09/11/2022
We all promised we would never forget, but now 21 years later that promise is getting harder to keep. None of our students at Georgia Military College Preparatory School were even alive on September 11, 2001, and only a few that were are College students. That’s hard to believe but it’s true.
They don’t remember thinking it is just a terrible accident for the 17 minutes between the North Tower being hit and the South Tower being hit.
They don’t remember the towers collapsing.
They don't remember the Pentagon burning or the heroes on Flight 93.
They don’t remember people desperately searching for their missing loved ones.
They don’t remember the American flag that was raised over the rubble in New York City, or the flags that went up at homes and businesses across our Nation.
They don’t remember how our entire country put aside our differences and came together as one Nation under God that day.
We’re reaching the hard part of our duty to “never forget.” Our lives become busy, and our focus can easily become inward. We also have citizens losing faith in some of our systems, from law enforcement to political parties. There are those that would like to divide us, to seek out differences instead of finding our common good. This should be a day of renewal, of commitment, to search for civility, to work together, to find the goodness in each other just as our Nation did on 9/11.
It’s those issues we’re facing in America now that remind us of what America can be, that we can all come together as Patriots, and despite any differences still work together.
As the anniversary of 9/11 comes this weekend, it’s up to all of us to use this anniversary that we call Patriot Day to renew our commitment to remembering a day that was unlike any other—a day where the worst of humanity brought out the best of humanity. It’s our duty to remember and honor the sacrifice of those who gave their lives that day and in the Global War on Terror to ensure we’ll never see another day like September 11, 2001.
As we continue to host our annual Patriot Day Ceremony at Georgia Military College, it is our commitment to our students that we will continue to teach them about the historic tragedy of that fateful day, so that they always carry with them the significance of how the terrorist attacks on 9/11 changed our country and shaped who we are as America today.
Join me this weekend in remembering and honoring the memory of so many on September 11, 2001. May we never forget.
-Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell, IV, USA (Ret.), President of Georgia Military College