(LifeSiteNews) — On a family trip to New York City, I sat in awe on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center’s “Windows On the World” restaurant just two weeks before September 11, 2001.
I was 13 at the time. Little did I know a tragic event would change my life, steeling my resolve to become a United States Marine when I turned 18.
I vividly remember that day. The weather at our Michigan home that morning was spectacular: The sky and the river that flowed behind our home were both a beautiful blue, and a gentle breeze surrounded me as I finished my outdoor chores.
My Mom called out to me to let me know that “a small plane just hit the World Trade Center.”
My first view of the hole sliced in the North Tower, even as a 13-year-old airplane aficionado, told me that it wasn’t hit by a small plane.
Then the second plane then hit, followed by reports of two other rogue airliners.
I was smacked with the sudden realization: America was under attack!
By 4 p.m. as I stood outside on our dock, it was eerily quiet. The street in front of our house was empty. There were no planes overhead. Lake freighters and other ships had come to a stop, forced to anchor, including a large steamship company bulk carrier anchored just 500 feet from our dock. Looking up and down the river, there were dozens more up to and in Lake Huron.
I spent the next 48 hours watching the news and monitoring the ship and plane channels on my digital scanner.
It would be five days before the ships were allowed to continue their journeys.
While tens of thousands experienced the loss of loved ones that fateful day, ALL of us suffered the loss of security America had once given its citizens. The freedom of movement and security we had on September 10 was gone.
Americans came together to support each other in the aftermath of the attacks. A Gallup survey showed that 90 percent of Americans supported President George W. Bush’s “Call to Arms,” the highest Gallop rating in history.
Sadly, though, there has been an increase of those who hate America within our shores.
Our biggest security threat is now purely homegrown.
Let’s face it: The leadership of New York and other big Democrat-run cities are embracing radical leftist ideologies hostile to America’s DNA.
Just one generation after 9/11, New York City’s mayor is a Muslim who is an avowed Democratic Socialist. He has the Big Apple on a trajectory toward full-blown communism.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s past statements have equated the 9/11 American civilian deaths with casualties from the wars that followed and his wife has minimized or justified the attacks.
A hasty petition on behalf of 9/11 victims’ families who have demanded that he refrain from participating in today’s Ground Zero 25th ceremony was signed by over 100,000 New Yorkers.
Polls show Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say the country focuses on 9/11 “too much” (13 percent vs. 5 percent, respectively, in a recent YouGov survey).
Millennials and Gen Z are also more skeptical of American exceptionalism and military force than their elders.
According to another Gallup survey, 28 percent of all U.S. adults report that the 9/11 attacks permanently changed the way they live. This feeling is particularly pronounced among Gen X (33 percent) and Millennials (36 percent), who were entering adulthood or working age when the tragedy occurred.
Add to this data from Emerson College polling highlighting that most Americans prefer to reflect on the tragedy in “private” rather than public spaces. While roughly 76 percent of Americans continue to rank 9/11 as one of the most consequential events of their lifetimes, this is a decline from 89 percent a decade ago.
Service, sacrifice, and betrayal
Then there is the impact on those of us who fought on the battlefields to stop the scourge that gave us 9/11.
What we fought for, Washington leadership abandoned.
Joe Biden’s “midnight pullout” from Afghanistan gave those we fought billions of the finest military equipment to sell and or use to attack us.
“Abbey Gate” killed 13 of our American servicemen and 170 Afghan civilians. There has been no accountability.
It was a massive slap in the face to those of us who fought there.
I can’t get the image out of my head of our faux Commander-in-Chief hiding in his basement whose orders for the outrageous retreat were signed by “AutoPen” during what amounted to a third Obama administration.
Folks, we are only another 25 years from the memory of 9/11 being nothing more than a rewritten account of the truth.
The rapid increase of socialism in just the past decade is the REAL enemy we face. Multiple states are about to vote in communists, not JFK Democrats. Even Texas is at great risk of turning socialist blue in November.
So please. Do everything you can to share your experience with others that you endured on this 9/11.
Explain to children how deeply our country was harmed. Celebrate the memories of the First Responders heroes of 9/11 and those who were just at work to support their families in the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and in those four airliners that were turned into missiles.
Take trips with your family to America’s heartland and historic places to educate and see firsthand how great our country is! And more than ever, strive to get “America First” candidates elected this November and beyond!
God bless you all and God bless America!
Bradley Reed is a commercial airline pilot who flies for an international carrier and is a Marine Corps veteran who did four extended tours in Afghanistan.