On September 11, 2001, as my wife and I stood in front of the TV, watching as the Twin Towers fell, even through the shock and sadness I felt for the victims and their families, I couldn't escape the realization of how the event would effect my life.
I turned to her and said, “I think I might be going away for a while.”
At the time I was serving as the executive officer of Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, a reserve unit headquartered in Garden City, New York.
The day following the 9/11 attacks, I visited the reserve center and spoke to the Inspector-Instructor (I&I), the active duty lieutenant colonel who runs things between drill weekends. We discussed what we both considered to be the pretty high probability of the battalion soon being activated.
He opined that it was quite likely in that, being in a metropolitan area, our battalion's roster (table of organization or “T/O”) was fully manned. Out on the west coast, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines, based in and around Los Angeles, was also “T/O complete," so they’d probably be activated, as well.
So, on September 12, 2001, as far as I was concerned, the writing was on the wall. My battalion was going to be activated.
Weapons Company went to the field during our October 12-14 drill weekend, so I missed Game 3 of the American League Division Series, when Derek Jeter made that spectacular toss to Jorge Posada to nab Jeremy Giambi at the plate. I only heard about it.
At the time, I was a Yankees season ticket holder and split the games with a few other guys at my job. Since I knew I was going to be unavailable for most of the ALDS, I just let the rest of the crew decide which games they’d each take.
That Sunday evening, after having trained all weekend, we took the company's mortar platoon down to Ft. Bragg, NC to participate in Exercise Rolling Thunder, a semi-annual training event run by 10th Marines, the artillery regiment headquartered aboard Camp Lejeune, NC.
In some eerie twist of circumstances, the I&I had, months earlier, made arrangements for us to travel by rail, on Amtrak. To do so, we’d first have to take the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station to make the connection.
We were totally geared-up and armed; M-16s slung over shoulders and officers carrying side-arms as we boarded the LIRR train. I was standing near the door as we headed west, and looked over the shoulder of a civilian guy who had the Daily News open to the page with the photo of Jeter making the play.
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