bin laden
I grew up so to speak in the cold war paradigm. My first real "underway" was aboard the good ship USS GROTON - a submarine out of New London, CT bound for La Maddelena Italy in 1989. During that trip we sank every ship in the battlegroup twice and the carrier four times. Saw a Alfa Class Russian Sub exiting the Med on the surface and was hooked from then on....
After I graduated, the threat evaporated. I lived the "peace dividend". I saw my future in submarine warfare dissolve as we had no real adversary. Then one fall day - the first day of my first leave since Christmas and with concert tickets that night..... I went out for a run only to find out that we were at war, and that my life had been refocused. The next several years found me fighting the war in the intelligence sector, saving lives on the ground in Baghdad, and worrying if I would be shipped to the front lines since.
My boys have grown up in a world where suicide bombing and chemical warfare are as much a reality for them as nuclear warfare was for me in High School. I now understand how people felt when they heard Hitler was dead. In the history of the world, there are a few countries, few organizations that have faced evil and destroyed it. We are living in a time where we must stand up and face evil. We must call it out at home and abroad where it may fester and destroy it.
Today is a day where if anything, we can never falter or stop the fight, but we should take a pause to remember our fallen colleagues who gave the ultimate sacrifice in this fight. We must acknowledge that this victory didn't come without a price. And we must re-affirm that no where, no how, will the enemy rest or find shelter that we will not find them and facilitate to the best of our ability the opportunity for them to meet their maker....
