I have written a before of my personal experiences on September 11, 2001 on both the 9th and 10th anniversaries so today I will simply ask you to remember.  Remember where you were, how you felt and how you wanted the people you love near you.  It is easy in our day to day lives to focus on the small.  That day, though, many of us forgot the small and petty things in our lives and re-evaluted what was really important to us.  The best way to remember, then, is maybe to go back to that feeling.  Because I will just bet that the things that became important were not things at all but the people you love so much.

I recently had the privilege of flying a brand new arrival into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.  When we fly around the country, planes fly to specified points and sometimes on specified routes (like highways in the sky).  In order to facilitate getting traffic in and out of busy airports there are arrival corridors and departure corridors.  These arrivals, too, are like roads and you fly from point to point on the way in.  The brand new arrival is called the “Freedom” 1.  In actuality is is called the FRDMM ONE because the points all have 5 letter names.  When we fly this, I promise you that your crews will never forget.  The points:

HONNR  BRVRY  COURG  (Honor Bravery Courage)

WEEEE  WLLLL  NEVVR  FORGT  SEPII  (We Will Never Forget Sep 11)

ALWYZ  STAND TGTHR  (Always Stand Together)

and finally:

LETZZ  RLLLL  (Let’s Roll)

It is emotional to fly that approach from each point to the next but the fact that they built it says everything.  So today, I remember and I celebrate that my deployed husband returned yesterday (a week early).  Talk about what is important.  The smiles on my boys faces when they were surprised by daddy was worth more than anything in the world.

I wish you a safe and peaceful Patriot’s Day!

In memory of:

United 93:  Jason Dahl, LeRoy Homer, Lorraine Bay, Sandra Bradshaw, Wanda Green, CeeCee Lyles, Deorah Welsh

United 175:  Victor Saracini, Michael Horrocks, Robert Fangman, Amy Jarret, Amy King, Kathryn Laborie, Alfred Marchand, Michael Tarrou, Alicia Titus

American 11:  John Ogonowski, Thomas McGuinness, Barbara Arestegui, Jeffrey Collman, Sara Low, Karen Martin, Kathleen Nicosia, Betty Ong, Jean D. Roger, Dianne Snyder, Amy Sweeney

American 77:  Charles Burlingame III, David Charlebois, Michele Heidenberger, Jennifer Lewis, Kenneth Lewis, Renee May