Yesterday was the 8th Anniversary of the 911 attacks on New York City and Washington, DC.

As I have heard and seen so many things that are very upsetting when they happen, there are many that make it more upsetting 8 years later.

I won’t focus on these things, but the ultra liberal Americans have succeeded in getting major text book companies to call everything about American history bad.  At the same time, they erased the fact that the terrorists that pulled these mass murder events are 100% proven to be Islamic extremists.

Now, if they were Catholic extremists, or Lutheran extremists, you can be certain that fact would not be erased.  But they weren’t, they were Islamic.  It’s a fact.

It’s also a fact that the overwhelming majority of terrorists acts are committed by Islamic extremists.  Yet pissy little liberals don’t want to upset the murders by calling a spade a spade.

That is very upsetting.  That’s why I remember even better what was happening for me on 911 of 2001.  I was still on active duty.  I was the Operations Officer of the USS Kitty Hawk (the forward deployed aircraft carrier stationed in Yokosuka, Japan at the time).

The ship was nearing the end of an intensive overhaul period.  We weren’t quite finished with the work.  I was at my home on the naval base when I got a call from one of my junior officers.  He asked me if I was watching the news.  In Japan, it was a little after 9:00 pm when this all happened.

I turned to a news channel and saw the pictures of the World Trade Center in flames.  The next call I got was from the ship, very shortly after.  All department heads were recalled to the ship.  It was now a little after 10:00 pm.

We got together, expecting a full crew recall.  We also had to plan on how we were going to get the aircraft carrier put back into working order very quickly.  You really can’t imagine how much extraneous equipment was all over the ship.

A full crew recall was, in fact, ordered.  It began around midnight.  Once everyone got to the ship, we were not permitted to leave.  The base in Japan was locked down.  All ships had their sailors recalled.  The housing areas around the base were all locked down.

The strain this put on the local Japanese authorities must have been intense.  Roads were blocked, and traffic backed up for miles.  This went on for days and days.  Security procedures were implemented and enforced.  Travel on and off the base was massively restrictive.

No one assigned to the ship was allowed to leave.  We began a massive reconstruction of the mighty warship Kitty Hawk.  The supply lines coming to the ship were, to say the least, unbelievable!

We planned the sea trials in just a few days.  We did not know if we would be deployed.  We just assumed we would deploy.  That was our job.  Once the sea trial dates were set, we had to get the ship supplied.  Usually we do this over a period of weeks.  Now we only had days.

I think now, that evolution for the Kitty Hawk must have been somewhat how things were for American Navy ships immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Maybe their experience was even more intense.

The Japanese were extremely responsive and fast to assist.  The lines of large trucks coming to Yokosuka were literally several miles long.  They just kept coming in, and we just kept putting “stuff” on the ship.

In about 10 days, we got underway and conducted our sea trials.  We still didn’t know if we would deploy.  We sailed out near Guam, and did our rapid training and air qualifications.  After about 2 weeks there, we suddenly were told to return to Yokosuka as fast as we could.

There was no communication with families, and no one was allowed to email anyone.  We still hadn’t officially been told to deploy, but we were hauling ass to Yokosuka.  About midnight of the transit back, we were told we would deploy 24 hours after our return.

We still didn’t have all our supplies.  So the trucks started lining up, awaiting our return.  This was going to be the first no-notice deployment of the forward deployed aircraft carrier in Japan.  When we arrived, our families still didn’t know we were leaving again in 24-hrs.

I worked all night getting things in line for operations.  Oh my was it a struggle to get it all done.  And really, we did not get everything onto the ship.  We left with trucks still lined up at the pier.  But we were on our way to counter the actions of the Islamic Extremist Terrorists of Al Quieda.  All a direct result of the attacks of 911.

I live in complete admiration of every soldier, sailor, marine and coastguardsman that responded to that call.  I can’t believe I was among them.

And now, I honor fully those that lost their life as a result, and those that continue to fight the terror of Al Quieda and the Taliban – both are Islamic Extremists.

God Bless everyone that fights to keep us safe, and those that live on injured because of the attacks or their personal effort to keep us secure.  I love you all.

- Wayne Sharer