The Attacks in Bremerton

Millions of people are recounting what they were doing this day, and likely this time, eight years ago.

Well I was here at Naval Station Kitsap (then called Naval Station Bremerton) - better yet trying to get here. The lines were three hours long. All anyone was trying to do was get to work knowing we were under attack. All anyone checking ID cards at the gate was trying to do was keep people out. It was a mess.

Right about this hour, Ryan Hicks, Barb Silkwood, Dave Rush and myself were glued to the television on board USS Abraham Lincoln in the ship yards here. Ironically Lincoln is currently back at the same berthing it was that day, and the public affairs staff is likely doing that very same thing this morning.

Just before the second tower fell - Dave Rush ordered us to turn off the "idiot box" and get back to work. He felt getting out the ship's newspaper was top priority. I'll never forget that as much as I won't forget the towers coming down and wondering if the attacks would continue to include our ship - the only aircraft carrier paralyzed in the ship yards.

Even as we turned back to work, I never realized how many lives the attacks would affect beyond the people who died that day - let alone my own. Lindsay and I got married less than a week later because of it. I couldn't listen to fireworks w/out thinking about attacks. I immediately began serving during war time. Of course the list goes on. Even today, I came back here to this base to be here because of what happened then.

Seeing the USS Abraham Lincoln in the yards and USS John C. Stennis pierside rotating radars tells me things are different for those Sailors. Now we're all either just waiting or expecting.