Reflecting Back on Twenty Years Ago

Summary

The author reflects on their personal experience of the 9/11 attacks, recalling the day and its impact on their life as an American child living in South Korea at the time.

Abstract

The author recounts their unique perspective as an American child living abroad during the 9/11 attacks, detailing the confusion and fear of the day as they watched the events unfold on television from South Korea. They describe the subsequent changes in security measures and the lingering fear of potential attacks, which followed them back to the United States. The narrative touches on the complexity of the post-9/11 world, the 20-year war that ensued, and the recent withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, questioning the outcomes and future implications.

Opinions

The author suggests that the gravity and complexity of the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent war were not fully understood by their generation at the time.
They express a sense of dual identity, being American but living overseas during the attacks.
The author implies that the fear of terrorism persisted even after returning to the United States, particularly in a city like Fort Worth with significant military and defense assets.
There is a clear sentiment of disappointment and concern regarding the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, indicating it was not executed in a way that ensured peace or stability.
The author acknowledges the difficulty in judging past decisions with hindsight and emphasizes the ongoing complexity of the situation, indicating that there may not be clear-cut "right" answers in such matters.

When the Towers came down

I grew up in the generation that watched the World Trade Center collapse as children. Old enough to understand, kind of, but not adults or even teenagers. I was eight. It means we watched it happen, saw the aftermath, but may not have understood the gravity of the situation, the implications, the complicated nature of both that event and the twenty-year war that has followed. Though honestly, not many truly understand the intricacies of this war.

My story is a little different from most of my contemporaries. Over four years of my childhood were spent overseas, including 2001. Despite being American, I was not in America when the Twin Towers fell. I was in South Korea.

My dad had been sent over there for work. As an engineer for Lockheed Marting, he was building fighter jets in partnership with a Korean company. All of my American friends were there because one or more of their parents worked for the fighter jet company, the military, or both. My life was somewhere in between a civilian and a military family.

I remember waking up and realizing that we were late for school. My sister and I started getting ready, confused as my Mom was always on top of us in the morning. We went out of our shared bedroom to see what was going on.

My parents were both sitting on the couch watching the TV. It looked like the news, but also some kind of war movie. It was unusual that Dad was still home as he had over an hour commute to work and was therefore normally gone before we even woke up.

“We’re late for school,” my sister finally said. My parents turned away from the TV, looking… scared, confused, sad?

They explained to us that school was canceled. That some bad guys had flown a plane into some important buildings in New York City as well as the Pentagon. School was canceled because people were worried about other American bases around the world that might be targeted as well. And in honor of the people who had died.

We spent the rest of the day watching the news and waiting with bated breath. Wondering if we would be hit as well, even though it had already been a while. Due to the time change, the attack had occurred during the night for us.

It was hard watching the news, seeing all the destruction that had been caused. But it also had layers to it that boggled our brains a bit. It was an attack on American soil. We were Americans. But we were very far away from New York City. But America was still home even if home was also Korea right now. And this threat might suddenly get closer to us as well.

Time went on. We went back to school. We stayed in Korea for almost another year. Our standard procedure for the airport that had always gotten us through security in record time despite the fact my parents were towing three kids along didn’t work anymore. All the rules had changed. Because of 9/11 my parents said.

We moved back to Texas, where we had lived before going to Korea. Where the fear of attack went away but not completely. Many people wouldn’t expect this, but Fort Worth is one of the top cities that could be targeted in a terrorist attack. Why? Within the greater Fort Worth area, there is the Lockheed Martin plant, the Bell Helicopter plant, and at least one military base depending on how far out you go.

While this wasn’t lorded over our heads, having parents who worked for one of these places, meant we knew about it more than others. In fact, when I was in college working in the Writing Center, I helped a student with a paper on how a terrorist attack could take out Fort Worth as part of an anti-terrorism or security class or some such.

It was just part of my life. Now, I live in New Hampshire, somewhere pretty far down the list of potential targets in the country. It’s now twenty years after the attacks on 9/11. The army has been pulled out of Afghanistan, the war that started twenty years ago.

Not because the threat is neutralized. Not because we brought peace like we said we would. We all wanted to see our soldiers come home, but not like this. Not yanked out, leaving Afghanistan in terrorist hands.

I know the situation is complicated. I don’t have the answer to what we should have done. It’s easy for others to look back on the situation with 20/20 vision and postulate about what they would have done, but the situation is still too complicated to know if any of these plans would have worked perfectly either.

None of us have the answer and all we can do is hope that in the next twenty years, we will at least make better progress.