Where were you when you first heard about or saw the 9/11 terrorist attacks?
I was in the US Navy, on an oiler. It was appropriately 1730, and I had just sat down for chow. The TV was on and I thought it was just another crappy movie from Hollywood. Then I saw the banner flashing across the bottom of the screen saying, "Breaking news-Happening now." Then I knew it was real. Two hours later the Captain gave his most rebel-rousing-kick-their-assess-win-the-war-speeches of his life. It was because of that speech we were able to stay out-at-sea for 118 days straight. However, it was far from over, since the ship lent itself to the war, we carried literally high-multi-millions of gallons of highly-explosive fuel-oil. (I cannot say what type), all the holds and all the decks were packed with bombs and missiles of every kind.
We were literally the biggest floating and most explosive ship in the world. One wrong move-one spark-one screw-up of any kind and we were all dead. The biggest piece of the ship would have been a piece of steel one-foot-long-by-one-foot-wide. The crew would have been vaporized, and the low-lying islands of the world would have been flooded. The crew and I were glad to do what we had to do in such dire circumstances. I would gladly do it again.