On Twitter today, someone asked:
On September 11th, 2001, I was standing duty on the USS Frank Cable in Guam. We were in, I believe, twelve section duty at the time. That meant that everyone on the ship was broken into twelve sections, each section having to take their turn staying on the ship overnight (basically, had to be there for 24 hours). Twelve sections were nice, because that meant you only had duty once every twelve days. But, that also meant fewer people per duty section, and fewer people to stand watches. I was part of the Operations department. My job was actually taking care of the servers, and during duty days that meant running all of the backups. I, as an E5, was also the highest ranking enlisted member in Operations during my duty section, so I was the Operations Duty Officer. In addition to my normal duties I was in charge over everything in Operations at night after everyone had left for home, including running colors. Basically that meant I had make sure all of the flags were put up throughout the day, including playing the national anthem at dusk. If the Captain came on board, I'd have to run up and put his flag up, too. If he left, run up and take it down.
At 10:46 p.m. Guam time, I received a phone call from Radio asking me to come up right away. They had just gotten some alarming message traffic. I went up and we huddled over the terminal to read the messages that were coming in. We watched, horrified, as the messages changed from one plane hitting the World Trade center accidentally, to another plane hitting and it being quite obvious that this was no accident. My first thought was, "Someone just declared war on us."
I immediately called the Operations Officer at home and explained the situation. He directed me to begin recalling our entire department. He would be calling the Captain. Right after I got off the phone with him, Radio called me back to let me know that the television news (that we got piped in from California) was showing it at that very moment. I turned on the television in my office, but didn't get more than a 5 second look at it, as I had a job to do.
I have to admit that the next person I called wasn't even in my department. It was my then-boyfriend (now-husband). He was at home, asleep. I woke him and said simply, "You have two choices. You can go back to sleep and wait for another phone call later on from someone in your department, or you can turn on your television." I then hung up and began making my phone calls. I wasn't surprised to discover that several people weren't home, as they were already on their way back to the ship, having seen the news.
We moved to 3 section duty after that, and stayed that way until I left the Navy in May of 2002.
"Remembering 9/11 today. Do you remember where you were?"I responded back:
"Guam, Late. ODO for duty sect. Had 2 call whole dept back 2 ship"The memories of that day just can't be described in 140 characters or less.
On September 11th, 2001, I was standing duty on the USS Frank Cable in Guam. We were in, I believe, twelve section duty at the time. That meant that everyone on the ship was broken into twelve sections, each section having to take their turn staying on the ship overnight (basically, had to be there for 24 hours). Twelve sections were nice, because that meant you only had duty once every twelve days. But, that also meant fewer people per duty section, and fewer people to stand watches. I was part of the Operations department. My job was actually taking care of the servers, and during duty days that meant running all of the backups. I, as an E5, was also the highest ranking enlisted member in Operations during my duty section, so I was the Operations Duty Officer. In addition to my normal duties I was in charge over everything in Operations at night after everyone had left for home, including running colors. Basically that meant I had make sure all of the flags were put up throughout the day, including playing the national anthem at dusk. If the Captain came on board, I'd have to run up and put his flag up, too. If he left, run up and take it down.
At 10:46 p.m. Guam time, I received a phone call from Radio asking me to come up right away. They had just gotten some alarming message traffic. I went up and we huddled over the terminal to read the messages that were coming in. We watched, horrified, as the messages changed from one plane hitting the World Trade center accidentally, to another plane hitting and it being quite obvious that this was no accident. My first thought was, "Someone just declared war on us."
I immediately called the Operations Officer at home and explained the situation. He directed me to begin recalling our entire department. He would be calling the Captain. Right after I got off the phone with him, Radio called me back to let me know that the television news (that we got piped in from California) was showing it at that very moment. I turned on the television in my office, but didn't get more than a 5 second look at it, as I had a job to do.
I have to admit that the next person I called wasn't even in my department. It was my then-boyfriend (now-husband). He was at home, asleep. I woke him and said simply, "You have two choices. You can go back to sleep and wait for another phone call later on from someone in your department, or you can turn on your television." I then hung up and began making my phone calls. I wasn't surprised to discover that several people weren't home, as they were already on their way back to the ship, having seen the news.
We moved to 3 section duty after that, and stayed that way until I left the Navy in May of 2002.
