"As if they guessed they might not see each other again"

The easy way to start this day of sadness would be to just find a few of the thousands of stories reflecting the anniversary of September 11, 2001. That horrible day caused ten years of war.

What started off with this

Number of 9-11 Deaths
At least 2,985 people died in the September 11, 2001, attacks, including:
19 terrorists
2,966 victims [2,998 as of Spring 2009]


All but 13 people died on that day. The remaining 13 later died of their wounds. One person has died since the attacks, of lung cancer. It is suspected to have been caused by all the debris from the Twin Towers.


There were 266 people on the four planes:
American Airlines Flight 11 (crashed into the WTC): 92 (including five terrorists)
United Airlines Flight 175 (crashed into the WTC): 65 (including five terrorists)
American Airlines Flight 77 (crashed into the Pentagon): 64 (including five terrorists)
United Flight 93 (downed in Shanksville, PA): 45 (including four terrorists)


There were 2,595 people in the World Trade Center and near it, including:
343 NYFD firefighters and paramedics
23 NYPD police officers
37 Port Authority police officers
1,402 people in Tower 1
614 people in Tower 2
658 people at one company, Cantor Fitzgerald
1,762 New York residents
674 New Jersey residents
1 NYFD firefighter killed by a man jumping off the top floors of the Twin Towers

The count is different depending on which site you go into but considering no matter what number we read, we'll never know the numbers for sure. The numbers do not include suicides due to this day. As sad as those numbers are, that dark day in our history was just the beginning.

iCasualties.org has the number of servicemen/women killed in Iraq at 4474 and in Afghanistan at 1762. Again, the true number will never really be known because suicides are not counted if they are died after they left the military. The VA doesn't count them unless they were in their system.

Everyday 18 veterans end their lives by their own hands. These men and women managed to have the will to live through combat but lost it back home when they were supposed to be safe once more and out of danger. Home to them became more dangerous than war.

Every American changed that day but for the men and women who answered the call of their country, the changes never stopped, the threats to their lives have not ended and their memories of that dark day have been added onto by 3,650 more days.

Considering a young soldier serving today was not even a teenager when the planes hit the Towers ten years ago, their memories of a nation living in peace have come from history books because their lives have been filled with the threat of more attacks.

Here is a story that should be read this morning so that we never forget that day in America has not ended.

Wounded in Iraq: A Marine's Story
SEP 6 2011
Five years after a gunshot changed his life, the author reflects on what a decade of war has cost Americans

Reuters
I cry whenever I think of a memorial service I attended in Iraq. From the back of the hot, packed room next to the chaplain's office, I looked down the center aisle and saw six sets of boots, rifles, helmets, and dog tags.

Six Americans had lost their lives defending their country. I had seen these Marines hug each other before heading out on patrol -- real hugs, as if they guessed they might not see each other again.

They had been in Iraq for a while and knew how dangerous every mission was.

Blood and treasure are the costs of war. However, many news articles today only address the treasure -- the ballooning defense budget and high-priced weapons systems. The blood is simply an afterthought. Forgotten is the price paid by our wounded warriors. Forgotten are the families torn apart by lengthy and multiple deployments. Forgotten are the relatives of those who make the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country. As we look back on 9/11, we should also remember all those who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Fewer than 1 percent of Americans have fought in these wars, and it is important for the public to understand their effects on our fighters and those close to them.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, ushered in a new era of reservist involvement, and like many others, I volunteered to deploy to Iraq. As a Civil Affairs Team Leader, I was entrusted to help local Iraqi communities develop critical infrastructure projects. Our focus on foot patrols, combined with the intense heat and carrying 65 pounds of weapons and gear, made for long days. The enemy threat was omnipresent, and this was a chance to truly lead from the front. Being a part of this unit was the highlight of my military career, and in my short time there I learned a lot about leadership and troop welfare.

October 18, 2006, started out like any day over there, at least as much as I can remember of it. We had a newspaper reporter with us, and he rode next to me in the up-armored humvee. We stopped to inspect an Iraqi police station that had been shot up the night before, and then to check on a squad of Marines who guarded a notoriously dangerous area.

As we exited the vehicle at our next stop, I told the reporter about an enemy sniper in the area who had already killed several Marines, and warned him to move quickly. Based on this advice, he took a big step forward, and a bullet smashed into the wall next to us right where his head had been. The next bullet hit me behind my left ear and exited out my mouth, causing catastrophic damage along the way. Somehow, from hundreds of yards away, the sniper had managed to shoot me in the thin sliver of exposed skin between my helmet and neck guard. Miraculously the bullet did not hit my brain or my spinal cord. It did, however, tear apart my mouth and face. Although I initially did not lose consciousness, I do not remember anything from the sniper attack, nor anything else from the next two weeks.

The Marines closest to me thought that I had been killed instantly, but that did not deter Corpsman George Grant. With complete disregard for his own life, Corpsman Grant ran over to me, even though the sniper was still trying to pick off other targets. George saved my life that day. He performed rescue breathing and an emergency tracheotomy on me, even under these chaotic conditions. Ultimately, he was able to stabilize me long enough to get me to the closest medical facility. The Battalion Commander also stared down death to help provide emergency medical care to me.

read more here