THEN (my view)
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning...a bright blue sky with the sun shining. Looking out my window I was wishing I was going to the beach and slapping on some board shorts...but I was getting into my suit...off to work I go. Then on the radio I heard that a plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers. I looked my window (at the time I had an amazing view of downtown & the towers in particular...a view I would always show off to family, friends, and girls) and so at the very top of one of the building there was a fire. At the time it looked like a small plane must have hit the top. I grabbed my digital 1mg camera & took a few shots...but had no zoom. So I went for my Nikon with the telephoto lens and some film. A few minutes later I saw a fire on the other tower. It was bad, but again it was just the top floors. I finished the roll and left for working thinking and hoping was just a bad accident.
I dropped off the film roll and tried to get into the Met Life building but could not. Upon heading home on my beeper went off...a friend said the Pentagon was hit...that hit home... hard... this really was a terrorist attack. When I got home and looked out my window one of the towers was down. I couldn't believe it. I turned on my TV and watched a tower starting to go down...when I noticed that it said LIVE in the corner of my TV...I turned...looked out my window...and saw the other tower go down in what looked like a Hiroshima like mushroom cloud...one of those sights that burns through your retina into your brain...
NOW (Bin Laden's)
It's been 10 years and they still haven't got me. That crazy Cowboy said he'd get me Dead or Alive. Well I'm alive, healthy, not in a cave...but living large in a million dollar home down the block from a major Military installation with high ranking Military for neighbors (will take this up on a later blog). The new guy talks like he plays nice...but he's doing the same damn things the Cowboy did. Hmmm...what's that sound...Choppers????
What did Bin Laden think...just the usual Pakistani military choppers...did he even hear them in the first place? He must have heard voices in Arabic...the sounds of things falling down...gunshots but likely those of his guards...Did he think the ISI or Pakistani Military turned on him? Some other group who wanted the reward money? Did he think that the US actually sent a team in on choppers onto foreign soil to come for him...do the infidels never learn? Why didn't his "friends" notify him of this? Did they not know...did the Americans really fly thru foreign airspace without permission to launch an attack?
The voices are getting louder and full of anxiety and pain...God is...!!! He didn't say great...Did I just hear English? This is getting closer...Are they in the next room?!? That is English...worse yet...it sounds American...CRASH...screaming...bodies falling...armed men enter the room...they move in unison...like some bizarre dance of death...how are none of our bullets hitting them!?! I grab my wife as a shield...she convulses...then crumples against me...I have others...I look up...I see a muzzle...I see eyes locked on to mine...my legs weaken and feel warm and wet...I can't see...clearly...I've lost balance...I see...nothing...I hear screaming...is it mine...some others...Have I stopped breathing...am I still here in the compound...am I somewhere else...
GERONIMO*...I repeat GERONIMO* is down...Yes Sir...Confirmed kill...Gunshot to the head Sir...Yes Sir we are taking pictures and running the facial recognition algorithm. We are taking a sample for a DNA test. Yes Sir we believe it's him. Yes Sir...Thank you Sir...
Most likely we will never know exactly what happened and will never know who the brave members of Seal Team 6 and the CIA Operatives that went in with them are. We will learn some details. It was a tip off gleamed during the Bush administration that started the process and cumulated with a direct order from President Obama to go through with the mission and to use ground forces vs a missile to confirm the kill. It was the combination of at least CIA operatives interrogating Guantanamo detainees who were likely water-boarded at some point that led years later to a team of Navy Seals and CIA hitters flown in by Army Helicopter Pilots that took Usama down with orders to kill. We may never know the birth name of the Seal who pulled that trigger and sent Bid Laden to Hell...we know his name nonetheless...it's Captain America and he was backed by his fellow Avengers! God bless them and God bless America!
*Geronimo - The codeword used for Usama Bin Laden for the mission
epic
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