A Veteran Remembers 9/11

After high school, I joined the military for a number of reasons. As per my parents’ “request”, I had the choice of finding a job, enrolling full-time in college, or joining the military. I applied for scholarships at a couple of major universities, but didn’t receive any of them. As my father and older brother had joined the Army and Navy, respectively, I chose that route, mainly because I didn’t know what field of full-time employment I wanted to get into at that time. I was initially going to join the Marines, but that didn’t pan out when I went to the MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) office in Detroit. As a result, I went down the hall to the Air Force office and was able to enlist there.

On Sept. 10, 2001, my rank was staff sergeant. I had been in the United States Air Force for just over nine years, and had been at my current location, Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, for a little over two. I was living in base housing with my wife Michelle.

That day we had purchased a new Chrysler Sebring, and planned on taking the necessary paperwork over to the base finance office the next day to have our monthly payment deducted from my paycheck.

On the 11th, we made it a point get to the finance office when it opened so we wouldn’t have to wait in a long line. In our rush to get out the door, we had not turned on the radio or TV, and were unaware of what was transpiring at the World Trade Center. We got in the car and turned on the radio. The DJ was talking about planes crashing into buildings and the ground. With no idea what he was referring to, we made our way to our destination.

When we got to the finance office, there were a dozen people watching CNN in the office foyer. Immediately we realized the gravity of the situation. By this time, the first tower had fallen. To be honest, I’m not sure if we saw the second tower fall live, or if we saw a recording. As we watched, our names were called. We processed our paperwork, keeping an eye on the TV during the short time we were there.

Afterwards Michelle and I got in the car and discussed what we had seen and what it all meant, both in the short and long term. Suffice to say, we were both incredibly anxious, and made a beeline to the Class Six, the base convenience store, for Coke, multiple packs of Marlboro Light menthols, and a 1.75-liter bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

We went home, turned on the news, and watched for several hours. Throughout the day we speculated about what this meant, who was responsible, and where a military member would potentially deploy to in the aftermath. At one point in the morning, I received a call from my shop chief, who had initiated a telephone recall to ensure all personnel were accounted for. For now, the current schedule would not change until after discussions with the unit commander and other senior leaders.

David Miller at his August, 2016 retirement ceremony.

As the day progressed, I knew something was going to change, regardless of what that actually meant. I had previously deployed to Panama and Saudi Arabia in 1993 and 1994 respectively, but knew I would inevitably get a chance in the future to deploy to the Middle East. As the military had been in that region of the world since 1990, this was no surprise. But the knowledge that this would now mean going with weapons and chemical warfare gear felt odd.

We decided to go to the local Outback Steakhouse for dinner. All the TVs were tuned into a variety of news channels providing whatever information, both new and old, they could. We tried our best to distract ourselves with steaks and adult beverages, but nothing really satisfied. We made our way back home in the usual way, but were stopped by several base Security Forces personnel, who told us the gate we were trying to access was closed, and that all personnel had to go through the gate on the back side of the installation. Heading to the gate, we saw a line of car lights ahead of us, stretching at least two miles from the base perimeter. We waited in line for two hours, and when arriving, were told to get out of the vehicle, open the doors, hood and trunk, and let the military dogs go through the car.

In short order, we were on our back to the house. There was a large empty field on the back side of base housing that stretched to the main road outside of the installation. As we drove, we could see sets of headlights moving through the field. As we got closer, we could see security forces performing patrols on four-wheeled, all-terrain vehicles, which was something I had never seen before.

Even though we went to bed that evening as usual, I knew that nothing would be the same at work, and that day to day routines would change. I also knew that tensions would be ratcheted up for the next few days, months, even years.

At work the next day, there was a sense of dread and uncertainty. Personnel were very skittish and unenthused about being at work and taking calls to provide the help desk with support, our assigned task. The job itself did not change all that much as there’s only so much change that occurs in this type of work.

In the short term, nothing in my military life changed much. We were not moved in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, but we did leave Scott AFB in August 2002 when I went to Osan Air Base, South Korea.

I did eventually did deploy to Afghanistan several times over the ensuing decade in varying operations that fell under the war against “terrorism” umbrella. During my first deployment in 2009, I worked in the COMSEC (Communications Security) office where we processed classified electronic keying material for 24 sub-accounts. I also performed staff assistance visits for these accounts to ensure they were following the applicable Department of Defense and Air Force instructions. After four months, I was moved to the eight person Information Management Office, which provided first look and touch labor for the for all computer and networking issues, to include the five unclassified and classified networks.

I retired from active duty in August 2016, but will never forget events of that day, how they affected my family at the time, and what is was going to mean to be a military member from that day forward.