A retired Air Force veteran reflects on September 11, 2001, five military deployments, the cost of freedom, and why 25 years later we must never forget.

Twenty-five years ago today, I was a young Airman stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California.

I had been in the United States Air Force for just under four years. At that point in my life, I had no idea how much September 11, 2001, was about to change my military career, our country, and the world.

I remember that morning clearly.

Several of us gathered in the Primary Care Clinic at Travis and watched the television as the events unfolded. Most of us were young troops. We watched the towers burn. We watched people running through the streets of New York. Then we watched the towers fall.

There are moments in life when you know immediately that things will never be the same.

That was one of them.

The Young Airman in This Picture

The photograph with this article is me during those early years of my military career.

When I look at that young Airman today, I think about everything he did not know yet.

He did not know what the next two decades would bring.

He did not know how many friends would deploy.

He did not know how many families would spend birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas mornings, and other important moments separated from someone they loved.

And he certainly did not know that he would eventually deploy five times during a 20 year Air Force career.

September 11 changed that.

For many of us serving at the time, there was a very clear line between life before September 11 and life after it.

The Cost Was Much Greater Than One Day

On September 11, 2001, 2,977 people were killed in the attacks in New York, at the Pentagon, and aboard Flight 93.

Behind that number are 2,977 individual lives.

Mothers. Fathers. Sons. Daughters. Husbands. Wives. Friends. Coworkers.

First responders ran toward buildings while everyone else was trying to get away.

And America’s sacrifice did not end when the smoke cleared.

Military members deployed around the world. Families stayed home and waited. Some deployments ended with hugs at an airport or on a flight line.

Others did not.

Over the years that followed, thousands more carried physical and emotional reminders of what began that September morning.

Freedom has a cost.

Sometimes that cost is measured in money.

Sometimes it is measured in time away from the people you love.

And sometimes it is measured in blood and tears.

Twenty-Five Years Later

Today my life looks very different.

I am retired from the Air Force. I work in the mortgage industry. Instead of taking care of patients, much of my day is spent helping families buy homes and helping real estate agents take care of their clients.

And like everyone else, I can get caught up in the frustrations of everyday life.

Inflation is higher than we want.

Interest rates are frustrating.

A client’s home sits on the market longer than expected.

A transaction hits another roadblock.

The phone rings when you don’t want it to ring.

Something doesn’t go according to plan.

Those problems are real. They matter to the people experiencing them.

But September 11 has a way of reminding me to put those problems into perspective.

We Still Get to Chase the American Dream

Despite all of our frustrations and disagreements, I still believe we live in the greatest and freest country in the world.

We get to raise our families.

We get to build businesses.

We get to buy homes.

We get to start over.

We get to succeed.

We even have the freedom to disagree about what direction our country should take.

Those things can become so normal that we forget how extraordinary they actually are.

There are people who came before us who paid dearly for those freedoms. There are people serving today who continue to protect them.

That deserves more than a passing thought once a year.

Never Forget

I don’t want September 11 to become simply another date on the calendar.

I want to remember standing in that clinic at Travis Air Force Base.

I want to remember those young Airmen standing beside me.

I want to remember the people who went to work that morning and never came home.

I want to remember the firefighters, police officers, paramedics, military members, families, volunteers, and ordinary Americans who answered the call in the days and years that followed.

Most importantly, I want the generations who were not alive on September 11, 2001, to understand why we still say these two words.

Never forget.

Twenty-five years later, I haven’t.

And I hope we never do.

Posted in Smarter Mortgage Series