Relief

September 11^th, 2001 started as a good day. I was a Midshipman 1/C at Annapolis, and Tuesdays and Thursdays I had the first period-and-a-half free, which meant I could sleep in a little bit. I walked out of my room around 0845 to make my 0900 class and saw a large group of people in the wardroom watching television. Seeing the first tower billowing with smoke, I thought some terrible aviation accident had happened and continued to make my way to Rickover Hall where my Coastal Engineering lab was held. Shortly after my arrival the lounge televisions reported that a second plane had hit the South WTC tower and later that a third had struck the Pentagon. Soon after, all the midshipmen were sent back to Bancroft, non-essential personnel were told to go home, and the Yard was on lock down. There was an initial scare that Annapolis may be a target, possible retaliation for our missile strikes against Al-Qaeda’s training facilities. People traded phone calls with home, and the phone banks were left open for our friends with families in New York and Pennsylvania.

There were two common sentiments coursing through the Brigade - especially the Senior Class of 2002 whose class motto was “In Harm’s Way” – anger and excitement. We were going into the arena.

The excitement did not last long and the anger only grew. We strove valiantly but erred and came short again and again. Friends and classmates died in training, died at sea, died in the desert of Iraq and died in the mountains of Afghanistan. Friends and classmates came home from battle old before their time, physically and mentally scarred to a discourse more about the critic and a population further removed from the pains endured by the doer of deeds. Our faces were marred with dust and sweat and blood.

Those of us who made it back safe time and again and most of those who served in further rear echelon jobs were also worn out, but only worked harder to ensure our friend’s sacrifices were remembered and meant something, if not to the struggle as a whole, at least to us who knew them. Back-to-back-to-back sea duty, hard fill billets, hard ship duties and individual augmentations met mostly by volunteers who felt they needed to contribute more - all in the name of their friends and classmates. Some of us felt personal responsibility to spend ourselves in a worthy cause, that there was to be no quitting, no “easy” job until the wars were over, not while we had friends and classmates still enduring hardship.

May 1^st, 2011 is relief. Relief that it will not be in vain, that justice has been served and that America can still achieve its goals, no matter how sobering they may be. Relief that the end is in sight. Relief that it is not going to be regarded as a loss.

Our Global War on Terror has been wrought with missteps, miscalculations, poor planning, distractions, and missed opportunities. There is no effort without error or shortcoming. I am proud this opportunity was not missed, that nothing distracted our leaders from making the “green light” decision. I’m proud of the intel section, the surveillance, the pilots and crewman and the shooters, those who strive to actually do the deeds. Of course, I am extremely proud that some people I have supported in other missions and from my home service made this a reality and no longer a chase for a ghost – the strong men who did not stumble.

The struggle against extremism is far from over. One only has to read the newspaper to see that other regions are ripe for terrorist exploitation and we must always remain vigilant, hopefully more so than we as a country have been in the past. But just as the leader of Germany’s demise was the beginning of the end of the last global struggle, hopefully the Al Qaeda leader’s death will be a substantial step toward the end of sacrifice for those who know the great enthusiasms and the great devotions - our current military personnel and their families. Here’s to our daring knowing no failure and the future triumph of high achievement.