Where were you Twenty-five Septembers ago?

Ask anyone in their thirties or older where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001, and they’ll be able to tell you. While the America I live in today is more divided that at any time in my lifetime, Americans came together in the aftermath of occurred on that Tuesday  morning in September, and the events of that day impacted every family in the United States, in one way or another.

For my family, our 9/11 story begins in Afghanistan, where my cousin, Dayna Curry, and her friend, Heather Mercer, were aid workers with Shelter Now International, a German-based Christian humanitarian aid, development, and relief organization. On August 3, Dayna and Heather were arrested by the Taliban police while visiting a private Afghan home, and charged with  preaching Christianity in the strict Islamic state. In the days that followed, another 22 aid workers would be arrested, and on the morning of the attacks, they were were on trial for proselytizing. 

9/11 was the catalyst for many young Americans, who witnessed the attacks on television, to enlist in the U.S. military. Among them was my nephew, who was 16 on the day of that fateful September morning, and a 21-year-old U.S. Marine serving in Iraq when he was shot by a sniper Twenty Septembers ago.  

We all share a place in history, and I can think of no better example of this than 9/11. We didn't have to be in Manhattan or at the Pentagon on that day. What happened on that Tuesday Morning Twenty-Five Septembers ago impacted us all.

Where were you when you first heard the news? What did you think, feel, fear, or do in those first moments? How did the events of that day impact you and your family. Share your memory so it can become part of a larger record of remembrance.

-- John Michael Lockhart, Stories That Define Us