed this on a particularly brutal weather day, well below zero in DC, and the cranes still rolled, through the day and night. I wish I could have bought those guys a meal.
Working through it all, removing the stain of insult to the nation, giving the American people a gain that would generate resolve and give a sense of fighting pride- It was to me that very essence of Americanism, and gave me such hope for the nation. If you are reading this and served with a crew on the building during that time, you have my respect for all time. Thank you for your service.
The third time that I experienced a solitary significant moment of inspiration melded the patriotic with the religious. Sunrise service at the Tomb of Unknowns on Easter Sunday 2002; a service that began when the first rays of light could be felt on our faces on that completely silent, most hallowed of grounds. Likely thousands of people there, nearly all military including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Chief of Staff, US Army, and still so silent that I could hear my heartbeat. I left that service knowing that the Creator had made me for a specific purpose, and I was doing his bidding by fulfilling that purpose. If one has ever committed himself to something with complete resolve, they know the feelings that I had at that moment.
Purpose, is the defining moment for a soldier. I have felt in the years passed this purpose wax and wane, into and out of environments which I was either in the center of the action, or well on the sidelines. Purpose enough I suppose to be a good citizen, walk the path the Creator has set before me, complete his design even though, “I don’t know”, what that may be today. Tomorrow may be that source of inspiration.
If so, Let’s go.