Sept. 7
When my grandparents retired, they moved to Emerald Isle, N.C., with a bunch of their old Navy friends. As a kid, I remember them playing poker and talking about where they were when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Similarly, I recall my parents discussing with friends where they were when we landed on the moon. When my generation gathers, we ask, “Where were you when the towers fell?”
The September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon redefined world politics, air travel and my vocation. I was a freshly-minted second lieutenant in the US Air Force when the towers fell. I went from a nation-building civil engineer to a war-fighting expeditionary engineer overnight. And even though I finished up my active duty service in 2005, that event still serves as a touchstone for my work today with veterans, most of whom spent their entire careers in combat operations.
9/11 Memorials have varied over the years, from moments of silence at NFL games to church services commemorating first responders. However, the ones I’ve liked the best are the stair climbs. Depending on who you ask, there were somewhere between 2200-2226 steps to the top of a World Trade Tower, and so many veteran and first responder organizations hold 9/11 Memorials by climbing up that many steps.
When I lived in north Austin, we gathered at Mt. Bonnell and hiked up and down those steps overlooking Lake Travis. More recently, my veteran friends from around central Texas climb the tower at the Circle of the Americas with proceeds supporting the Samaritan Center.
Our WWII veterans gather at the VFW. Our Vietnam Veterans take to the open road, but our 9/11 veterans seem more keen on moving their bodies. Post 9/11 Veteran organizations like Team RWB, Band of Runners, and San Marcos’s own VetRecOutdoors all specialize in connecting veterans, civilians, and creation through hiking, biking, running, and paddling. So in that vein, I’ll be headed to Old Baldy in Wimberley on 9/11 this year.
Old Baldy rises 1182 feet above sea level and offers 360-degree views of the Wimberley Valley. The trail to the summit is a mere .16 miles, but it is all steps…218 of them to be exact. The math works out rather nicely in that 10 trips to the top of Baldy comes out to 2180 steps, meaning it’s only another 46 steps to reach the memorial number of 2226. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do them all, but I’m going to give it a try, because it’s easier than driving to Austin.
If you want to join me, I’ll be at Old Baldy Park, 33 LaToya Circle, at 0700 this Thursday, Sept. 11. I’m sure we’ll ask the question country singer, Alan Jackson posed, “Where were you when the world stopped turning that September Day?” but I’m also curious to know, where are you today? Where are you, 24 years later, with grief, anger, fear and forgiveness? Where are you today with remembering well and rebuilding better?